The feast of the Baptism of Jesus occurs at the end of the Christmas season before the Church begins the cycle of Ordinary time. The baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of his public ministry. From that day he began his mission of proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom of God. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit at his baptism to help him carry out his mission – the Gospel from St. Matthew tells us “As soon as Jesus was baptised he came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him”.
Today’s feast gives us an opportunity to reflect on our own baptism and on our mission in life. Although most of us were baptised as infants and were too young to remember, our baptism was an important occasion in our lives. Our parents and godparents committed to bringing us up in the love of God and the practice of the Catholic faith. We can give thanks for their witness and that of our wider parish community in helping us on our faith journey.
Through our baptism we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit dwells in us from that moment making us share in the divine life of God who loves us unconditionally and calls his children. As children of God we each have a share in the Church’s mission of evangelisation. Being missionary in our daily life means flourishing in the graces of our baptism, sharing God’s love and forgiveness with those we encounter and reaching out in compassion to the poor and needy.
“Thanks to Baptism, we are capable of forgiving and of loving even those who offend us and do evil to us. By our Baptism, we recognize in the least and in the poor the face of the Lord who visits us and makes himself close. Baptism helps us to recognize in the face of the needy, the suffering, and also of our neighbour, the face of Jesus. All this is possible thanks to the power of Baptism!”
(Pope Francis, January 8, 2014)
