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The Baptism of Jesus was a moment of identification with us sinners. Sinless, Jesus received the baptism of repentance to identify himself with his people. It was also a moment of conviction about his identity and mission.
Fr. Tony’s Homily (everything on one page)
The Baptism of the Lord is the great event celebrated by the Eastern churches on the feast of Epiphany because it is the occasion of the first public revelation of all the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity, and the official revelation of Jesus as the Son of God to the world by God the Father.  Hence, it is described by all four Gospels. This baptism marks the beginning of Jesusâ public ministry.Â
The turning point: His baptism by John was an especially important event in the life of Jesus. First,  it was a moment of identification with us sinners. Sinless, Jesus received the baptism of repentance to identify himself with his people, who realized for the first time that they were sinners. (As given in the anecdotes below, St. Damien, Blessed Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and Mandela identified with the people whom they served). Second, it was a moment of conviction about his identity and mission: that He is the Son of God and His mission was to preach the Good News of Godâs love and salvation and to atone for our sins by becoming the âsuffering servant.â God the  Fatherâs words, âThis is My beloved Son,â taken from Psalm 2:17, reveal Jesusâ identity as Godâs Son, and the words âwith whom I am well pleased,â from Isaiah 42:1 (referring to the âsuffering servantâ), pointed to Jesusâ mission of atoning for the sins of the world by His suffering and death on the cross. Third, it was a moment of equipment.  The Holy Spirit equipped Jesus by descending on him in the form of dove, giving him the power of preaching and healing. Fourth, it was a moment of decision for Jesus to begin public ministry at the most opportune time after receiving the approval of his Heavenly Father as His beloved Son.
Scripture lessons summarized: The first reading (Gen 15:1-6, 21: 1-3) Today we hear Godâs promise (Chapter 15), of numerous descendants to Abraham whom Judaism, Christianity, Islam consider their father, and its fulfillment (Chapter 21) when Abrahamâs wife, Sarah, gave birth to Isaac.
In the second reading, taken from the letter to the Hebrews, the sacred author further shows us the trusting faith of Abraham in the promises of God, first, in Abrahamâs willingness to move his whole family to an unknown place to which God said He would lead him; second, in the way Abraham and Sarah trusted Godâs power to give them a son born to them in their very old age and third, in the way Abrahamâs unwavering Faith in his God enabled him to obey, without hesitation, his Godâs order to sacrifice his only son.
Todayâs Gospel presents the head of the Holy Family, Joseph, faithfully obeying Godâs law given through Moses concerning the purification of the mother and the redeeming of the child by presenting Mary and the Baby Jesus in the Temple. The events recounted here are also found on February 2nd, the Feast of Presentation of Jesus.
(1) The baptism of Jesus reminds us of our identity. It reminds us of who we are and Whose we are.  By Baptism, we become sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, members of his Church, heirs of Heaven, and temples of the Holy Spirit.
(2) Jesusâ baptism reminds us also of our mission:  a) to experience the presence of God within us, to acknowledge our own dignity as Godâs children, and to appreciate the Divine Presence in others by honoring them, loving them and serving them in all humility; b) to live as the children of God in thought, word and action. c) to lead  holy and transparent Christian lives and not to desecrate  our bodies (the temples of the Holy Spirit and members of Jesusâ Body), by impurity, injustice, intolerance, jealousy or hatred; d) to accept both the good and the bad experiences of life as the gifts of a loving Heavenly Father for our growth in holiness; e) to grow daily in intimacy with God by personal and family prayers, by meditative reading of the Word of God, by participating in the Holy Mass, and by frequenting the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
(3) It is a day to thank God for the graces we have received in Baptism, to renew our Baptismal promises and to preach Christâs âGood Newsâ by our transparent Christian lives of love, mercy, service and forgiveness.
More of Fr. Tony’s illustrations
When leprosy broke out among the people of the Hawaiian Islands in the middle of the 19th century, the government authorities responded by establishing a leper colony on the remote island of Molokai. The victims were snatched by force from their families and sent to this island to perish.
However, moved by their terrible plight, a young Belgian priest, Saint Damien De Veuster (canonized October 11, 2009), asked permission from his superiors in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; SaintsResource.com) Â to minister to them. Straightaway, he realized that there was only one effective way to do this, and that was to go and live among them. Having got permission, he went to Molokai.
At first, he tried to minister to the lepers while maintaining a certain distance. But he soon realized that he had to live among them in order to gain their trust. As a result he contracted leprosy himself. The reaction of the lepers was immediate and wholehearted. They embraced him and took him to their hearts. He was now one of them. There was no need, no point any more, in keeping his distance. The lepers had someone who could talk with authority about leprosy, about brokenness, about rejection and public shame.
Todayâs Gospel tells us how, by receiving the baptism of repentance, Jesus became identified with the sinners whom he had come to save (Flor McCarthy in Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies).
The late Nelson Mandela (died 12/5/2013), will go down as one of the greatest leaders of this century. He was instrumental in ending apartheid and bringing about a multiracial society in South Africa. Mandela belonged to the Xhosa people, and grew up in the Transkei. But how did he come to play such a crucial role in the history of his country?
In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, he tells us that all the currents of his life were taking him away from the Transkei. Yet he had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth. He says: âA steady accumulation of insights helped me to see that my duty was to the people as a whole, not to a particular section of it. The memory of a thousand indignities produced in me anger, rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, âHenceforth, I will devote myself to the liberation of my peopleâ; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwiseâ (Flor McCarthy in Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies).
When the American writer, Maya Angelou, was growing up, she didnât see her mother very much. She was brought up in large part by her grandmother, a wonderful and saintly woman. She tells how when she was twenty years old, she took a trip to San Francisco to visit her mother. It was a particularly important yet vulnerable moment in Mayaâs life; she was struggling to make her way in life and groping her way towards becoming a writer. She had quite a good meeting with her mother.
When it was time to leave, her mother walked her down the hill to the waiting bus. As they parted, her mother said, âYou know, I think you are the greatest woman I have ever met.â
Years later Maya could still recall that moment vividly. She said, âWaiting for the bus, I sat there thinking, âJust suppose sheâs right. Suppose I really am somebody.â It was one of those moments when the sky rolled back. At times like that, itâs almost as if the whole earth holds its breath.â
Maya went on to become a highly successful and respected writer and poet. She composed and delivered an inspiring poem at the inauguration of President Clinton.
Todayâs Gospel tells us how Jesus heard the voice of His heavenly Father, immediately after His baptism, affirming him as âMy beloved Sonâ (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies).
Edward Farrell, a friend of mine, is a Catholic priest who serves an Inner City Parish in Detroit. Heâs written some marvelous books. One I would especially recommend is entitled Prayer Is a Hunger. Ed is a part of a small group with whom I meet each January. Iâve told you about this group. We call it the Ecumenical Institute of Spirituality. Itâs an important group for me. Though we meet only for three days once a year, sharing our spiritual pilgrimages with one another, seeking to focus our minds and hearts on some growing edge, itâs an important part of my life. Ed is a part of it too. Heâs one of the most genuinely humble persons I know. Serving some of Godâs forgotten people in one of Detroitâs most depressed areas, he is quietly profound. I never will forget the insight he provided me about this text. He said that Jesus went to the cross so that we too could hear the same word Jesus heard at his baptism â so that you and I can hear, âThis is my beloved daughter/this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.â â Have you thought about it that way? Jesusâ paid the price so that for you and me, the heavens could open, and we could know the reality of Godâs Spirit as a living power and presence, in our lives. Jesus wanted us to know the reality of Good News in the dark days of hopelessness and despair. The Voice which declared Jesus Godâs beloved Son is still speaking in our souls, âYou are Mine. You are unique and special. I am pleased with you. I love you. I love you so much that I gave My beloved Son for you. You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter.â (Rev. Maxie Dunnam).
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
Among the millions of Jews imprisoned by the Nazis in the death camps of the â30âs & â40âs was Victor Frankl. In spite of the horrors and the odds, he survived. Around him, next to him, each day of his ordeal, dozens, hundreds, thousands of fellow-Jews and others died. Most of them died in the ovens, of course, but there were others who died simply because they gave up hope and lost heart, overwhelmed by horror and fear and hopelessness.
Frankl survived, he said, because two forces sustained him: one was the certainty of his wifeâs love. The other was an inner drive to rewrite the manuscript of a book he had completed after years of labor â which the Nazis had destroyed. Franklâs imprisonment was lightened by daily imaginary conversations with his wife and by scrawling notes for his book on all the bits and scraps of paper he could find. Now Frankl has written eloquently of these two insights to cope with life: first, the discovery and certainty of being loved, and, second, having a clear and controlling purpose in life. [Nate Castens, Chanhassen, Minnesota, via Ecunet, Gospel Notes for Next Sunday, #2815]
Both are the messages we receive in Christian Baptism.
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)
First, it reminds us of who we are and Whose we are.  By Baptism we become the adoptive sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, members of his Church, heirs of Heaven, and temples of the Holy Spirit. We become incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made sharers in the priesthood of Christ [CCC 1279].  Hence, âBaptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other Sacramentsâ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1213).  Most of us dipped the fingers of our right hands into the holy water font and blessed ourselves when we came into Church today.  Why?  This blessing is supposed to remind us of our Baptism.  And so when I bless myself with Holy Water, I should be thinking of the fact that I am a child of God; that I have been redeemed by the Cross of Christ; that I have been made a member of Godâs family, and that I have been washed, forgiven, cleansed, and purified by the Blood of the Lamb.
a) to experience the presence of God within us, to acknowledge our own dignity as Godâs children, and to appreciate the Divine Presence in others by honoring them, loving them and serving them in all humility;
b) to live as the children of God in thought, word, and action so that our Heavenly Father may say to each one of us what He said to Jesus: âYou are My beloved son/daughter with whom I am well pleased.â Being âGodâs childâ  means that we are to let His thoughts direct our thoughts, His mind control our mind, His concerns be our concerns.  In the Church, we all share the same intimate connection with Christ; we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, and so of each other;
c) to lead a holy and transparent Christian life and not to desecrate  our bodies (the temples of the Holy Spirit and members of Jesusâ Body) by impurity, injustice, intolerance, jealousy or hatred;
d) to accept both the good and the bad experiences of life as the gifts of a loving Heavenly Father for our growth in holiness;
e) to grow daily in intimacy with God by personal and family prayers, by reading the Word of God, by participating in the Holy Mass, and by frequenting the Sacrament of Reconciliation;
f) to be co-creators with God in building up the âKingdom of Godâ on earth, a  Kingdom of compassion, justice, and love, and to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  In other words, He has called us to help others to see, through the love that we show and the help that we give, that God loves them, that He invites them, too,  to be His sons and daughters, and  that He wants to be their Helper and Strengthener through all the troubles that life in this world can bring.
On the day of our baptism, as Pope St. John Paul II explains, âWe were anointed with the Oil of Catechumens, the sign of Christâs gentle strength, to fight against evil. Blessed water was poured over us, an effective sign of interior purification through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We were then anointed with Chrism to show that we were thus consecrated in the image of Jesus, the Fatherâs Anointed One. The candle lighted from the Paschal Candle was a symbol of the light of Faith which our parents and godparents must have continually safeguarded and nourished with the life-giving grace of the Spirit.â This is also a day for us to renew our Baptismal promises, consecrating ourselves to the Holy Trinity and ârejecting Satan and all his empty promises,â which our profane world is constantly offering us through its mass-media of communication. Let us ask Our Lord today to make us faithful to our Baptismal promises. Let us thank Him for the privilege of being joined to His mission of preaching the âGood Newsâ by our transparent Christian lives of love, mercy, service, and forgiveness.
End of Christmas season: The Christmas season, celebrating the Self-revelation of God through Jesus, comes to an end with the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. Christmas is the feast of Godâs Self-revelation to the Jews, and Epiphany celebrates Godâs Self-revelation to the Gentiles.
At his Baptism in the Jordan, Christ reveals himself to repentant sinners. The Baptism of the Lord Jesus is the great event celebrated by the Eastern churches on the feast of Epiphany because it is the occasion of the first public revelation of all the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity, and the official revelation of Jesus as the Son of God to the world by God the Father. Following His 40 -day fast in the wilderness under the instruction of the Holy Spirit and triple, unsuccessful, temptation by Satan, it marks the beginning of Jesusâ public ministry. The liturgical season of Christmas comes to a conclusion this Sunday with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord.
Exegetical notes: Origin of baptism: Neither John nor Jesus invented baptism.  It had been practiced for centuries among the Jews as a ritual equivalent to our Confession.  Until the fall of the Temple in 70 A.D., it was common for Jewish people to use a special pool called a Mikveh â literally a âcollection of waterâ â as a means of spiritual cleansing, to remove spiritual impurity and sin.  Men took this bath weekly on the eve of the Sabbath, women, monthly.  Converts were also expected to take this bath before entering Judaism.  The Orthodox Jews still retain the rite. John preached that such a bath was a necessary preparation for the cataclysm that would be wrought by the coming Messiah.  Jesus transformed this continuing ritual into the one single, definitive act (receiving Baptism),  by which we begin our life of faith.  In effect, He fused His Divine Essence with the water and the ceremony.
A couple of questions: 1) Why did Jesus, the sinless Son of God, receive the âbaptism of repentanceâ meant for sinners?  2) Why did Jesus wait for thirty years to begin his public ministry?
The strange answer for the first question, given by the apocryphal book, The Gospel according to the Hebrews, is that Jesus received the baptism of John to please his mother and relatives.  In this humble submission, we see a foreshadowing of the âbaptismâ of his bloody death upon the cross.  Jesusâ baptism by John was the acceptance and the beginning of his mission as Godâs suffering Servant.  He allowed himself to be numbered among sinners.  Jesus submitted himself entirely to his Fatherâs will.  Out of love, He consented to His baptism of death for the remission of our sins.
Many Fathers of the Church explain that Jesus received baptism to identify himself with his people, who, as a result of Johnâs preaching, for the first time in Jewish history became aware of their sins and of their need for repentance.
The Jews had the traditional belief that only the Gentiles who embraced Jewish religion needed the baptism of repentance, for, as Godâs chosen people, the Jewish race was holy.  Jesus might have been waiting for this most opportune moment to begin his public ministry.  The Fathers of the Church point out that the words which the Voice of the Heavenly Father speaks are similar to Psalm 2:17, revealing Jesusâ identity (âThis is My beloved Sonâ) and to Isaiah 42:1 referring to the âsuffering servantâ (âwith whom I am well pleasedâ), revealing Jesusâ mission of saving mankind by His suffering and death.
The turning point: Jesusâ baptism by John was a mystical experience that Jesus felt deep within his soul at the crucial turning point of his life. The opening of the Heavens with Holy Spirit, descending as a dove upon Jesus, and the Voice declaring of Him, âThis is My beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased,â are Godâs revelation to mankind the Mystery that He is Triune.  The presence of the Triune God at this baptism, reveals Jesusâ true identity and mission. The Heavensâ opening also indicates that this was a moment of Godâs powerful intervention in human history and in the life of His Son. His baptism by John was a very important event in the life of Jesus.
