This baptism event we celebrate today is not a baby-aged event. We jump over some thirty-years of growing in wisdom and age. We have celebrated the major events of Jesus' early life --- the beginnings of his life's journey. We can recall our own beginnings, our own stepping out onto our own journeys of life. It is a journey we have begun both with a baptism as well as a beginning we set out for ourselves at the beginning of each new year. Hopefully each you we can use these early days of January as an occasion to be grateful for our personal growth in wisdom and grace during the previous year.
The first reading today, again a wonderful Isaiah perception of God's special gift to us in a servant who comes to bring freedom and awareness of God's call to us. The messiah will be graced with God's favor, his blessings. He will come to see his role in bringing other nations the "light" of God --- a light that brings freedom, awareness of God's love for all humankind. This servant Jesus will be the first sign of God's incarnate love for all.
In the river Jesus and John meet. Jesus insists that John carry out the baptism as prescribed by Jewish law. This is the end of the beginnings in his life. He walks out of the waters into the new life of teaching, into the confirmation by the Holy Spirit of his new mission. God's blessings, his favor, are upon him.
As a Jesuit seminarian, along with my classmates, I was taught that we were "on mission." Never was there a day when we were not "on mission." We were always praying and studying to share "the light" of our personal sharing of the "light" of Jesus Christ in our lives. Today, for me, no longer a Jesuit but a diocesan priest, the light of being "on mission" continues. It is a light without a switch, without a rheostat! Always with my mind and heart is my own baptismal call to share the "light" of Christ.
Our personal journey, renewed each year during these days of beginning and new years resolutions, continues to open up for us a deeper awareness of our personal relationship with God. Let us use this day to recall Jesus' baptism, his walking out of the waters of the river of baptism onto the road of bringing God's light to others, to reaffirm our own baptismal rebirth.
Jesus went public in this baptism event. He became obedient to his true identity, the Father's will in his life. Let your baptism be a reminder to continue on your journey, your mission by bringing God's light to others, especially to your own family by making real the awareness of God's favor bestowed upon you in the waters of your baptism.
