Homily for the 8 o’clock Mass, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Year “A”
12 January 2020
Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John (Mt 3:13).
At Christmas we celebrated how God in Christ became flesh, in order to identify with us in our humanity. He emptied himself, says St. Paul, being made in the likeness of men (cf. Phil 2:7). Today we see how he went further. He humbled himself so far as to identify with us even in our sinfulness, though he himself was without sin. So today’s feast looks back to Christmas, underlining its meaning and purpose. At the same time it looks forward to the public ministry of Jesus, with its call to repentance and conversion, and its many signs of liberation from the power of the devil. Even more than that, today’s feast looks forward to Good Friday and Easter. For when Jesus went down into the Jordan at his Baptism, he foreshadowed his descent into death; and when he came up again from the water, he foreshadowed his resurrection from the dead.
In today’s first reading, we heard a passage taken from the first of the four Servant Songs in the second part of Isaiah. Isaiah offers us here a brief portrait of the Servant of the Lord; of the expected Messiah; as St. Matthew would insist, of Jesus. He is humble, and gentle, yet also strong. His mission will far exceed what any mere man could ever carry out, for he himself will be a covenant of the people and a light of the nations. He will be a healer and liberator; he will bring true righteousness; through him God’s own Kingdom will be established on earth.
The passage begins: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. These words find a clear echo in the words spoken from heaven at Jesus’ baptism. This is my Son, the Beloved: my favour rests on him.
Is this true? Is Jesus really the one? Or could he be instead some sort of false prophet, perhaps honestly deluded, but essentially self-appointed, and led increasingly away from orthodox belief, until at last he meets his inevitable end? From the very beginning of his Gospel, St. Matthew has insisted that Yes: Jesus is the Messiah, and the fulfilment of the promise of the Hebrew Scriptures. This teaching is repeatedly underlined throughout the course of the Gospel. As St. Peter declares at Caesarea Philippi, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (16:17). And now today the Messianic identity of Jesus is confirmed by authoritative witnesses. If the witness of Scripture and of the deeds of Jesus himself were not enough, St. John the Baptist, who sums up in himself the whole of the Old Testament, bears his own witness. And as if in final proof, heaven itself bears witness to Jesus.
The Father declares that Jesus is his Son. And the Holy Spirit is seen to descend. Again, this echoes our passage from Isaiah, which says that the mysterious Servant of the Lord will be endowed with God’s own Spirit. What then does the sign of the dove mean? By it we see, in visible form, the favour of God resting on Jesus his Son. The descent of the dove expresses too the Messianic anointing, by which the mission of Jesus was authorised and empowered. And it makes clear that Jesus, the bearer of the Spirit, is also able to give the Holy Spirit to all who belong to him.
The Baptism of Jesus is the inauguration of our own Baptism. Conformed by baptism to Jesus in his death and resurrection, we are given new birth as children of God; our sins are washed away; heaven is opened up for us, and we enter into a new relationship with God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Nothing whatever in our life can compare in importance with our baptism. Surely it’s safe to assume that we all under-estimate the riches, beyond all imagination, given to us in our baptism! Baptism opens up for us the path to eternal life, to eternal happiness. Even now, through our baptism, we are invited to enter with all the Saints into a life of true intimacy with the Lord, who is all goodness, all love, all mercy, all holiness. As we dwell in the light of his favour; as we delight ever more in his friendship, so we come, ever more and more, to know him, and ever more and more, to love him. And in the power of the Spirit who is given to us, we are invited, enabled, to become ourselves ever more like Jesus.
O Christian - as so many of the Saints cry out - if only you knew, if only you understood a little of this precious gift, which out of all the human race you have been chosen to receive, utterly beyond your deserving! Why then are you sleeping? Why do you behave as if it all meant almost nothing to you? Why do you glance back enviously towards the deceptive enticements of the world, the flesh and the devil? Why do you, whose inheritance is the Kingdom of heaven, waste your time yearning after earthly riches, which cannot make you happy, and which anyway must come to an end? Why do you still willingly choose resentment over forgiveness, self indulgence over generosity of spirit, mental laziness over prayer without ceasing? Why are you so ready, like Esau, to throw away your precious birthright for a worthless bowl of soup!
Today we are encouraged to remember our own baptism with thanksgiving and joy, and to renew its promises and commitments. Unable to live it out in our own strength, today we ask the Lord once again to transform us from within. In his power then, may we, with Jesus, fulfil all that righteousness demands. And may we bear worthy witness before the world of the truth and beauty of our holy faith: of the salvation which we have, in Jesus Christ our Lord.