I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I anoint you with the oil of Salvation as Christ was anointed priest prophet and king, so may you always live. These powerful words of life uniting us forever in the Trinitarian love, beyond all measure, are the linchpin of faith—foundational to our being. Although not always consciously, a major quest of our faith journey is seeking to understand what baptism by water, the Oil of Salvation, and into the Holy Spirit means for us. For we know that we can fail to live sinless.
However, Baptism reminds us that we are bound to the life of the Trinity by extendi3
.ng life-giving forgiveness—the same that we receive from the Lord. Forgiveness is such a key to life; it breaks the darkness and brings in light and joy. That is what Isaiah is telling us when he describes the coming of the Messiah in our first reading for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
“I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.” (Is 42:6-7)
God wants us out of those dark dungeons of harboring—he tells us forgiveness is his light in our baptism; it is the hallmark of the mission of the teachings and healings of Jesus’ ministry. To witness the importance of remission of sin Jesus empowered people through the forgiveness of sin to begin his mission. As we hear in the gospel of Luke for this Sunday—it was by baptism–just like us:
“After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying…” (Lk 3:21)
But why was Jesus baptized, we know that he was not sinful? Jesus allowed John to push him under the water of the river as a sign of submission and witness to God. He also takes on our sins to prove to us that we are worthy of him.
Yet how many of us truly believe we are worthy of Jesus? Because we continue to sin and continue to rely on Him it is nearly impossible to believe we are worthy. However, I believe that is the point. If we pause every day and reflect on what Jesus Christ has and is doing for us we understand that He IS declaring how loved we are and worthy of such a sacrifice!
We can’t love unless we feel love and we can’t feel love unless we love. How’s that for a circle of life! Our mission becomes striving to be less unworthy of His love and to love like Him, which leads to peace/joy in our lives.
The meaning of OUR baptism into Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is based on reconciling and the same submission to the Spirit of God as Jesus did. We do so by going into the depth of our humanity and finding the goodness that is there within each one of us. It is God’s grace at work in our goodness as we extend forgiveness and accept forgiveness. We live in the goodness that God intended; Guilt, shame, and harboring resentment disappear by accepting His love in us. Such love awaits us in the Sacrament of Reconciling forgiveness. When is the last time you experienced such grace? It is a re-entry into healing through His love and becoming less unworthy of that love. AND it feels wonderful, refreshing, and evokes hope as we encounter Him.
There is another dynamic to our Baptism into the Divine Life of the Lord that He often teaches, and not readily lived by us. We are baptized into a sacred heritage of a community to care for one another in addition to our biological family. For we look beyond our personal needs and to those that build our faith family in unity and love. That is our mission as a sacred parish in the Lord named in honor of our patroness Saint Helena. Our mission is somehow magnified in this sacred jubilee of celebrating 150 years of a legacy in Christ. Our patroness sought to find the symbol of Jesus Christ’s immense sacrifice, the Cross of the Crucifixion. With such a gift to the world, the cross will be always and forever recognized and revered. The Cross of Christ provides us with hope through His great love and forgiveness of us. There are so many ways to show that love in daily life, how we respect all children of God, treat our planet and natural resources, learn to care for our elderly, our children, the respect for all life—from conception to natural death.
Isn’t Mass a journey of forgiveness and healing—into the light of Christ? It begins with the communal penitential rite where we ask the Lord to have mercy; it includes the faith family unifier, the Lord’s Prayer to remind us of how we are to forgive others. Just before the Lord heals us with the gift of His Real Presence, in Eucharist, we offer the Sign of Peace to one another to show we are reconciled and one in Him. And we are then sent out to live in that oneness so God will declare about us—you are my beloved children with whom I am well pleased live in my forgiving love.
Blessed Mercy, Fr. Gordon