The Baptism of the Lord – Year B
The English word baptize evolved from the Greek word baptizein meaning to dip, immerse, wash or to plunge under (usually in water). The event of the baptism of Jesus by John is not the ecclesiastical Sacrament of Baptism as Catholics and other mainline Christian believers have come to understand it in which one is initiated into the committed Christian Gospel fellowship and also forgiven of past sins. The Church’s Sacraments, of which Baptism is the first to be experienced, are defined as “outward signs” of an encounter with Christ in the Church in which the participants experience the very Grace of God. Baptism is a sign of change, evolution, repentance, growth, reform, or other life-indicating activity. It is in that sign value that Jesus’ baptism resembles ours. Our Baptism is a sign of our initiation into Church membership, and of commitment to a life founded on Gospel compassion, truth, justice, and peace. Jesus’ baptism was a sign of the beginning of his public ministry and of his special commission and anointing by God’s Holy Spirit. From the Christian perspective, today’s Isaiah reading describes a character whom commentators call the Suffering Servant. Among the servant’s ministerial tasks was that of giving witness to God’s desire for justice in an unjust world. The servant was then punished for delivering God’s message by an ungrateful people. This witness to justice was not merely a nice idea; it was God’s determined Will. From the Divine perspective it was a most important necessity. In the Christian era, one mission of Jesus in his ministry was that he become the ultimate prophet, Gospel teacher, and sacrificial victim in terms of Jewish temple theology. He performed signs and wonders formerly attributed to the ancient prophets as spiritual “light for the nations.” The miraculous healing of the blind and release of prisoners to which the Isaiah text alludes conjure up an idealized world of absolute justice, a world in which everyone would have sufficient insight to be free from the diseases of ignorance and evil. It would be a world of healthy and responsible liberty for all in which everyone would perceive truthfully, live thankfully, and practice justice graciously. This was an imaginary harkening back to the mythical Garden of Eden, intended to inspire and uplift by noble idealism. The qualities we can associate with a perfect Eden are impossible to achieve fully, but they can be very motivational and help define noble goals. Such values are what really ought to attract us in the Gospel. Jesus’ baptism by John in Mark’s Gospel is succinct and brief. It culminates in the Divine Voice of approval which inaugurates Jesus’ public commission by God. He will go forth from this baptism to his desert temptation, after which he will begin his public ministry. Hence, the Gospel Message, i.e., that God’s kingdom is near for all, culminating in a new covenant of love and truth offered to the entire world. The Sunday lectionary cycle for the year 2012 is the Mark Cycle (aka Year B). Most of the Gospel passages used in Ordinary Time until Advent will be from the Gospel According to Mark. With the vignettes of the infancy and childhood of Jesus we’ve heard in the Christmas and Epiphany seasons, the Church’s liturgical calendar arrives today at the beginning of the first and shorter liturgical season called Ordinary Time. It is interrupted by the Lent-Triduum-Easter seasons and will resume after Pentecost. With the Baptism of the Lord, we consider how Jesus inaugurated his ministry, engaged and formed his disciples, and expected them to live as responsible adult believers. In today’s Church we must hear, reflect, pray, and live as enthusiastic, mature, adult followers of the Gospel of Christ, too. We are not children; we ought not be childish. Living a mature, adult faith in the Gospel is both a challenging and an engaging enterprise! As when the Feast of the Holy Family falls on the Friday after Christmas, so, too, when the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord falls on a Monday, the lectionary directive is that only one reading precedes the proclamation of the Gospel lesson. However, since this festival begins the Season of Ordinary Time 1, it is a significant occasion. The dignity of announcing the inauguration of Jesus’ public commission and ministry is certainly worthy of a full complement of scripture lessons. All three readings certainly may be used, and the level of liturgical festivity really calls for as much “full, conscious, and active participation” as possible. Much music and well prepared homily are appropriate and even expected today. Festival days ought to be observed precisely as festivals in the Church’s liturgical setting. Today’s is the beginning of the Church’s recollection of Jesus’ adult life and ministry. Let us observe and notice and reflect fully!