Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus.
Do you know what happens when a person is baptized? (1) All of us are born with original sin. In baptism that sin is removed, erased, disappears; and with it all other sins. (2) Baptism makes us adopted children of God. (3) We become members of a family which we call the Church. Now why do you think Jesus had to be baptized? (1) He has no sin (2) He is already the Son of God (3) He is the head of the Church.
Once there was a drunk who was walking home. Then he fell into a big and deep hole. So he shouts for help. Finally another man hears him. But instead of helping him up, this man jumps into the hole. And lo and behold, both are there together stuck in the hole. The drunk person was confused, and asked: Are you stupid. I was shouting up there for help. Instead of getting help for me, you jump down here where you can do nothing to help me. You must be crazy!
The man answered: No, I’m not crazy. Can’t you see by jumping down here two of us can now shout for help louder than before.
It seems a rather foolish story but remember: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:25). Could you imagine what Christmas season was all about. When man after losing his privileges of paradise because of the fall and of his sin realizes his foolishness and implores God for help, God in his infinite mercy could have just said: OK I forgive you, now here’s a ladder and climb up here to paradise again. A single word from Him could have transported all of us up there in a blink of an eye like in Star Trek movies. So little effort on the part of God and such a huge magic the world has ever known if he brings us up from this miserable world in a flick of his finger. But God would have none of that.
He chose the more difficult way like that guy in our story who called just have gotten a rope and brought the drunk up. God chose to have his only beloved Son come down and be with us. "And the word was made flesh and now dwells together with us". Jesus Christ in his most comfortable throne chose to jump from above to be with us in this hole where we need to be saved. And when this Jesus who is Almighty God comes to our hole, to our frustration, he does not fly us into heaven... instead he tells us: Now, both of us can now shout louder. Both of us can now pray together. Now both of us can now storm heaven with our shouts of joy and praise and with our cries of sorrow and repentance. Jesus is now one with us in calling to our Beloved Father.
And when the Father opens up the heavens like in the Gospel of today, He too will tell us: “You are my beloved child also of whom I am well pleased.” This my dear friends is why Jesus chose to be baptized, not because he needed it, but because in his baptism we are joined with Him through our own baptism.
But that is not all, when Jesus immersed himself in the baptismal waters of Jordan, he sanctified the water thereby sanctifying all the water of the world that shall be used to baptise from that time onwards – so that when it was our turn to be baptized, we shared in Christ’s sanctifying action and sanctifying graces. This is shown to us during that Easter night when you see the priest putting the big Easter Candle into the water to be used for baptism three times. And this symbolizes Jesus sanctifying the water which in turn sanctifies the one to be baptized making that person one in Christ. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.…(Eph. 4:4)
When you see that big baptismal candle with a small flickering flame, you would think that its light would not last, but then you look at the candle’s trunk, and you know it will outlive the dark.
A revenant is a visible ghost that was believed to return from the grave to show themselves to their relatives for a specific purpose. There is this movie “The Revenant” which featured this experienced frontiersman and fur trapper named Hugh Glass (Leonardo di Caprio). He was a whiteman who lived and settled among the Pawnee Indians. There he married and had a child. But then certain tragedies would make him outlive them. In that film there were many times when Leonardo di Caprio was almost at the brink of death. He would be attacked by a bear, he would be buried alive, he would fall with his horse in a deep ravine. In those times he would be lying on the ground about to die, he would meet the revenant or ghost of his wife, or his child and they would remind him of what he himself used to tell them when they were alive and themselves at the brink of death…. “As long as you are still breathe, you fight. Remember who you are. I’m right here. When there is a storm, and you are standing in front of a tree, if you look at its branches, you swear it will fall. But if you watch the trunk, you will see its stability.”
Dear friends, let us not forget who we are... We might seem frail or weak amidst the storms of life. But as long as the Holy Spirit breathes in each of us we will fight. We are like that tree in front of a storm, our branches and leaves may fall, but we will not because our stability is now rooted in Jesus. Through our baptism God forever reminds us: “This is my beloved child whom I am well pleased.” And I will not let any harm come to this child. Even amidst the storm, I will not let this tree fall to the ground.