The Liturgy
All four of the holy Gospels have accounts of the Baptism of the Lord. Holy Mother Church celebrates this event in the life of Jesus as a liturgical feast. The Baptism of the Lord is of great importance in the economy of salvation and for our deeper theological understating of the Holy Spirit and the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. The Baptism of the Lord (this year Jan. 11) closes the Christmas liturgical season and opens up Ordinary Time beginning on the day after this liturgical feast.
In a way, the Baptism of the Lord, which is a clear manifestation that Jesus Christ is the beloved Son of the Father, is a type of Pentecost, as Sacred Scripture attests to: “After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened [for him], and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove [and] coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
The optional Collect for the feast highlights what the gift of the Holy Spirit does in our lives:
“O God, whose Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh, grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves.”
The feast not only recognizes that Jesus is the Son of the Father and comes with great power to heal and save, but it also stresses that those grafted onto Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism are in a process of being made like God, i.e., divinization (theosis in Greek, or deification). This is a fundamental concept that encompasses the spiritual goal of becoming more like God and achieving union with him through grace.
The words of Preface for the feast help to instruct us who Christ is and how we are to live to unite our energies with God’s grace:
“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. For in the waters of the Jordan you revealed with signs and wonders a new Baptism, so that through the voice that came down from heaven we might come to believe in your Word dwelling among us, and by the Spirit’s descending in the likeness of a dove we might know that Christ your Servant has been anointed with the oil of gladness and sent to bring the good news to the poor.”
We are reminded that at our own Baptism we were anointed with the oil of sacred chrism and strengthened in our baptismal dignity with another anointing with sacred chrism at Confirmation. The gift of the Holy Spirit given to Christians animates our reception of the Gospel if we remain in communion with God. Perhaps this “boost” of awareness of the Holy Spirit’s action in our lives may be for us a “mini-Pentecost” as the Christmas season gives way to the weeks before Lent and our great celebration of Christ’s victory over sin and death.
The epiphanies, manifestations and miracles of our blessed Lord help us to desire to grow in communion with him now so that we might know how to live forever with the Blessed Trinity in Heaven. We trust that God will send his blessings (grace) to help us grow in holiness. We have great confidence in what God is doing in our lives and in the Church because he gave us his greatest blessing — Jesus Christ as our Lord, Savior, brother and friend.
Sacred Chrism is consecrated at the Chrism Mass each year by the archbishop. Those baptized and those confirmed are anointed with this sacred Chrism as part of the rites. The Prayer of Consecration of Chrism includes these words spoken by the archbishop, “Therefore we beseech you, Lord: Be pleased to sanctify with your blessing this oil in its richness, and to pour into it the strength of the Holy Spirit, with the powerful working of your Christ. From his holy name it has received the name of Chrism, and with it you have anointed your priests, prophets, kings, and martyrs. May you confirm the Chrism you have created as a sacred sign of perfect salvation and life for those to be made new in the spiritual waters of Baptism. May those formed into a temple of your majesty by the holiness infused through this anointing and by the cleansing of the stain of their first birth be made fragrant with the innocence of a life pleasing to you. May those anointed with royal, priestly, and prophetic dignity be clothed with the garment of an incorruptible gift in keeping with the Sacrament you have established.”
The 19th century hymn “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise,” poetically puts together the great revelations of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the strong desire we have as Christians to live like Christ in our world in preparation for eternal life:
“Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesu, Lord, to thee we raise; Manifested by the star to the sages from afar; Branch of royal David’s stem in thy birth at Bethlehem; anthems be to thee addressed, God in man made manifest.
“Manifest at Jordan’s stream, Prophet, Priest, and King supreme; and at Cana, wedding guest, in thy Godhead manifest; manifest in power divine, changing water into wine; anthems be to thee addressed, God in man made manifest.
“Manifest in making whole palsied limbs and fainting soul; manifest in valiant fight, quelling all the devil’s might; manifest in gracious will, ever bringing good from ill; anthems be to thee addressed, God in man made manifest.
“Sun and moon shall darkened be, stars shall fall, the heav’ns shall flee, Christ will then like lightning shine, all will see his glorious sign: All will then the trumpet hear; all will see the Judge appear. Thou by all wilt be confessed, God in man made manifest.
“Grant us grace to see thee, Lord, mirrored in thy holy Word;
“May we imitate thee now, and be pure, as pure art thou; that we like to thee may be at thy great Epiphany; and may praise thee, ever blest, God in man made manifest.”
May these weeks after Christmastide be for us a time of renewal as we realize our dignity and duties as baptized and confirmed Christians. May we see God manifest in our lives filled with fiery grace who is the Holy Spirit alive in each of us! Don’t wait to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit until 50 days after Easter!
