DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Isaiah 55, 1-11; 1 John 5, 1-9; Mark 1,7-11: Baptism of the Lord, Year B, January 10, 2021)
The Christmas season ends with the feast of the Lord’s baptism. Today we remember this significant event, which also makes us think of our baptism. Jesus wanted to receive the baptism preached and administered by John the Baptist. It was a baptism of repentance, which expressed the desire to be cleansed from sins.
The first reading speaks to us of the dispositions that God requires of man. The Prophet Isaiah says: Seek the Lord while he lets himself be found; call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked abandon his way and the unjust man his thoughts; return to the Lord who will have mercy on you and our God who generously forgives. John’s baptism was to be received with these provisions. Jesus did not need this baptism. However, he was aware that, in order to fulfil his mission, he had to be baptised by John the Baptist, that is, he had to put himself among sinners and in a certain sense make common cause with them and show solidarity. All these make us understand the mission of Jesus: he came, not only to be among us, and console us with his presence, but more importantly, to be among us sinners, share our fate and transform it. It is thanks to this his solidarity that we can be said to be on the way to salvation. The Baptist is aware of the only provisional and imperfect aspect of his baptism; in fact, he says to those who come to him: After me comes one who is stronger than me [...]. I baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the one who bestows the Holy Spirit through his baptism. Therefore, after he is baptised, the Holy Spirit is manifested. The Gospel tells us that Jesus, coming out of the water, saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. Jesus’ baptism is the prefiguration of his mystery of death and resurrection. In baptism, as was done at that time, one immersed oneself in the water and then emerged from it. Jesus immersed himself in the water of passion, the water that causes death, and then emerged from it, because this act of his most generous love was the way of salvation for all men.
In the second reading, John declares that Jesus came not with water only, but with water and blood. Jesus did not come only to receive the Baptist's water of baptism, but to receive another baptism, as he himself tells us in the Gospel: There is a baptism that I must receive; and how distressed I am, until it is accomplished! (Luke 1250). This baptism is the baptism of his passion, in which he sheds his blood. The water of our baptism is, closely, connected with the blood of Jesus. Our baptism, in fact, expresses purification by means of water: purification which was obtained for us not by water, but by the blood that Jesus shed for us. Passion made Jesus capable of bestowing the Holy Spirit to men. In the baptismal episode, coming out of the water, he saw the Holy Spirit descend on him; in the passion he obtained the Holy Spirit, to communicate it to all of us. It is the Spirit who purifies, giving us the remission of sins, and the Spirit who sanctifies, uniting us with God. The Holy Spirit bears witness. It manifests itself in the baptism of Jesus, to show us that the baptism done in the name of Jesus is the means by which men obtain the Spirit that cleanses from sins and the Spirit that sanctifies. On Calvary, blood and water came out of Jesus' pierced side. The blood reveals the gift he made of his life; water reveals the purifying efficacy of his death, and is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. 
Thanks to the baptism we have received and which manifests our faith in Jesus, we have become children of God. In the episode of baptism, Jesus was proclaimed the beloved Son of God, as the Gospel tells us: And a voice from heaven was heard: You are my beloved Son, in you I am pleased. In our baptism we receive adoption as children, as John reminds us: Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the one who generated, also loves the one who was generated by him. Our baptism is the source of love for all the children of God. John affirms: By this we know that we are the children of God: if we love God and keep his commandments. There is a very close relationship between love for God and love for the children of God, that is, for our neighbour. Upon receiving John's baptism, Jesus expressed his complete docility towards the Father and his generous solidarity with sinners. Thus, he manifested the intimate union of the two dimensions of love. We are also, in our faith in Jesus, called to live these two dimensions of love: through baptism we are introduced into an intimate relationship with God and, on the other hand, we are inserted in the community of God's children, in the Church. John tells us: Everything that is born of God conquers the world; and this is the victory that defeated the world: our faith. If we believe in Jesus, who came with water and blood and who communicates the Holy Spirit to us, we overcome the world, that is, we overcome all the evil tendencies that oppose love, all inclinations to selfishness, pride and dishonesty, and live fully in the splendid beauty of love that comes from God. Our baptism is intimately linked to the life of divine charity, which is communicated to us through Jesus’ gesture of love of immersing himself in the water of the Jordan, with which he has shown us that he wants to save all sinners. John I. Okoye
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