Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
(Sunday 8th January 2017)
The gift or seed of faith is something we must all actively nurture – (Matthew 3:13-17)
You are my Son, the beloved; my favour rests on you. We celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, which we can view as a reflection of the baptism we have received. In baptism we are reminded of the love God has for us, we should hear it out of His own mouth. As a priest in a parish, I have naturally over the years developed a natural affection for my people. Yet, if you could multiply that affection, you might come closer to the love a parent has for their own child. Then, if you could somehow multiply the love of a parent, you might come closer to the infinite love God has for us, which He expresses at our own baptism. Central to our baptism therefore is; the unfailing love which Christ assures us of.
In today’s Gospel, God looks once again on us, and wants to remind us of this unbounding love He bestows on His people, an action not just of the past, but an action which continues. We are probably all too familiar with the baptism of Christ, how John the Baptist naturally doesn’t want to baptise Jesus, yet in his obedience he does baptize Jesus. As this baptism takes place, you can imagine God the Father looking at the life of Christ; His temptations in the desert with His obedience, His whole public life with His obedience, His passing and death with His complete obedience. Then we hear the voice of God the Father; “This is my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on Him”. Aren’t those same words ours first on the day of our baptism, and confirmed again for us as we renew our baptismal promises; we are truly the beloved children of the Father.
The beauty is as God the Father looks on our lives He sees us imperfect, yet He still chooses to pour His love upon us sinners. A good bishop once explained it much better; he said every time a child is born a crown is made for them in heaven, at baptism the parents express their desire to be sure their child receives that crown. You could say this crown is to be immersed into the heart of Christ, which is similar to a journey where we move forward sometimes and at other times we move away from our goal. In 2011, at the baptism of several infants, Pope Benedict put this better; “While they become part of the People of God, today a journey begins for these children which must be a journey of holiness and of conformation to Jesus, a reality that is placed within them like the seed of a splendid tree whose growth must be nurtured.” The gift or seed of faith is something we must all actively nurture, we cannot sit idly by and hope it will grow.
Fr. Seán Crowley