Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Mary’s of the Lake:

 
Every year one week after the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the Church celibates
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. While the Baptism of the Lord brings the Christmas Season to an end, the Church also begins the Ordinary Time of the Liturgical Year.

In those days it happened that people flocked to John the Baptist for Baptism. Jesus also came to be baptized by His cousin John in the River Jordan. We may wonder why Jesus requested St. John to baptize him. Jesus did not have any sins to repent of and the baptism offered by John was for repentance of sins (Luke 3:3). When sinners went to John at the Jordan for Baptism, they acknowledged their sinfulness. Their baptism symbolized a change of heart --leaving sins behind. Jesus, we believe, became like us humans in all things, but sins. That explains why St. John objected to Jesus’ request , ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?’ (Matt 3:14). Jesus’ answer was:  ‘Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ (Matt 3:15). How can we understand ‘To fulfill all righteousness’?  Jesus, of course, was not lacking in righteousness and was already righteous. So how could his baptism fulfill all righteousness? 

What our Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in his Book entitled ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’(cf. pp. 17-23) may greatly help explain Jesus’ statement. Basically, our pope’s explanation is: Jesus was sinless, and did not have any sins of his own to take down into the Jordan. However, looking at the event ‘in light of the Cross and Resurrection, the Christian people realized what happened: Jesus loaded the burden of all humankind's guilt upon his shoulders, he bore it down into the depths of the Jordan.’ Naturally no one at the time would understand this; but they would realize this later when they understood that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins. So Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan and his dying on the cross go together; he did both for our sins. He took our sins on his shoulders as he went down into the Jordan and as he died on the cross. Along this line, isn’t it meaningful when St. John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching him in the river Jordan he proclaimed, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’

After His Baptism, the Scripture tells us: Jesus hurried into the wilderness to pray, to finalize his plans and to be tested by the forces of evil. Then he began his three years of public ministry --of teaching, preaching, healing, sharing God’s love & mercy, dying for the liberation of all humanity, and rising from the dead to bring joy and hope to all. 

Fr. Philip