Dear brothers and sisters,

Well, I hope everyone had a very happy New Year’s celebration. In our Gospel this week we read of the Baptism of our Lord according to Luke. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is baptized by Saint John the Baptist. Have you ever wondered why He chose to be baptized since He was the Son of God; true God and true man? There are several reasons why Jesus consented to a baptism that, as John the Baptist noted, He did not need: Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for sinners, in order to “fulfill all righteousness”. Jesus’ gesture is a manifestation of His self‐emptying. The Spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation, and the Father revealed Jesus as His “beloved Son”. (CCC1224) Similarly, He was circumcised according to the precepts of the Mosaic Law, even though circumcision symbolized a cutting off of sin, which Jesus did not have.

In His baptism, Christ sacramentally sanctifies the waters for us, prefiguring the baptism He was to later inaugurate. As St. Ambrose of Milan teaches, “The Lord was baptized, not to be cleansed himself but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of baptism. Whoever comes, therefore, to the washing of Christ lays aside his sins.” (Commentary on Luke 2:83, A.D. 389) In addition, Christ’s Baptism reveals that whenever someone is baptized, the spirit of Christ is imparted.

Peace,

Fr. Mike