My favour rests on Him

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Several months ago, I attempted to provide a simple but lucid explanation of how God has favourites without having favourites. I’m not going to revisit that topic today for fear that I will be accused of being a broken record. Thank God for that! But I’m going to argue today that God does have one unique favourite person whom He loves above all else and I believe that none of you are going to protest and cry “not fair” because that person is none other than Jesus Himself, God’s Only Begotten Son, whom the Heavenly Father declares: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.”

We can understand why God would favour our Lord Jesus Christ. Though we are all His children by adoption through baptism, Jesus alone is the unique only begotten Son of the Father, who has been with the Father from the very beginning and as we profess in the Creed: “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God”. If we are to compare ourselves with Him, the analogy of comparing an apple to an orange doesn’t even come close.

But with such special favour, there also arises a great mission and responsibility. Remember the Peter Parker principle from Spider-Man? “With great power comes great responsibility!” And this is why we hear in the first reading, what it means to be a favourite of God? The Spirit of the Lord is given to Him as we witness in the scene of the Baptism in order that He “may bring true justice to the nations.” He has been appointed “as covenant of the people and light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.” But there is a dark side to this mission. As the archetype for all fictional heroes, He must suffer, often in silence, in meekness, refusing to break or retaliate even when He is treated with humiliation and violence by His enemies. The Hero, the Anointed One, will be vilified and hated even though He saves the day. This is what the Beloved of God, the Favourite of God must endure. So, do you still want to be His favourite?

But we are indeed called to be God’s Beloved, called to be His favourites, all of us and not just some of us. Herein lies what I find to be the deepest mystery at the heart of baptism, and indeed at the heart of the whole sacramental order: there are certain actions Christ performed that, when performed by us within the context of His Body the Church, allow us to share in His very nature and mission in the world. In other words, Jesus did not come into the world merely to do things for us, but rather He came to open up through His humanity a way to participate in Him, to graft ourselves into His very life, to serve as He serves and to give our lives as He did. This is the mystery of the Incarnation - God became man so that men may become gods.

It is significant that this feast should take place on the first Sunday in Ordinary Time (even though there is no first Sunday in Ordinary Time). The reason being is that lectionary of Ordinary Time presents us with a scriptural catechesis of the very life and mission of Christ. And so this feast serves as an introduction to the entire life and mission of Christ. And should anyone have any doubt as to why we should even look to Christ as a model or imitate Him, the Church or God Himself gives the answer: “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on him.” If there should be anyone in this world that we should look up to and seek to emulate, there can be no better model than Jesus, God’s Beloved Son and Favourite.

For many of us, our most common and seemingly very human response to knowing that God has favourites, would be to view this person with envy. But is that the correct response? In fact, the Church is in the business of holding up human examples of those who seem to have found favour with God. We call them saints. The Church does this not because she wishes to see us seething with envy but because she wants us to be saints too. To be a saint, in fact to be a Christian, is to be more Christ-like. A Christian is a “little Christ.”

So, it is a foolish distraction to become discouraged or envious of someone else’s progress in holiness! When we run into other people or read about saints who experience a deep, intimate relationship with God, we are faced with a choice. We can either envy them this intimacy – becoming angry and vindictive towards them because they have achieved a degree of holiness that we have not achieved. Or we can emulate them – we can acknowledge the beauty of the holiness they have achieved and use their experience as a spur to our own efforts pursuing spiritual maturity. The second option is the better one: when we encounter people holier than ourselves, they should inspire us to continue following the “narrow road” (Matthew 7:14) that leads to the life we long for. So, my dear friends, as we begin this New Year, as we begin a new cycle of Ordinary Time, let your discouragement be driven out by hope; let your frustration be banished by faith; and let your frown be erased by love. Let Hebrews 12:1 be your baptismal and life’s motto: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us.”

The New Adam

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Year C

The story of the baptism of the Lord is found in all four gospels with tiny but significant differences. In the Fourth Gospel, the account is reported speech or a hear say account by St John the Baptist, whereas Matthew, Mark and Luke record this event directly as if they had witnessed it or received the testimony of other witnesses. But in all three Synoptic gospels, we see both similarities and differences in the basic order. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all follow the same basic order of events: the appearance of St John the Baptist and an introduction to his ministry followed by the Baptism of the Lord.

Although both Matthew and Mark record that the Lord is baptised by John, Luke remains silent on this. We can only assume as the reader and from comparing this text with the other parallel texts, that our Lord was baptised by John. But this omission may in fact be deliberate. In fact, Luke may have wanted to emphasise that Jesus baptised Himself since no one was worthy to do so: “Jesus after his own baptism.” Unlike us who are adopted children of God through baptism, that is being baptised by another person, Jesus who is already the Son of God by nature had no need of such elevation or coronation. In Matthew and Mark, immediately after hearing the voice of the Father, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.

But Luke uniquely breaks the flow by offering us Jesus’ genealogy between the baptism and the temptation. This is a curious placement for a genealogy, and at first pass, it might seem to interrupt the flow of Luke’s narrative. We might expect Luke to place the genealogy at the beginning of his Gospel (such as we find in Matthew), or perhaps at the end of Luke chapter 1, right before Jesus’ birth. Yet Luke strategically places it here, just after our Lord’s baptism and prior to the episode on how the Lord endured temptations in the wilderness.

The key to understanding the placement of the genealogy is found within the genealogy itself. Unlike Luke, Matthew’s gospel is written to the Jewish community. As such, Matthew’s genealogy (presumably following Joseph’s line) links Jesus to King David, the greatest of the Jewish Kings, and then to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. And there Matthew’s genealogy stops. But Luke’s gospel is written to a non-Jewish audience, and his genealogy does not focus on Jesus’ relation to Abraham. Instead, Luke (presumably following Mary’s line) traces Jesus all the way back to Adam, and then ultimately to God.

Matthew’s genealogy presents Jesus as the second David, a son of Abraham. Luke’s genealogy presents Jesus as the second Adam, a son of God. This should not come as a surprise to any reader of the Gospel of St Luke, as the angel had already announced to Mary at the Annunciation: “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.” But what is more surprising, unlike Matthew, Luke begins his genealogy with Jesus who is described as the Son of God and then traces it back to Adam, another son of God. In fact, the last name in the genealogy is not even Adam, it is God: “Adam, the son of God.” That this genealogy terminates with God Himself is a feature unparalleled in the ancient world, including the Old Testament. Having begun his genealogy with Jesus instead of Adam, Luke wishes to emphasise that Jesus’ identity had no need of validation by tracing his lineage back to Adam. On the contrary, it is Adam who is being validated and confirmed by his descendant, Jesus, the Son of Mary and the only begotten and Beloved Son of God.

And thus, Luke offers us the genealogy — linking Jesus to Adam, and ultimately to God — as a means of introducing Jesus’ temptation. With the placement and nature of his genealogy, Luke intends us to see Jesus’ wilderness temptation as a recapitulation of Adam’s garden temptation. It is Jesus — the descendent of Adam and the Son of God — who will overthrow the devil. Where Adam failed the test, Jesus will endure Satan’s temptations and remain faithful to the Father. Where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam would succeed.

So, what our Lord accomplished by nature, we enjoy through the grace, especially the grace of baptism. Most people often believe that baptism serves as a means of washing away our sins. It does. Others believe that it is a rite of passage which incorporates us into the “club,” the Church. That too happens. But most importantly, baptism incorporates us into the life of Christ. We follow Him into the waters of baptism to partake of His death and to die to our old selves but we also rise from the waters of baptism as a new creation, a Christian, in other words, a little Christ, as we now share in the graces of His resurrection. We cast aside our fallen nature which we inherited from the old Adam so that we may now be adorned with Christ, the new Adam, and because of this ontological or substantial change in us, we have now become sons and daughters of God. As the Catechism teaches: “Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte "a new creature," an adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature,” member of Christ and coheir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 1265).

Herein lies the deepest mysteries of the Sacraments instituted by Christ for our salvation and growth in holiness. The Sacraments are not just “things” that we do, archaic ceremonies that are performed to appease God. Our Lord Jesus did not come into the world merely to do things for us, but rather He came to open up through His humanity a way to participate in His divinity, to graft ourselves into His very life. So, today as we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, let us remember with ever greater certitude that the heavenly voice that spoke “my Beloved” that day was referring no less to us than to Christ, that it applies in equal measure and with equal intensity to all of you who have been incorporated into Him “through the bath of rebirth.”

Liquid Tomb and Font of Life

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The muddy yet calm waters of the river Jordan would have posed little threat to the crowds which gathered there to listen to this prophetic figure, with some acceding to be baptised by him after listening to his message of repentance. The contrast of this rustic scene dominated by water, with what many experienced a few weeks ago is stark. A week before Christmas, torrential downpours resulted in unprecedented floods leaving a massive trail of destruction, over 70 thousand persons displaced and casualties. The floods did not just destroy the personal belongings of the victims and deprived them of their homes and livelihood, but also cut them off from basic necessities like food and electricity, and ironically, a clean supply of water.

Water is arguably the most important natural resource in the entire world. All life depends on it. On the other hand, water may be a terrifying life changing force when it comes in the form of hurricanes, floods or tsunamis. Because of its universal nature, it is not surprising that water plays a central role in the Bible as well.

The story of creation in the Book of Genesis is preceded by an editorial note on how the pre-creation cosmos was covered by a watery chaos. One of God’s primary works in creation was to set boundaries and limit the destructive power of water. It is not surprising that man’s rebellion against God’s authority by sinning would be reflected in the great deluge that would destroy the entire world. The floods are just a natural outcome of man seeking to go beyond the limits and boundaries set by God. In contrast to this chaotic and destructive side of water, the Book of Exodus gives us that foundational story of the liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, when they crossed the Red Sea. The waters, although proving destructive to the Egyptians, also served to be the instrument of salvation for those favoured by God as they embarked on their journey to freedom and a new-found covenantal identity with God.

The juxtaposition of these two experiences of water, reminds us that water can be both life-giving and destructive. And there is no better place to find these two elements together than in the Sacrament of Baptism. This was excellently expounded by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in the first volume of his monumental work, Jesus of Nazareth: 

“On the one hand, immersion into the waters is a symbol of death, which recalls the death symbolism of the annihilating, destructive power of the ocean flood. The ancient mind perceived the ocean as a permanent threat to the cosmos, to the earth; it was the primeval flood that might submerge all life . . . But the flowing waters of the river are above all a symbol of life.” 

Just like water can be both life-giving and death-dealing, baptism has a similar effect on us - it kills original sin and it gives us new life – life of being adopted sons and daughters of God.

But here also lies the problem with Christ seeking baptism. If Christ is the truly sinless One, if He is the Son of God, He is in no need of baptism because He has no need for repentance nor adoption. But the Lord chose to submit Himself to John’s baptism as an expression of His fundamental submission to the Will of the Father and His complete identification with sinners. By submersion in the waters of the Jordan, our Lord publicly associates Himself with those who need repentance and forgiveness, although He has no need of it in actuality. He is already embracing the enormous weight of humanity’s sinfulness, just as He will do again in a definitive and final way on the cross. The mysterious events at the Jordan River already foreshadow the saving acts of Christ’s death and resurrection. The submersion of Jesus in the baptismal waters of the Jordan River prefigures His death on the Cross.

Pope Benedict notes that the icons of the Eastern Church visualise this intrinsic connexion between the Baptism of the Lord and the Paschal Mystery by depicting the waters of the Jordan “as a liquid tomb having the form of a dark cavern, which is in turn the iconographic sign of Hades, the underworld, or hell.” Just as the Lord descends into the swirling waters of death at His baptism, He goes down to the netherworld after His crucifixion to rescue the souls of lost humanity.

In this downward descent, this complete identification with sinners, we grasp the radical humility of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who empties Himself, not clinging to His equality with God but becoming a slave for the sake of our salvation. God could have saved us in any manner that He chose, but He seems to embrace the most difficult and arduous way — the path of Incarnation and accompaniment.

Christianity is the only world religion that believes the omnipotent and mysterious God humbled Himself to become one of His own creatures, embracing the fullness of our humanity in order to redeem us from inside our own nature and condition. The Church has never gotten over the wonder of this divine condescension. We celebrate the Word made flesh, not only in the glory of Christmas, but in the fullness of the liturgy, prayer and moral life of the Christian tradition.

Drawing profound parallels between the Lord’s baptism and our own, we can see that, just as the Lord Jesus is revealed as the Beloved Son at the Jordan, so, too, we receive a new identity in baptism, as adopted children of the Father. Jesus Christ freely shares His very nature with us through the transforming waters of baptism. At the moment of our spiritual rebirth in the font, the Father beholds us with delight, exclaiming, “You are my Son, You are my daughter, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” Christianity first and foremost, is about whom we have become in Christ, before it is about what we do or how we act.

Just as our common baptism draws us into the very life of being sons and daughters of God, our ordination as priests draws us into the Paschal experience of Christ. We too are called to experience death and new life each day. And this is what Fr Dominic and I must do tomorrow. We are called to die to our attachments to the parish we’ve called home these past few years, so that we may experience a rebirth in the new parishes where we will be posted this coming Monday. As you await your new pastors, I can’t help but see the parallel with today’s Gospel passage which began with this observation by the evangelist: “a feeling of expectancy had grown among the people.” As John the Baptist’s ministry ends with his arrest and Christ is thrust to the fore, both of us too must also take our leave, as your new pastors take up responsibilities of shepherding, sanctifying and teaching the flock that has been entrusted to them. Never forget this - the priest, the figurehead who stands in persona Christi (in the person of Christ), may change but it is the same Christ who remains, for He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He should be your real focus because He is the One whom the Heavenly Father speaks these words: “You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” Turn to Him in prayer, in hope and in trust, and you will not go astray!

Testimony of Water, Blood and Spirit

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The scene of the Baptism of our Lord actually provides us with two testimonies about Christ. First, John makes a statement about the superiority of Jesus and His baptism: “Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” And then the gospel records the incident of the actual baptism climaxing with the Father’s voice, “You are my Son, the Beloved, my favour rests on you.” So, here we have the testimony of two witnesses - that of a human witness, St John the Baptist, and that of God the Father, which is far superior, but only heard by the Son. How do we understand the significance of these testimonies? Jewish law requires the testimony of two or three witnesses to support a charge against a person, especially when it involves a death penalty (e.g. Dt 17:5; Num 35:30).

With such irrefutable testimonies, it shouldn’t be too hard for the world to accept our Lord Jesus’s identity and mission. But this is not so. In an incredulous world, we need evidentiary proof and credible witnesses. To see is to believe. St John in the second reading, therefore argues that we have the corroboration of three witnesses- water, blood and Spirit. He wisely adds that “we accept the testimony of human witnesses, but God’s testimony is far greater.”

Let’s first consider the visible evidence of water. Water is necessary to become a Christian. We are immersed in the “living waters” of baptism and the gift of the Spirit is poured out upon us. At the Easter liturgies, all the baptised are reminded of their own baptism through the renewal of vows and the sprinkling of water. But what is the significance of water? Water quenches our thirst and is necessary for life. According to the prophet Isaiah in the first reading, it is freely given to those who seek it willingly. But water also destroys, as in the case of the Great Deluge during Noah’s time and the parted waves of the Red Sea which came down on Pharaoh and his army as they pursued the fleeing Israelites. But in both cases, what emerged from those destructive waters was new life; only sin and evil were destroyed. In the same way, sin is destroyed in the waters of baptism, and new life is restored to the newly born children of God.

But what about our Lord’s baptism? Remember that the Lord was sinless and therefore had no need to be washed by the waters of the river Jordan. What was the purpose of Him entering those waters? It was not Him who was purified, since He had no need of purification. St Gregory Nazianzen tells us that Christ “comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; He who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water.” This is what we witness during the Easter Vigil liturgy, when the Paschal Candle, a symbol of Christ, is plunged into the baptismal fount to consecrate the waters which will be used for the sacrament of regeneration and rebirth. This water is the life-giving water which Christ promised to the Samaritan woman at the well and which He poured out from the cross. Recall that after our Lord dies, the soldiers came and one of them “thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.”

But water is not the only witness. There must be the corroborating testimony of blood too. When the lance pierced the side of our Lord, it was not only water which sprouted forth from the wound but also blood. We must not only bath in this life-giving water but also drink from the blood of Christ. One could speak of the two sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, as a two-fold baptism - one with water and the second with His blood. Tertullian writes: “These two baptisms He sent out from the wound in His pierced side, in order that they who believed in His blood might be bathed with the water; they who had been bathed in the water might likewise drink the blood. This is the baptism which both stands in lieu of the fontal bathing when that has not been received, and restores it when lost.” That is why the Sacrament of Initiation is not only confined to the sacrament of baptism but necessarily includes the Eucharist.

But the Sacrament of Initiation still lacks a third component. Having received baptism and the Eucharist, one still needs the sacrament of Confirmation. That is why St John speaks of the Holy Spirit as the third witness. At the scene of the Baptism of the Lord, the Spirit comes down upon Him in the bodily form of a dove, witnessing to His Godhead. As a dove once came down to announce the end of the Flood during the time of Noah and inaugurate a new covenant where God promises to never destroy humanity again, the Holy Spirit now witnesses to the One who seals an everlasting covenant which promises salvation and eternal life. The Apostles are witnesses precisely because the Holy Spirit is at work in them, empowering them (Acts 1:8).

These three “witnesses” do not only testify that Jesus is the Son of God, but they also testify to the efficacy of the sacraments which provide us with the grace and power “to overcome the world.” One of the most tragic consequences of the Protestant rebellion is the disavowal of the Sacraments. Their suspicion of the sacraments eventually led to their demise. Gradually, each of the sacraments were rejected by the Reformers until baptism alone remained. But even this was not spared. Today, the baptism performed by many evangelical and Pentecostal Christians is merely an impotent symbol - a witness by men to men, not one which is witnessed by water, the Blood of Christ or even the Spirit. If one thinks that the waters of Baptism, the real presence of the Eucharist, the anointing of Confirmation are just impotent and empty symbols, it’s easy to see why the words of St John would make no sense to Protestants.

To be sure, there are symbolic baptisms in Scripture: the baptism of John the Baptist was one example. It was a symbolic act marking a person’s repentance. But apart from that, it could not confer new life, it could not fundamentally transform us, it had little effect on our future salvation. Only Christ could accomplish all those things and He did by instituting the sacraments and placing them in the hands of the Church. The Baptist could only baptise with water but only Christ could baptise with the Holy Spirit. Rather than impotent symbols, Scripture repeatedly points to the waters of Baptism, along with the Blood of Christ and the workings of the Holy Spirit, as being responsible for our interior transformation, leading us from death to life, and bringing us into a state of fidelity with Jesus Christ.

What is the purpose of us being baptised in water, drinking the Blood of Christ and being anointed by His Spirit? It is simple - it is to share in our Lord’s divine life and His very mission. In the words of St Gregory Nazianzen, “Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptised; let us also go down with him, and rise with him.” When our Lord went down into the waters of the river Jordan, we who are baptised in Him can see His death prefigured. But as He arose from the waters, immediately the heavens opened and the Spirit descended, and in this, we see the glory of the resurrection prefigured, and not just His resurrection, but ours too. And as His baptism launched Him on His public ministry, we too receive our commission at our baptism, confirmation, and at the end of every Mass, to be witnesses of this truth, that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Son of God, and His testimony which is God’s testimony, is far greater than any human witness.

A New Creation

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Are you tired of all these reboots of old stories which Hollywood likes to churn out? Aren’t we treated to the same-old stuff? Well, it doesn’t seem to be so. Reboots tend to be a tried and tested concept that comes with a built-in audience. Life might not come with an undo button but there seems to be a redo button. And Hollywood loves pressing it. There is irony in this. In an age which craves for the new, we can never underestimate the power of nostalgia and Hollywood understands that and capitalises on it. Be it a gender-swapped update or a familiar story retold with bigger CGI effects or more famous actors assuming the roles, or tweaks to the story-line, the audience keeps on coming back for more.

Well, if there is a story that deserves retelling, it must be the stories we find in the Bible, celebrated in our liturgy year after year and we don’t seem to get tired of it. The reason being is that with every retelling, something new emerges. With the coming of Christ, all things are made new! The birth of a child is not a completely new beginning but it changes everything. The birth of this Christmas baby has indeed transformed the whole of creation and given it a fresh start!

Such is the story of the Baptism of Christ. It is such an important event that it is recorded in all four of the Gospels. Saint John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus and the one chosen by God to proclaim His coming, was preaching in the wilderness and was baptising all who would respond to his call to repentance. John was directing the people toward the one who would baptise them with the Holy Spirit. But then the story takes a divine twist – the one who should be doing the baptising comes to John at the Jordan and requests to be baptised by the latter. Initially, John hesitates as he recognises the awkwardness and irony of the situation. But then Jesus tells John, “Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that righteousness demands” John concedes and baptises the Lord.

What seems scandalous, that is to suggest that the only Sinless One required purification at the hands of a mortal, is now transformed into something marvellous. At his Baptism, the Saviour chooses to be with us where we are, to enter into solidarity with us, sinners as we are. His whole mission and destiny is contained in this single profound action. The Baptism of the Lord is the culmination of Christmas and the preamble to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Christ descends into the waters as the Eternal Word leapt down from the heavens. Christ goes down into the Jordan as on Calvary He will sink into the chaotic waters of death. At the baptism, our Lord would enter into the death-dealing waters and transform them into life giving waters.  On the Cross, He will enter the darkness again and this time transform it into the radiance of the Resurrection light, offered to us all as joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

There is something essentially new about this old story that has been retold countless times. The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ also heralds and marks the dawn of the New Creation. As they gathered around the Jordan River shore, those watching Jesus' baptism must have been overwhelmed by the picture God was creating. It was the refreshingly good news that God was making new His old creation. The Church, from ancient times, had always recognised the striking similarities between Jesus’ baptism and the creation of the world. We see the themes of water, the Spirit, God’s approval and creation in both accounts, with the story of Baptism providing an innovative twist to the story.

In Genesis 1, before God undertook the project of creation, there was water in its formless state, a symbol of chaos and disorder. But at baptism, we see Jesus descending into the water, taming its currents, putting order into chaos, drawing out life from this watery grave. In Genesis 1, the Spirit hovered and moved over the water. At the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended upon Jesus. At the completion of creation, at the close of the Sixth Day, God registered His pleasure and approval of His work of creation – “It is very good.” But now at Jesus’ baptism, God’s pleasure and favour will be directed to His Son, Jesus. In the first account of creation, God made a new world that had never existed before. In the New Testament, Jesus emerges from the waters to usher in a new world order where love and restoration would prevail over evil and destruction.  In a world craving for novelties, Jesus is that Something New, a newness that can never become obsolete.

The fact that the Baptism of the Lord introduces something radically new may not necessarily appeal to everyone’s taste. Not because we are not fascinated with novelty. We live in an age of constant innovation. The newest technologies and gadgets hit the news every week; we're constantly awaiting the next movie blockbuster, the next episode of our favorite television show, the latest in a series of novels; and the internet is a constantly brewing stew of all things new—new social media, which we constantly scan for whatever is new in our friends and family's lives. We crave and obsessively consume what’s new, perpetually, in the hope that the new will make us new.

But the newness of the Baptism of the Lord is unlike the modern novelties of our times. As Pope Francis reminded the candidates about to receive Confirmation, “You see, the new things of God are not like the novelties of this world, all of which are temporary; they come and go, and we keep looking for more. The new things which God gives to our lives are lasting, not only in the future, when we will be with him, but today as well.”

New technologies and sciences are fantastic, with undreamed of possibilities for healing and solving problems of famine and poverty, and the Church has called us to make use of the plethora of communication tools at our hands to preach the Gospel, but no technology, no insight of neuroscience or psychology or quantum physics, no retelling of old stories or reboot of old movies can change that we are all Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve who have inherited Original Sin; no innovation in technology or medicine can change that it is only by the Cross that we can be redeemed and our sins forgiven. Our Lord came to announce this perennial novelty at His Baptism.

A simple rehashing of a tale often leaves the audience questioning ‘what was the point?’ But for us Christians, we can’t have enough of the greatest story ever told. Ultimately, in a modern world that thrives on novelties, there is only one innovation, one new thing that never loses its novelty, one new thing that matters. He is the Word made Flesh, the Son of God sent by the Father for the redemption of the world. This New Man, who was the Word that was there in the Beginning, came to make all things new. There is no need for a new message, or a new idea or a new plot. The old, old gospel is the newest thing in the world; in its very essence it is forever good news. In fact, the concept of novelty is built into the term “gospel” – euangelion – “good news”. In Christ the Old, the Ancient is ever New.

A New Creation begins

The Baptism of the Lord

With the renewal of the Liturgical Calendar after the Second Vatican Council, there are some strange and mysterious anomalies that have given rise to debates and controversies. Today’s feast is one of those “things.” Some commentators insist that today, the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord, is the end of the season of Christmas, since this event marked the end of Jesus’ early life and the beginning of His public ministry, and since the Church recalls Our Lord's second manifestation or epiphany which occurred on the occasion of His baptism in the Jordan (tied to the first epiphany to the Magi which we celebrated last week during the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord). And yet, there are many who insist that today is the beginning of Ordinary Time, since next week is already the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, thus suggesting that this week, should be the First Sunday. Whichever position you may be partial to support, the ambivalence of situating this feast in either Christmastide or in Ordinary Time reflects the mystery of endings and beginnings. In a way, an ending can be a beginning.

The significance of the event of the Baptism of the Lord lends to this ambivalence. It is both an ending and a new beginning. The Old Creation marred by sin and the Fall of our first parents come to an end as it is plunged symbolically into the waters of the river Jordan and with the re-emergence of our Lord from the waters, He inaugurates a new creation. Yes, our Lord, the only begotten Son of God, descended into the muddy filthy waters of the Jordan to sanctify it and to give it the power to beget sons of God. The event takes on the importance of a second creation in which the entire Trinity intervenes. The readings of the day all point to this powerful rejuvenating image of a New Creation.

The First Reading is the famous passage set to music in utterly sublime fashion by G.F. Handel in the oratorio The Messiah.  These verses mark the transition in the Book of Isaiah from the prophet’s (God’s) condemnation of Israel for past sins (Isaiah 1-39) to hope for restoration in the future (Isaiah 40-66). The hope for restoration is dependent on a mysterious and highly enigmatic figure known as “the Servant.” It is clear to Christians from the earliest times, that Isaiah’s “Servant” is Jesus Christ. More than that, in today’s gospel, in the very scene of the Baptism, the voice of the Heavenly Father identifies Him as the Beloved Son. These verses help us to see the coming of Christ as the time for restoration and forgiveness. The arrival of Jesus in public marks the end of the condemnation of sin (in the ministry of John the Baptist) and the beginning of the forgiveness of sin and healing (in the ministry of Jesus).

The responsorial psalm praises God as the creator of the heavens and the earth.  The principle of creation is summarised at the end: “You send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth.” This Psalm helps us to understand the Baptism as a great manifestation of a New Creation.  Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters of the first creation, so in the Gospel reading the Spirit will descend on the waters and Jesus will emerge.  Jesus is the New Creation.  He brings us into a whole new existence.  We don’t really start to live until we know Him.  This is why St. Paul can confidently claim, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!” (2 Cor 5:17).

The second reading is a short homily, if you will, from St. Paul on baptism. Salvation has been made possible for all humanity that has been enamoured and trapped by “everything that does not lead to God, and all our worldly ambitions.” It is essentially the relentless and self-destructive pursuit of money, sex, and power that we see all around us.  The New Creation is “to live good and religious lives here in this present world” because we have become “heirs looking forward to inheriting eternal life.”  It is a totally different kind of life from the ground up, because instead of desperately trying to have as much pleasure as possible before we die, we spend our lives in peace preparing for eternity.  This is the new life inaugurated by the “cleansing water of rebirth and by renewing us with the Holy Spirit which He has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

In the gospel, the description of the scene of the Baptism is deliberately meant to be an allusion to the creation in the Book of Genesis – “heaven opened”, “Holy Spirit descended” all evokes the image of the Spirit “hovering” over the waters of creation. Then just as the original work of creation begins with God breaking His silence, the Father breaks His silence and speaks these words, “You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” The “beloved” son is an allusion to the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. Jesus is the New Isaac, the Beloved Son who will sacrifice himself on the holy mountain of Calvary. St Paul tells us in the second reading that the new Isaac “sacrificed himself for us in order to set us free from all wickedness and to purify a people so that it could be his very own and would have no ambition except to do good.”

The words “You are my Son” recalls the royal coronation hymn of David found in Psalm 2:7. It is an affirmation of the Davidic covenant, by which each heir to the throne had the privilege of a filial (sonship) relationship with God: “I will be his father, and he will be my son.”  This echo implies that Jesus is the Son of David, the heir to the throne of Israel.  In fact, the baptism comprises of the washing and anointing ceremony by which each Son of David marked the beginning of his reign (see 1 Kings 1:38-40).  Note that in most of the Gospels, shortly after the Baptism, Jesus begins to preach “The Kingdom of God has arrived.”  Indeed, because He has begun His royal reign.

In this great Epiphany of Christ, or as the Eastern Christians would call it, “the Great Theophany”, the great manifestation of God, the Most Holy Trinity, Jesus is introduced as the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament expectation: He is Isaiah’s Servant, the new Isaac, the new David.  But especially in today’s reading, He is the manifestation of the New Creation.

In submitting Himself humbly to the baptism of St. John the Baptist, however, Christ provided the example for the rest of us. If even He should be baptised, though He had no need of it, how much more should the rest of us be thankful for this sacrament, which frees us from the darkness of sin and incorporates us into the Church, the life of Christ on earth! His Baptism, therefore, was necessary--not for Him, but for us.

Baptism is indeed the New Creation, the first stage of the resurrection: immersed in God, we are already immersed in the indestructible life of God, the resurrection begins. Through baptism we have truly been incorporated into a New Creation, a new life and way of existence.  However, it takes faith to experience this.  If we do not believe the truth of what has happened in our baptism, the reality remains true, but we do not experience the fruits of that reality.  In our prayer this Sunday, let’s meditate on the reality of the gift of the Spirit which renewed each one of us in the sacrament.  If necessary, let’s renew the sacrament of Baptism by going regularly for confession.  And finally, let’s remember that the New Creation is the world to come, the fullness of life that we will experience after the death of this earthly body.  If we are still living day by day for pleasure, for money, sex, and power, we are actively undoing what Christ has done for us in baptism.