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Live
Letters Baptism of the
Lord I John 5:1-9 |
The Catholic Telegraph
January 7, 2000The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a kind of overlap celebration. We again see John the Baptist, whom we last met on the Third Sunday of Advent. We mark the closure of Jesus’ hidden life that began at Christmas, and continue the manifestation theme of Epiphany. And we begin Ordinary Time, that part of the Church’s year in which the gospels present to us the public life and preaching of Jesus.
When Jesus received baptism from John it was a sign of His association of Himself with sinful humanity, but also the sign of the beginning of His public participation in the religious life of His time. It marked the official, public beginning of His ministry of salvation. The importance of the occasion was marked by the Spirit descending upon Him in the form of a dove and by the voice from heaven that proclaimed that Jesus was God’s beloved Son.
The optional apostolic reading for year B is from the first letter of John, which we will be hearing from again six times on the Sundays after Easter. It’s a somewhat rambling and repetitious letter, and the selection for today is a difficult passage. A propos of passages like this, St. Augustine says that if they "were not cloaked in mystery, they would never be searched in earnest. And if they weren’t searched in earnest, they would not be opened up with such pleasure." (Sermon 8.18) Let’s now search in earnest.
This passage seems to have been chosen for today because it alludes to the baptism of Jesus. Its author presumes that his readers are familiar with the gospel of John.
The first part of the reading is about faith and love. We are made children of God through faith in Jesus. If we love our Father, we should also love the children who are like Him. This love, both of the Father and of the Father’s children, is marked by keeping the commandments. These commandments are not a burden, but a means of our overcoming the sinfulness of the world even as Jesus overcame the sinfulness of the world. We are victorious because He was victorious.
But how do we know He was victorious? Because God has testified to His victory and that’s a testimony we ought to accept. And how did God testify to the success of Jesus’ mission? For one thing, there was the witness of the Spirit who proclaimed Jesus’ sonship at His baptism. But there was more to Jesus’ mission than the public announcement of it when He was baptized by John. Jesus also carried out His mission in His saving death for us, a death whose meaning was expressed when Jesus "delivered over the Spirit" to the world (cf. Jn. 19.30), and when, together with His sacrificial blood, the living water that He had promised (cf. Jn. 7.38) came forth from His side (cf. Jn. 19.34). Here, then, are three witnesses to the authenticity of Jesus’ mission from the Father: the Spirit, the living water, and the self-sacrificial blood. These witnesses certify and validate the work of Jesus in conquering sin. They are witnesses that call for our response of faith, a faith that makes us children of the Father.
The earthly ministry of Jesus stretched from His baptism by John until His human death, in both of which God’s Spirit participated. In His death, Jesus "delivered over the Spirit" to those who would believe in Him. This gift of the Spirit that arose out of the death of Jesus is still conferred on believers of today "through water and blood," that is, through the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. The saving mission of Jesus continues and the sign of its continuation is the ongoing gift of the Spirit in His sacramental ministry of today. Spirit, water, and blood still give witness to God’s will to make us His children, called to love one another in Him.
One of the lessons inherent in the Church’s observance of "Ordinary Time," which begins with the celebration of Jesus’ baptism, is that the ministry of Jesus is still going on. As we listen to the gospel readings from Mark (with some supplementary passages from John) during this year B, we need to be aware that it is not just an account of past happenings that is presented. It is Jesus addressing Himself to us, inviting our response of faith as He invited the response of the people of His time. Our live letter today, which serves as a commentary on the gospel reading, invites us to a renewed appreciation of that ministry of Jesus that began with the baptism of John and ended on the cross. The Spirit that testified to the sonship of Jesus is the Spirit that is offered to us to enable us to give continued testimony in our lives to Jesus and to His ongoing work of salvation. Jesus’ gift of life in baptism and His gift of Himself in the Eucharist are the means by which Jesus extends His mission to us and enables us in turn to carry it on as His brothers and sisters in our heavenly Father. This celebration of the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry is not just about Jesus. It’s about us, too.
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Conversation Questions:
How do I carry on the mission of Jesus?
How are Baptism and Eucharist signs of Jesus’ victory over the sinfulness of the world?
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