BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

BAPTISM OF OUR LORD JESUS

   Cycle  “B”: Mk. 1, 7 – 11

PENITENTIAL RITE:             We are human and often become victims of our concupiscence, another word for self-centredness. Thus we break the covenant with God made at our baptism. But our Heavenly Father offers us forgiveness. Let us appropriate his forgiveness by acknowledging our sinfulness.

THE HOMILY:

Have you ever witnessed a baptism in the Oriental Church ?

The baby is completely stripped and swung, like a pendulum into the baptismal water, totally immersed, and then swung out again.  Something like the water chute you have in Nicco Park. The dunking is performed three times in honour of the three divine Persons of the Trinity, during which the child’s parents and friends recite the profession of faith in which the infant also participates with shrieks and squeals. I only hope the water is warm enough in winter. This dunking business is not a Christian or Jewish innovation. You remember the Greek warrior, Achilles, or, if you prefer the Greek sound, “AKHILES”. As an infant, he was held by the heel and dipped in the Styx, a stinking river, by his mother. By dunking him in this manner, she thought to make him invulnerable (if she didn’t drown him), but clumsily left an unwashed patch on his heel, where she was holding on to the little squimer. Thus the  origin of the well-known expression “Achilles heel”, the weak point that each one has.

Was Jesus dunked in the Jordan ?  He definitely was  -  all the four Gospels testify to it.  What were the effects ?  Well, it seems Jesus was prepared to make a fool of himself, since he was absolutely sinless and invulnerable and didn’t need to be baptised.  Which leads to the second effect, namely, he plunged into the bad company of fools and thugs, also known as men and women. And the third effect was that the dirty water became clean, clean enough for future baptisms till the end of the world.

Water is ambivalent. Water can bring destruction but also new life. It can irrigate the earth but also engulf and kill. Water is the object of sacred terror and poetic attraction. It is the lair of monsters and devouring jaws. Yet within water lies the mystery of innocence and immortality. Since Jesus went into the Jordan river, water has become a means of grace.

The word “baptism” is from the Greek word “bapto”, meaning “to immerse.” So when the minister of baptism says, “I baptise you”  he’s actually saying “I immerse you.”  The name stands for the person. So when he says, “I baptise you in the name of the Father...”, he means “I immerse you in the person of the Father, in the person of the Son and in the person of the Holy Spirit.”  Just consider if anything could be greater and more beneficial than to be immersed in the Holy Trinity. And that was made possible by the Son of God immersing himself into sinful humanity. He stands in solidarity with us sinners, every man and woman with his or her “Achilles heel.”  Today’s feast tells us that God can be found in the very darkness of our sinfulness. That is what we state in the profession of  faith: “He descended into hell.”

Unhappily, we can get so familiar with God’s closeness to us that we can forget him or take him for granted. Take the story about an earthly king. This king wanted to be absolute ruler. He succeeded  in removing all obstacle to his complete control, except one: the people still put their ancient god above the king. So he asked his advisors where he might remove this god to make it vanish from their lives. One advisor suggested putting away the god on the highest mountain. The king said that might have the opposite effect. Another advised throwing it into the bottom of the sea. The king rejected that idea as well: the people would probe the ocean’s depths to find their ancient god again. Finally, the king accepted the third and wisest advice:     hide the people’s god somewhere in their everyday lives. There they will never find it.”

Or do you want to hear about that absent minded professor.  This absent minded professor came down for breakfast and found the milk jug empty. Just then the door bell rang. With milk on his mind he got up and opened the door to see a middle-aged woman holding a bottle of milk. He looked at her and asked, “Do you come here often ?” And she answered,  “I’m your wife, you stupid !”  In a similar way we are preoccupied with small things and forget God’s intimate presence to us. There is no area in our lives that Jesus cannot heal and set free. We suffer injustice wherever the power of the devil keeps us captive; we enjoy justice as Jesus opens our eyes to the truth and sets us free to live in the light. Jesus has the power to break the hold of anything that grips us. Therefore we can bring to him everything that is not yet in the light or that stills holds us in bondage.

There is one final message from today’s feast. Apart from his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus also looked forward to the baptism he would have to undergo on the cross, which he foretold,  “I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished “ (Lk 12, 50).  In our baptism we are joined to Jesus, and share in his death and resurrection. We must die in order to live. We descend into the water with Jesus and rise with him to receive the Holy Spirit and live a new life free from sin.

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus Christ, we acknowledge your power and authority over all areas of our life.

 Help us to follow you deep into the waters of baptism; to link our lives with all those who grieve about the injustice in human life; to break free from the chain of past wrongs; to become ready to face your coming age; and be renewed by your Spirit, and anointed to preach Good News to the poor, the oppressed and the prisoner.  Lord and Master, help us to follow you, and bring us more fully into your life and truth.
 When John baptized by Jordan’s river,
In faith and hope the people came,
That John and Jordan might deliver
Their troubled souls from sin and shame.
They came to seek a new beginning,
The human spirit’s ageless quest:
Repentance and an end of sinning,
Renouncing every wrong confessed.

There as the Lord, baptized and praying,
Rose from the stream the sinless One,
A voice was heard from Heaven saying,
This is My own beloved Son.
There as the Father’s word was spoken,
Not in the power of wind and flame,
But of His love and peace the token,
Seen as a dove, the Spirit came.

O Son of Man, our nature sharing,
In whose obedience all are blest,
Savior, our sins and sorrows bearing,
Hear us and grant us this request:
Daily to grow, by grace defended,
Filled with the Spirit from above,
In Christ baptized, beloved, befriended,
Children of God in peace and love.