Jesus, too, was baptized. Then, whilehe was praying, the heavens opened: the HolySpirit came down upon him in the bodily
formof a dove, and a voice from heaven was heard,“You are my Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Reflection:
Fulton J. Sheen (Life ofFulton J. Sheen (Life ofChrist) observed
that a personreceived baptism to be freed fromthe stain of sin;
but Jesus enteredthe waters of Jordan to be stainedby our sins.
How great an act ofhumility and self-emptying! In thiskenotic act,
Jesus is not alone—theentire Trinity is present, as is evidentin
the Baptism scene. Isn’t it alsointeresting that with the Baptism,
the extraordinary liturgical seasonof Christmas ends and the
“ordinarytime” begins? With the Baptism, Godthe Almighty enters
the waters ofsinful human condition, becomeslike one of us, and
lives the sweaty,dusty, boring ordinary life of ahuman being. Thus
appeared theGrace of God – as Paul reminds Titus– walking amidst
us as an ordinaryhuman, so that we could becomelike him, heirs to
his extraordinarypatrimony.
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