The Feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus
Today is the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is very well recorded and written by the evangelists. As we all know by now, it was John the Baptist who was baptizing in the River Jordan that attracted many Jews because as he pointed out, his baptism was one of water in order to forgive sins. You can read today’s scripture passage in Mark 1: 7-11.
“He preached to the people saying, “After me comes one who is more powerful than I am, I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” At that time Jesus came from Nazareth, a town of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And the moment he came up out of the water, heaven opened before him, and he saw a dove. And these words were heard from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved, the One I have chosen.”
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Today’s scripture reading is quite short as it was taken from the Gospel of Mark. But I would like to invite our readers to open their Bibles to Matthew 3: 13-17 because this narrative of the baptism of our Lord is more complete. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. 16 After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him. 17 And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Take note that Moses spoke directly to God and God spoke directly to Moses. In this scripture reading, when our Lord Jesus Christ began his public ministry, it is one of the last few times that the voice of God the Father was heard… the next one would be during the Transfiguration of our Lord in Mt. Tabor. Indeed, God gave everything to his Son. But picture yourself as one of those who witnessed the baptism of our Lord and you were within hearing distance to the conversation of John the Baptist and Jesus, wouldn’t you be surprised why John said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?”
Remember, John the Baptist had a great following, especially from the Jews in Jerusalem where they came to him to ask him if he were the Messiah who was prophesied to come? But our Lord Jesus replied to John, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” The reason why this conversation is important to us is because we know that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was born from a sinless Mother. He is human in every way except in sin. So why did he submit himself to the baptism of John when he had no sin?
You can say that in order to start his Galilean ministry, our Lord had to begin with humility. Surely he knew that the Jews would focus on his life, hence he is showing them how important humility is in the life of a person. That while he would later profess himself as the Messiah, and even John the Baptist would testify to his followers in John 1:32-36.
“John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God. The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” It was then that John allowed his disciples to follow Jesus.
Perhaps the greatest testimony from John the Baptist was when he said, in John 3:30, “He must increase… while I must decrease.” This is a teaching from St. John the Baptist of the importance of God in our lives. This is what the Magisterium of the Catholic Church teaches its flock.
This statement from St. John the Baptist encapsulates the 1st Commandment and the greatest commandment that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us, “To Love God with all our heart, our mind, our strength, and our soul” and the best way to do so is for our Lord Jesus Christ to increase within us, while our own selves should decrease. This happens when we no longer have any use for our own will… and that we all submit to the will of God.
This ultimate act of humility by St. John the Baptist in ending his career (despite his being so famous) because the Messiah had come resulted in our Lord Jesus telling his disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
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