Baptism of the Lord

(I was told in so many words that my posts are too long....but....I wrote this for the bulletin at church and thought I would go ahead and share it with you all! Enjoy! I'll post something shorter later on this week...) :)

This Sunday, we conclude our celebration of Christmas with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This feast brings a very interesting question to my mind: Why did Jesus need to be baptized if He was without sin?

The Church answers the question by giving us one of the four servant passages in Isaiah as our first reading today. In Isaiah, we learn about The Servant of the Lord who has been upheld by God, chosen by God, and given the spirit of God. We also learn of this Servant’s mission to bring justice to the world, open the eyes of the blind, release prisoners, and be a light to the nations. From the earliest apostles, the Church has made the connection between Jesus and the Servant and his mission as described in Isaiah. The final verse in the Gospel passage confirms this connection by linking back the first verse from the Isaiah reading, “You are my beloved Son; whit you I am well pleased.”

In other words, the purpose of Jesus’ baptism was not to cleanse his non-existent sins, but to give God an opportunity to show us His Son, His Servant and His Mission. What does this tell us about our own baptism? Our baptism was definitely important to cleanse our sins, but what are the other meanings? Are we not also chosen by God and given God’s Spirit? Do we not also have a mission to bring justice, heal the blind, release prisoners? Are we called to be a light to the nations? Most certainly! We are challenged daily to recognize God’s Spirit within us and give thanks for it. We called to immerse ourselves everyday in the mission of Jesus and be a light to the world.

Today, a few of our teens are participating in the Rite of Acceptance at the 11am Mass. This Rite is part of these teen’s path of Christian Initiation to come into full communion with the Church at the Easter Vigil. For some of these teens, this will include being baptized. We can all learn from their recognition of God’s Spirit within them and their acceptance of the mission, even during their challenging teen years. Please keep them in your prayers as they continue to learn about what it means to be a Catholic on a mission!

And may God bless all of you in your daily commitment to your Baptismal call to be a “light to the nations.”