Why is the Baptism of Our Lord so important and why does the Church return us to Ordinary Time with this feast? The point is that, just as Baptism launched Christ's public ministry, our baptism launched our mission as Christians, to be lived out in ordinary activity. Strengthened every day by our baptism, no matter how many years ago it took place, we enter into our ordinary life to proclaim God and his saving plan.
As already mentioned, the Baptism of Christ is precisely the launching of his public mission. After 30 years of hidden life, it is made public with a spectacular demonstration. In modern marketing, to launch a new product, special guests are invited and an attempt is made to do something memorable so that people see why the product is so significant. This "launch" of Christ far surpasses any human marketing act. The guests are the three persons of the Trinity: we hear the voice of the Father, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and what is "launched" is not just a product, but a divine person, the second person of the Trinity. The demonstration is the opening of heaven: the heavens were rent, as Mark so dramatically puts it. And the message could not be clearer and more dramatic: "Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I take pleasure".
During the last few weeks we have seen how God hides his glory and comes to us in weakness: like a small and helpless baby. But today God draws back the veil for a moment, as he will also do later in the Transfiguration, to let us glimpse his glory. The almighty God, whose sandals we are not worthy to untie, comes down to our level.
We can go out into ordinary life aware, yes, of our unworthiness, but certain that we are God's beloved children, and that he has the power to break down all the barriers that humanity has erected between itself and him. As children of God, we too, as we heard in the first reading, have received the Holy Spirit in order to make "justice to the nations"We miss Christmas with all its connotations of tenderness, the sweetness of the Child God, the intimacy of the stable. We miss Christmas with all its connotations of tenderness, the sweetness of the Christ Child, the intimacy of the stable. But just as the Child Jesus grows up and launches himself into public activity, with all its demands, so must we. Life cannot be a perpetual Christmas. It is time to get to work.
Homily on the readings of the Baptism of the Lord (B)
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaA short one-minute reflection for these Sunday readings.
