The Baptism of the Lord

This great Feast of the Church gives us the opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ baptism, and also on our own baptism.  These are possibly things we have never given much thought about.  We might ask, first of all, why Jesus was baptised.  The Jewish people had their own sort of baptism ceremony.  But Jesus was baptised at the age of about 30 and this was something new.  Our own baptism frees us from original sin, but Jesus was without sin.  His baptism was the launching of his mission and his moving forward in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ baptism is one of the most powerful Trinitarian moments in the whole Gospel, and in fact the whole Bible.  We have, of course, Jesus himself, we see the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove, and we hear the voice of God the Father affirming his Son.  The disciples were sent out to baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

At our baptism, we were baptised in the name of the three persons of the Trinity, we were set free from original sin, and we were commissioned to preach the Gospel in our words and in our actions.  This was a Sacrament of “initiation” and it opened the way to other Sacraments, Confession, Holy Communion and Confirmation in particular.

At mass today we are invited to give thanks for the gift of our own faith, for the gift of baptism and we reflect too on what we have made of the gift we have been given.  

God bless, Fr Kevin.