Baptism of the Lord

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

Baptism of the Lord

12th January 2025

By John Dalla Costa

Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 104 (103): 1-30; Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3: 15-22

We are in the time of beginnings and today’s liturgy we gaze at the moment when Jesus, as an adult Jew, experiences the life-changing infusion that sets him on his mission to save all of humanity. The baptism of Jesus is referred to in each of the four Gospels. Luke’s telling is distinctive for several reasons. 

Unlike Mark and Matthew, Luke does not explicitly state that Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. The man we understand as pointing the way to the Messiah is not a protagonist in what happens. He is rather the sentinel for centuries of expectation who adds his witness to the cosmic turn in human history that occurs when baptism is of the Spirit rather than water. 

And unlike the other Gospels, the breaking open of the heavens and the descent of the Holy Spirit takes place not as a result of the waters of the Jordan, but in a moment when Jesus was at prayer. And unlike the other Gospels, the breaking open of the heavens and the descent of the Holy Spirit takes place not as a result of the waters of the Jordan, but in a moment when Jesus was at prayer. This detail of praying is of staggering importance. 

It roots the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in a moment of prayerful communion with the Father, and it reveals again the full humanity that Jesus shares with us, in that he sought through prayer to understand how to conform his life to the will of God. Uniquely, Jesus’ experience includes being identified by the Father and with the Holy Spirit as the Son. Luke is revealing the one God as Trinity, and that this theophany of love is now embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Saint Teresa of Avila insists that we must look with fervour and devotion at the humanity of Jesus. That the theophany occurred while Jesus was praying allows us to glimpse our similitude to him. We too turn to prayer. We too need it for context and consolation when discerning God’s will. We too, as Saint Teresa advises, work and listen in praying to be infused by the light, fire, truth and love of God. The evangelists do not describe it thus, but we could say that in his humanity Jesus had a mystical experience, and by his example of prayer he is showing that the mystical encounter with God is available to all who have been baptised in the Holy Spirit. 

The student and scholar of mysticism Evelyn Underhill described the mystical as an experiential knowledge of the divine, something which transcends intellect and does not fit into any of our categories of knowledge. Although ineffable, the mystical is ultimately also practical in that the person who has experienced this profound unity is compelled to enact that unity in their everyday life. Mystical experience is not an aberration outside of reality, but a revelation of reality’s true immersion in the ever-present, ever-unfolding love of God. 

Jesus being so baptised in the Holy Spirit does not hold on to the experience of theophany as his alone. Instead, through his ministry and by the baptism he would inaugurate, Jesus insists that the mystical is palpable as the reign of God among and within us. Whereas the other synoptic gospels have Jesus going into the desert immediately after his baptism, Luke follows this inbreaking and outpouring of the Trinity with a genealogy. 

History is broken. The time of God’s hiddenness is ended because, with Jesus, God is present and accessible to all for communion. As in today’s poem from Isaiah, Jesus would indeed be the comfort to God’s people. He redeems them. He heals and forgives. And, by his sacraments, Jesus opens for each of us the possibility to pray as he prayed, and to be lifted by Holy Communion into the sublime mystery of God’s love for us. The Body of Christ. Amen.