Time to step into the waters with Jesus

Homily for the Baptism of the Lord

Today, the Church concludes the Christmas season and begins ordinary time with the baptism of Jesus, moving from the mystery of the incarnation to the ministry of the disciple.

The word ‘baptism’ in its original Greek comes from a word that means immersion.   Other words are submerged.  Saturated.  Dunked.  In other words, today the Church celebrates the immersion of Jesus into this world.

Jesus was immersed in the world for you.  Through your baptism, you were immersed in the life of Jesus.  To live out your baptismal call, you must continue the work of Jesus. 

Immersed in the world, Jesus walked elbow to elbow with habitual sinners toward the muddy waters of the Jordan River:  tax collectors, prostitutes, and soldiers, even with some scribes and Pharisees. These broken people came to John to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.  Jesus waited in line with them to be baptized. 

Jesus had no sin, so one might ask, “Why did he seek baptism?” 

One of the Church fathers, Saint Maximus of Turin, answers the question this way:  “Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy. When the Savior is baptized, all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages.”

In other words, Jesus didn’t need the waters of baptism; the waters needed Jesus.  Through his immersion in this world, Jesus redeemed the world. 

Through our baptismal call, we need to immerse our lives in the life of Jesus and continue the work of Jesus.

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How do we immerse ourselves in the life of Christ?  One way is to follow in his footsteps.  Peter said in Acts, “He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil,  for God was with him.” 

Another way is to model our lives after Jesus.  The prophet Isaiah says to you, “You are my servant, my chosen one!  You shall bring forth justice to the nations.”  How shall this servant bring about justice? 

Isaiah says he shall bring forth justice by “not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.”  But gentle.  Inviting.  Caring.  Compassionate.  Not even “a bruised reed” will he break or “a smoldering wick” will he quench.

Jesus immersed himself into this world and showed us how to love.  He walked with the sinners into the Jordan.  He advocated for those living on the margins.  He shared table fellowship with the outcasts.  He did the unthinkable and washed the feet of his disciples.  He hung on the cross between two thieves.  After all this, he said, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  As I have immersed myself in this world to give life, so must you. 

Saint Teresa of Avila illustrates this with a beautiful poem:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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Jesus has placed you in a particular place in this world to be his body, his hands, his feet, and eyes. 

To be immersed in the life of Christ means yours are the hands of Jesus.  You might be a mother, whose hands lift up a child that has fallen down.  You might be a father, whose hands prays a blessing over his family.  Yours are feet of Jesus to walk to do good.  Wherever you go, whether it’s to the store or to the gym, you do good. 

Yours is the body of Christ, a body that gives honor and glory to God at work, at home, and at play.  Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks with compassion on the world. 

I might add to Saint Teresa’s poem:  Yours is the heart of Jesus.  Your baptismal call is to be so immersed in the life of Christ that your heartbeat and the heartbeat of Jesus beat together.  Your baptismal call is to spend time in silence and solitude, where you synchronize your heart with His.

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Let me finish with a quote from Saint Gregory, who also paints a picture of being immersed, baptized, into the life of Christ:  “Jesus wants you to become a living force for all humanity, lights shining in the world.  You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of him who is the light of heaven.  You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received – through not in its fullness – a ray of its splendor, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever.  Amen.”