Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Cycle B

Is 42:1-4, 6-7
Acts 10:34-38
Year A: Mt 3:13-17
Year B: Mark 1: 7-11
Year C: Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22

Today we are presented with the mystery of Christ’s baptism and our own. Jesus is baptized in order to reveal himself as God’s only Son, and to reveal his mission of sharing that sonship with us sinners. The reality of his mission, and our status as baptized Christians, help us understand our commitment to a culture of Life.

To be a Christian is much more than to be a good person. It’s about becoming a new person, sharing a new kind of life – the life of God himself. The recently celebrated Feast of Christmas is not just about the birth of a child; it’s about the birth of a whole new humanity. In Adam, all die; in Christ, all come to life again. We are made sharers, by faith and baptism, in the Divine Nature, through the One who humbled himself to share our human nature. That’s what the Christmas season is all about.

Baptism gives us our identity as "the people of life". Baptized into Christ's victory over death, we are also sent to proclaim, celebrate, and serve that victory. Baptismal vows involve a rejection of Satan and his works. Chief among those works is death. Yet the Son of God has destroyed death, and that means that we who follow Him likewise are called to stand against it.

Abortion is a contradiction to baptism. Consider what the Church does in the celebration of baptism. The one to be baptized is brought into the congregation, and is welcomed by all who are present as a brother, a sister. Even if many in the congregation do not already know the person being baptized, they declare before God that they now accept this person as one of them. Baptism expresses God's unconditional welcome of His people, His call to them to share His life. Baptism expresses the hospitality of God's Church, and the responsibility incurred by the fact that God has entrusted us to the care of one another.