HOMILY REFLECTION FOR THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD. Summary of ideas.

HOMILY REFLECTION FOR THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD.
Summary of ideas of Mass readings.

1. With the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, Christmas season ends with the manifestation of Jesus as the beloved Son of God who has come to save us, restore justice in, bring light and freedom to  the world as we see in the  1st reading (Is 42:1–4, 6–7):

• Thus says the Lord: Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street. a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching. I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

2. This happened when Jesus, once baptized, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit rested on him like a dove as t. Luke narrates in the Gospel (Lk 3:15–16, 21–2).

• 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”

3. Jesus is manifested as well as the Christ, the One anointed by God with the power of the Spirit, who spent doing good and healing the oppressed by the devil, because God was with him (2nd reading, Acts 10:34–38).

• You know the word that he sent to the Israelites as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all, what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

4. Jesus who is Holy and who has no need of baptism joined the line of sinners to be baptized. With his baptism, Jesus instituted our baptism, whose water gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit for which we are children of God.

• Almighty ever-living God, who when Christ had been baptized in the River Jordan, and as the Holy Spirit descended upon him, solemnly declared him your beloved Son, grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to you. Through our Lord. (Collect).
• As St. Maximus of Turin wrote: 

Someone might ask, “Why would a holy man desire baptism?” Listen to the answer:Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched. For the consecration of Christ involves a more significant consecration of the water. For when the Saviour is washed, all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages. Christ is the first to be baptized, then, so that Christians will follow after him with confidence.

Dear brethren in Christ, let us thank Our Lord for his humility and fidelity in fulfilling God the Father’s Most Holy Will upon submitting himself to John’s Baptism, thus, revealing the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and instituting the Sacrament of Baptism, through which we have been washed away from the stain of original sin, have been made children of God and received the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit and God’s presence in our soul in grace. As St.  Gregory of Nazianzen put it, “let us do honor to Christ’s Baptism in holiness,” striving to keep our soul clean to be the dwelling place of God.

Happy Feast of Our Lord’s Baptism! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo

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