The Entire Thought

Baptism of the Lord

Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism is short, but packed with biblical allusions that all point to Jesus as God’s decisive revelation in human history. Jesus’ baptism invokes creation, when out of the shapeless void of inchoate, infinite potential comes a world. The heavens, which have remained sealed shut by human
estrangement from God, split open to reveal the Spirit descending in the form of a dove, like the dove that
returns to Noah’s ark after the flood to announce hope. After a long silence and no prophet in the land, a new prophet has arisen. God’s word is spoken. God’s graciousness hovers over the world, over Jesus, the firstborn, a new beginning for all of us.

The church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord at the beginning of the calendar year as part of the Christmas season. Baptism is how we are taken up into the mystery of the Incarnation. God is in the world in Christ, and by baptism we have been incorporated into the body of Christ. His story and his journey now define us. His paschal mystery of surrender and suffering, glory and eternal life are now our path and our destiny.

The challenge for both liturgy and for our personal lives outside of church is to somehow bring the astonishing implications of who we are and what God has called us to be and do into our daily experience. The wonder of our baptism needs to pervade our very consciousness, from our first waking moment to our final sigh before sleep, and even in our dreams.

Do we know who we are in Christ? Do we feel the assurance that flows into us continually from God’s voice calling us into existence, sustaining us in love? That voice says to us, “You are my beloved son.” “You are my beloved daughter.” It is not a distant voice, but as intimate to us as our own breath and heartbeat. It flows within our consciousness like a lover’s conversation. God dwells in us, filling us with light. Do we let this light guide us in our problem-solving and coping, our relationships, even our frustrations and conflicts?

If we are what the Gospel tells us we are, God’s own children, what can threaten us or prevent us from standing with Jesus in every situation, saying what he would say, doing what he would do? Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, Christ is present through us, active in us because we are part of his body in the world.

A baptized life develops day by day and in stages, like all natural development. We gradually come to maturity through experience and in relationship. The church offers us the rich sacramental context that
supports us in a living web of nourishment, forgiveness, healing and love. Every day, in every way, up or down, in sorrow or joy, privation or abundance, to the day we take our last breath, God is part of us because we are part of God. Baptism guarantees this.

Baptism calls us today to be ready to follow Jesus through the rest of the year. As the church guides us through the seasons of Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Time, we will grow with Christ and become more like him as his words inhabit our thoughts and his love takes hold in our hearts. If this seems like an ideal life, it is, but because God had called us into Christ, it is our real life, our becoming now who we will be for all eternity.


Patrick Marrin
Celebration, January 11, 2009

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