
Friends, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is exceptionally important. All four Gospels talk about it, and John the Baptist is a kind of door we have to go through to understand Jesus properly. What was John the Baptist doing in the desert? Why did the Messiah, the Lord, go to him for a baptism of repentance? And why do we still spend time with this strange, puzzling, and even embarrassing event?
Watch Why Was Jesus Baptized? - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon here
GOSPEL
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
Luke 3:15–16, 21–22
Friends, this great feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a good time to reflect on the significance of the sacrament of Baptism. One of the earliest descriptions of Baptism in our tradition is vitae spiritualis ianua, which means “the door to the spiritual life.”
To grasp the full meaning of this is to understand something decisive about Christianity. For Christianity is not primarily about “becoming a good person” or “doing the right thing.” Let’s face it, anyone—pagan, Muslim, Jew, non-believer—can be any of those things.
To be a Christian is to be grafted onto Christ and hence drawn into the very dynamics of the inner life of God. We don’t speak simply of following or imitating Jesus. We speak of becoming a member of his Mystical Body.
Do you see why it is so important that we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”? For Baptism draws us into the relationship between the Father and the Son, which is to say, in the Holy Spirit. Baptism, therefore, is all about grace, our incorporation, through the power of God’s love, into God’s own life.