The Baptism of the Lord, January 9, 2022

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What is my mission? Do I feel blessed by God?

Jesus, at his baptism, received his mission and his Father’s blessing

Luke 3:15–16, 21–22

Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.

John answered them all, saying: “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.”

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

My Lod God, you are great indeed, you are clothed with majesty and glory and you share that glory and majesty with your son, and with us, your beloved. Help us to see with new eyes those who do not feel beloved, or needed, or healthy and happy members of a family or larger community. Help us to let others know that they are truly beloved. [Think of and name a particular person, or particular people, for whom you especially wish to pray this intention.]

Companions for the Journey

From “First Impressions” a service of the Southern Dominican Province 2019 (by Jude Siciliano, O.P):

Christians have struggled with Jesus’ baptism from the beginning. John was preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sin. What reason then would Jesus have to be baptized? Baptism was a ritual requirement just for Gentile converts to Judaism. So, John’s baptism was different; it removed privilege and exclusivity on the path to God. All are equal; all need forgiveness; all are God’s children; all are embraced in God’s merciful arms; all now have access to God. Jesus’ baptism identified him as God’s “beloved Son”–he is for all, not just for one class, nation, or religion.

What then would Jesus say about our own zealous nationalism that sets us apart from other nations and their concerns? What would Jesus say about the religious intolerance that is more and more vocal and strident, so easily dismissing other religious traditions? Or, about the huge and still growing gap separating rich nations from poor; rich individuals from their poorer neighbors? What would Jesus say about our current political world where two major parties seem more intent on their internecine squabbles than on improving the conditions of the neediest in our society? Faced with our individual and communal sinfulness, Jesus went down into the waters to be with us. He emerged to receive the Spirit’s affirmation as the chosen one, and to set out to bring to us the work of healing divisions. His Spirit, given to those who accept him, would indeed start the fire John promised. True, it wouldn’t look like what the Baptist was anticipating. But it would be hot and it would purify. The Spirit is hot enough to burn away the walls we construct to separate us from “others.” It could burn away the chill that lingers after we have been hurt and can warm us to forgiveness. The fire Jesus did come to ignite would put an intensity in believer’s hears strong enough to maintain life-long commitments to struggle against war, poverty, hunger, homelessness, racism and all the chill evil causes to make our hearts and world so cold.

There is a shift in the intensity of today’s gospel. In the first part, we have the “expectation” of the people. The prophet John got them excited—was John the messiah they had been hoping would deliver them? John himself is promising one who would, “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Fire is a rich biblical image, one meaning it has is, purification. In verses left out of today’s reading, John uses fire to describe how chaff is separated from wheat and burned—leaving the desirable wheat behind. What is evil will be destroyed and the fire John speaks of, would purge, not just individuals, but the community itself, to make it ready and worthy of God’s promises. It sounds intense and I can imagine the crowd’s excitement—maybe even its fear. When John speaks you can hear the crackling of the purging fires in the background. When things are bad, when unbelief is rampant and it is hard to find support for our faith from the outside world, who wouldn’t want to call on an intense fire to destroy evil? But we also know from religious zealots, that fire in the wrong hands can burn and cause widespread pain. Maybe what we need is a fire to intensify, turn up the heat, on our own tepid faith. Bring on the fire! Help us, we pray, not be so wishy-washy in our prayer and faith practices.

Fire does come, but not in the way John anticipated. What a strange shift takes place in Luke’s story. Jesus appears, almost as an afterthought. He comes to be baptized, Luke tells us, after all the people have been baptized, “...and Jesus also had been baptized....” Instead of bursting on the scene with trumpet, drum roll and flashing strobe lights, Jesus enters the water quietly. He is, it seems, just one of the people. He comes after they all declare their sinfulness and are baptized. Jesus seems much more like the simple, prayerful believers we have already met in this gospel: the elderly priestly couple Zechariah and Elizabeth; the aged Anna and Simeon, constantly at prayer in the Temple and Jesus’ own mother, who received God’s Word and pondered it in the quiet of her heart. These are quiet people with great spirits long schooled by the Spirit in waiting, acting and hoping.

Various reasons have been given for Jesus’ submitting to the ritual washing. Some think Jesus was manifesting a strong consciousness of sin and its effects on humans. Others, that Jesus was showing God’s approval of John’s ministry to the people. Or, Jesus may have undergone the ritual as a sign of unity with those outside the Law; his future death would free people from sin. (Later, Jesus will refer to his passion and death as a “baptism” he will undergo.) There are those who believe Jesus was a disciple of John and in accepting baptism Jesus was taking the first step towards establishing his own ministry. He may have been taking the first steps away from John and on his own.

I think about Jesus’ being in the same water the crowd had just left. He gets wet with water that touched them and what they left there with John’s baptism. Think of what they brought down into the Jordan, what was clinging to them. Not just the sins; but the pain of their lives; the struggles against the big evils that surrounded them--- terrorism, crushing taxation by a foreign power and daily fears of unpredictable violence. What burdened their hearts when they went into the water? Did they wonder what God was doing to help them out of the mess of their lives— their dyings, the crippled children, the feeble elderly, the deaths from painful sickness? What about their feelings of inadequacy for not being able to provide enough food for their families or to protect them from the vagaries of daily life? Did they feel they hadn’t done enough for God or taken God seriously enough? If this eucharistic congregation went down into the same water, what would we bring with us? Wouldn’t we want Jesus to join us in the places we feel most frail, pained, inadequate and sinful? We bring a lot to this eucharist today. Jesus does not remain aloof from us, judging us from on high. He comes right to where we are gathered with all our burdens and takes them up into himself, as we wait for the Holy Spirit and fire.

The Holy Spirit plays an important role in Luke-Acts. We have already seen the activity of the Spirit in this gospel: the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth (1:15); the overshadowing of Mary (1:35); in Elizabeth’s praise of Mary in the visitation scene (1: 41-42) and in the promptings that brought Simeon to the Temple when the holy family arrives (2:27). At Jesus’ baptism the Spirit descends on him and in the next verse (v.23) Luke tells us that Jesus “began his work.” Now the Spirit swings into full-time labors for us in Jesus. The role of the Spirit in Luke-Acts is varied and hard to systematize into categories. What we do know is that God is active and moving on our behalf. What we also know, having heard Mary’s “Magnificat,” is that with Jesus’ coming and the Spirit’s work, the accustomed order of the world, its ways of thinking, its values and criteria, will be undermined. Powers, Mary says, will be overthrown, and what the world considers secure and certain, will be shaken. The world’s powers will hear and see this message in Jesus and, in attempt to stop the Spirit’s work, will put him to death, as it did with the other prophets. John the Baptist will be the first to feel the retaliation by the world’s powers to what God has set about to do. The mid-section of today’s passage (3:19-20–omitted in today’s reading) tells of John’s arrest by Herod. The powers have begun to descend. They will do their best to stop this work God is doing. They will even seem to succeed–for a while. But God’s Spirit will not be squelched.

How and where will that Spirit’s works be evident? Jesus’ own quiet entrance on the scene gives us a clue. God certainly has worked in spectacular ways; but if we look for spectacle we most often will be frustrated. Jesus makes an anonymous entrance that the crowd missed, even though they had been “filled with expectation.” Even the voice from heaven is not a public broadcast, but a voice directed to Jesus. It will take the Spirit’s gift of fire to burn away the veil over our eyes and our false expectations to purify us so that we notice Jesus’ daily entrance —there among the ordinary, especially the downcast, people.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Why do you think the baptism story is included in all four gospels? Is this story important to you?
  • John was a very strange figure, and yet very compelling. He had an very large following. What are the advantages and dangers of such charisma and popularity?
    Do we have any religious or political figures with the magnetism of John the Baptist?
    How has it worked out for good or for evil in our own contemporary history?
  • In the gospel story, John points the attention away from himself and toward Jesus. Am I willing to check my ego at the door in service of the Kingdom?
  • Do I see my role in life right now as another John, bringing a message of hope, love and shalom to others?
  • For Jesus, this was moment of great decision and radical change. Have I ever had an experience of being called in some way to change where and how I lived, where and how I worked, where and how I loved?
  • For those in the early church, baptism was a life-changing scary, thoughtful, courageous step. It required people to live lives radically different from those around them. Does my baptism make me “different”? In what way?
  • Do I ever reflect on my baptismal gift as a child of God?
    What does that mean to me?
    Do I consider my baptism an introduction to a set of theological principles, or as an invitation to become God’s beloved?
  • Through baptism, Jesus made me his follower. Does it show?
  • Has anyone ever said that you are beloved and that he or she is pleased with you? Have you ever said it to anyone yourself?
  • Do I hear God saying: “You are my beloved”?
    Do I believe it?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian style--Imagination:

A Meditation on Jesus’ Baptism call and my own:

As I reflect on my own Baptism, I recall the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when John the Baptist baptized him. I imagine myself there with Jesus:

I see a small, wiry man, dressed in rags and tatters. His clothes are dirty and hang off his too-thin frame. They say he eats little--locusts and honey gathered from the parched land he and the other Essene inhabit in the hills. Stranger and stranger. His name is John, and there is something about the man that forces me to stay and listen to what he has to say. His voice, his eyes, speak eloquently of the passion which drives him…..The conviction that time is short and the kingdom of Heaven is near rings out over the crowd. He makes us feel that we and the world we inhabit are at a crossroads. Something momentous is upon us. His name is Jesus. When Jesus, who is in the crowd listening to John, is baptized, I think of what the experience means to him. He is a 30 year old man, more than middle aged, by the standards of the day. He has spent most of his life in the dusty village of Nazareth, working his late father’s trade of carpentry, unmarried, and caring for his widowed mother. A rather unremarkable life so far. What makes him realize that he wants, or is called, to do something quite different? What makes him choose to be baptized by this man John? As he enters the water, it is cold; cold against the skin warmed that desert sun. It shocks him into realizing the enormity of what he is about to do. He is going to die to a lot of his old ways, to his old life. As the waters close over his head, he is suspended between life and death, between the old world and the new, between the old Jesus and the new Jesus. He stays under as long he is able, pulled into the past and a little afraid of the future. What will this new life bring? As he feels the spirit of God invade his very being, touching his heart with love and strength, he emerges from the depths, gasping for breath, heart pounding, eyes wide open in wonder. John says those holy words which confirm the presence of the Lord in his heart, and in his very being, in his soul. And then he hears the words which give him the reassurance and the courage to take up this new challenge, this new and uncertain path: You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.”

He looks around and sees the world with new eyes. The brown, parched earth seems somehow touched with gold. The breeze, soft and mild, caresses his cheek. He looks heavenward at a sky suddenly made bluer. He looks at the faces of those around him,, rendered indistinct by eyes filled with tears. He sees their love and concern, their curiosity, and from some, their scorn.

None of it matters.

He is one with God.

He is God’s beloved.

How would I respond to John the Baptist if I were sitting by the River Jordan listening to him

Would my heart be touched by the Spirit and would I experience the deep conviction that I must, MUST realign my will to God’s a live my life accordingly?

Do I realize the hardships this might entail?--pleasures I might have to forgo or defenses I might have to abandon in order to be open to God’s call, to God’s living presence?

I agree to be immersed in that holy river and start anew. I step toward the Baptist, my eyes fixed on his as he summons, COMPELS me with his presence and his conviction to take the risk, to let go of the past and embrace a radically different future, knowing I, too, am God’s beloved.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

This passage from Isaiah (40: 9-11) is meant to be paired with today’s gospel. It is a message of hope for those Jews in exile, because it shows not only the power of God, but the love of God for the Jews. It is also a message of hope for us, because God is also speaking to you and me. Have you, as you imagined God, thought more of the power of God or of the love of God? Where in this psalm do you see references to each? Where in this psalm do you get hints of the one whom God will send to care for them, and who will gather everyone into the love of God? Is this how you see Jesus? Speak to Jesus about the gift of His presence in your life.

Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of good news! Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Cry out, do not fear! Say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, leading the ewes with care.
A Meditation in the Augustinian style-Relationship:

I read Galatians 3:26-29:

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Reflect on what it means to you to clothe yourself in Christ. Write a letter to Jesus in your journal. Speak to Jesus about your closeness to, and identity with, Him. Thank Him for the graces you have received and His care and friendship. Talk to him about ways you can more closely resemble the One you love.

A Meditation in the Dominican style--Asking Questions:

Read Romans: 6: 8-11:

How can we who died to sin yet live in it?

Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.

If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him.

As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.

Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Reflect on the ways you must live for God in Christ Jesus. Ask yourself how you have lived for God thus far, and talk to Jesus about your desire to be one with Him….

Literary Reflection:

The very short poem from St Francis of Assisi is another way of explaining the last line of this gospel:

GOD’S ADMIRATION

God’s admiration for us is infinitely greater than anything we can conjure up for Him.

Literary Reflection:

Here are two short poems from Meister Eckhardt, a Dominican monk and mystic (1260-1328). Do they capture for you the sense that God is love, and we are God’s beloved?

BUT HE WANTED ME

I could not bear to touch God with my own hand when He came within my reach but He wanted me to hold Him.

How God solved my blessed agony, who can understand? He turned my body into His.

AN IMAGE THAT MAKES THEM SAD

How long will grown men and women in this world keep drawing in their coloring books an image of God that makes them sad?

Closing Prayer

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Lord, I know you are well pleased with me, not for anything I have done, but because I, too, am your child. Help me to love like Jesus, with a sense of your calling.