FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR C

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

January 9, 2021 (at the 8am Mass)

St. Uriel’s, Sea Girt, N.J.

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

“Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

The Epiphany and the Sundays following reflect on the revelation of Christ’s identity as the Son of God at various points in his earthly life, beginning in his childhood with the star that brings the wise men from the East to worship him and offer their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; through his baptism in the Jordan River, which we celebrate today; through the wedding feast at Cana where he changes water into wine; and culminating in his Transfiguration on the mountaintop, where he shines with the light of the divine presence before the disciples Peter, James, and John. 

The word Epiphany means revelation, manifestation, or showing forth. We appropriately use this word to describe some profound new insight or understanding. In more colloquial language, the penny drops, the lightbulb comes on, and, for a life-changing moment, we see things as they really are.

Our Lord’s Baptism is not only an Epiphany but also, in the language of Eastern Christianity, a Theophany: a revelation of God himself. It marks the end of what is sometimes called our Lord’s hidden life – his childhood and upbringing in the household of Mary and Joseph – and the beginning of his public ministry of teaching, preaching, healing, performing miracles, and gathering disciples. At its most obvious level of meaning, the baptism occasions an Epiphany of Our Lord’s identity as the Son of God. But it’s also a Theophany: a revelation of the Holy Trinity. The Son is immersed in the waters; the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove; the Father’s voice is heard from heaven.

Today I want to focus on the content of the heavenly proclamation: “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.” Almost the same words are repeated verbatim at the Transfiguration, when a cloud overshadows the mountain, Jesus radiates dazzling light, and a voice sounds from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” In both instances, the Father proclaims Jesus his beloved Son. This appellation manifests love as the essence of the relationship between the Father and the Son, and indeed among all three divine Persons. Love is intrinsic to the inner life of the Godhead. The deepest meaning of the Theophany at the Jordan can thus be summed up in a single sentence that appears not once but twice in the First Letter of John, namely: “God is love.”

New Testament scholars often point out that Christ’s Baptism was almost certainly an historical event because the early Church would never have made it up. For Jesus to be baptized by John was actually somewhat embarrassing to the early Christians. John’s baptism was a call to repentance and conversion, but according to Christian teaching Jesus had need of neither. John was administering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; yet Jesus was sinless. The person administering baptism would normally have been of a higher religious or spiritual rank than the person receiving it; yet great as John was, the Church obviously considered Jesus infinitely greater. So, down through the centuries, Christian thinkers have debated the question: Why did Jesus submit to a baptism of which he had no apparent need?

The best answer is the traditional one. He did so to express his solidarity with the fallen humanity he came to save. At his baptism he identifies with us in our sinfulness, so that at our baptism we might be identified with him in his sinlessness. For this reason, the celebration of the Baptism of Christ furnishes an appropriate occasion for us to give thanks for our own baptism, and to recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises.

At our baptism we were incorporated into the same divine life of love made manifest at the baptism of Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the visible form of a dove. In the course of my priestly vocation so far, I’ve administered many baptisms – so many that I’ve lost count – and I can reliably testify that I’ve never seen a dove descending on the newly baptized. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit descends upon each of us at our baptism just as surely as he descended upon Jesus. A voice from heaven proclaimed Jesus his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. Again, I’ve never heard such a voice from heaven at any of the baptisms I’ve administered, at least not audibly in any physical sense. Nonetheless, there’s a sense in which God always speaks these words to the newly baptized: “You are my beloved son – you are my beloved daughter – in you I am well pleased.”

Another way of putting it is that at our baptism we enter into the very same relationship of divine Sonship that Jesus enjoys with his heavenly Father. What he is by nature, we become by adoption and grace: God’s own sons and daughters, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Just as our Lord’s Baptism marked the beginning of his public life and ministry, so our Baptism marks the beginning of our life as Christians, members of Christ’s Body the Church, continuing his mission in the world of forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and love.

But that love has a cost. Being God’s beloved Son did not protect Jesus from suffering and death. Indeed, the Eastern Orthodox have a tradition that the steps Jesus took into the River Jordan were his first steps towards Calvary. A related tradition depicts Christ’s descent into the waters of the Jordan as prefiguring his death on the cross and descent into hell on our behalf. Still, the revelation of divine love alone makes it possible to undertake and offer such a sacrifice. Christ bears suffering, death, and the grave for our sakes, so that enfolded in the love of the Holy Trinity we may bear anything for his sake. Our baptism symbolizes and prefigures not only our dying with Christ in a death like his, but also our rising to new and eternal life with him in a resurrection like his.

Again, at the heart of the baptized life is the mystery of divine love. Today, then, as we celebrate the Baptism of Christ and renew our own baptismal promises, we dare to imagine God speaking to us the same words he spoke to Jesus. Whenever we get discouraged or the challenges of life threaten to get us down, it’s enormously helpful to call to mind our baptism, and hear again God repeating those same words to us, over and over: “You are my beloved son – you are my beloved daughter – in you I am well pleased.”