Today’s Feast marks the conclusion of the Christmas Season and the beginning of Ordinary Time. It’s a feast of transition from Jesus’ hidden life to that of His public ministry.
It also echoes the theme of the Epiphany in that the Baptism of the Lord is another manifestation announcing Jesus’ divinity to all of His first followers and to the disciples of John the Baptist.
As we know Jesus did not need the baptism of John. John’s baptism was a call to and a sign of interior repentance. Jesus had no need to repent.
Jesus accepted being baptized by John “to fulfill all righteousness” that is, to make the waters of baptism holy. By entering into the waters, Jesus sanctified the water and poured forth His grace making all water the future source of salvation.
Saint Maximus of Turin states “Perhaps someone will say: ‘He who is holy, why did he wish to be baptized?’ Pay attention therefore! Christ is baptized, not that he may be sanctified in the waters, but that he himself may sanctify the waters, and by his own purification may purify those streams which he touches.”
St. Maximus of Turi added: “For the consecration of Christ is the greater consecration of another element. For when the Savior is washed, then already for our baptism all water is cleansed and the fount purified, that the grace of the laver may be administered to the peoples that come after. Christ therefore takes the lead in baptism, so that Christian peoples may follow after him with confidence.”
By so doing he confirmed John’s sacred role of preparing the way for Jesus and for a new era of grace. Hence, Jesus’s baptism was an epiphany. It was a moment of manifestation.
Saint Proclus has this to say: “At Christmas we saw a weak baby, giving proof of our weakness. In today’s feast, we see a perfect man, hinting at the perfect Son who proceeds from the all-perfect Father. At Christmas the King puts on the royal robe of his body; at Epiphany the very source enfolds, and, as it were, clothes the river. Come then and see new and astounding miracles: the Sun of righteousness washing in the Jordan, fire immersed in water, God sanctified by the ministry of man.”
May our ministry be sanctified by the Lord who calls us to follow him daily.
Have a blessed week.
