 |
| The Baptism of Christ by Tintoretto |
Today is the Feast of the
Baptism of the Lord, and so on the last day of the Christmas Season we
celebrate the first event in the Public ministry of Jesus. All four Gospels tell of John’s baptism of
Jesus, but all present a slightly different view. Mark’s description (which we hear in today’s
Mass) is the sparest description; in Luke, the Baptist describes Jesus as the
judge at the end of time, separating the wheat from the chaff; John’s Gospel
recounts John the Baptist hailing Jesus as the Lamb of God.
They all tell of John’s recognition of himself as a merely the
forerunner to Jesus, to whom he is inferior, but only Matthew records his
reluctance to baptize the Lord:
Then Jesus
came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I
need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for
thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. (Matthew
3:13-15)
John knows that Jesus, being sinless, requires no Baptism, but Jesus
seeks it out in order to show his commitment to being one of us. In this account we see Jesus acting out what
St. Paul tells the Phillipians:
. . . though
he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men. (Phillipians 2:6-7)
In all the Gospels, we see the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus and
the voice of the Father proclaim him to be the beloved Son in whom the Father
is well pleased. And so Christ’s Public
Ministry begins with an image of all three Persons of the Trinity working
together, and an image of Grace in action.
This scene sums up the meaning of the Nativity we have just celebrated,
and tells us something about the agenda for the ministry that is begun. And in Matthew’s Gospel, we are reminded that
it is all Grace, a word for which the Latin root gratia means not just favor,
but favor freely bestowed (hence related English words “gratuity” and “gratis”); Grace is completely, absolutely, free.
God needs nothing, nothing is necessary for Him: He does it all for us, He
gives us a share in His own life, as a completely unnecessary gift. Because He loves us.
Well, then, what about
the past week at Principium et Finis? Here’s
what we have been up to:
Monday – We close out the
Twelve Days of Christmas with one of the great Christmas songs, song by a truly
great singer: “12th Day of Christmas – Adeste Fideles (Luciano
Pavarotti)" [here]
Tuesday – on the Feast of
Epiphany we see the Magi and little reminder (in Psalm 117) that the New
Testament, as St. Augustine tells us, is concealed in the Old: “Praise the LORD,
all nations!” [here]
Wednesday – Are we pro-lifers
really just religious fanatics imposing our views on everyone else? “Abortion
Myth #15” [here]
Thursday – A few thoughts
on the problem of spiritual apathy, sparked by an unexpected book: “Evangelizing the Lukewarm?” [here]
Saturday – In which I
make a plea for thinking good and hard before throwing out the experience of
the last fifteen or so centuries: [here]
. . . and A SONG for today's Feast:
No comments:
Post a Comment