It has been two weeks since we celebrated Christmas day, commemorating the birth of our Savior. Today, our Christmas season officially comes to an end with the celebration of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the waters of the Jordan River. Our Christmas season has included different celebrations that has made Christ manifest in different ways in the world. We celebrated the Holy Family the first Sunday after Christmas. Then, we celebrated Mary, the Mother of God, as the Blessed Virgin pointed us to her Son and helped us understand his identity as fully human and fully divine. Last week, we celebrated the visit of the Magi to the Baby Jesus, as Gentiles from the East recognized the salvation that the light of Christ was bringing to all. Today, as we focus on the Baptism of Jesus, as he begins his public ministry and his proclamation of God’s kingdom. We have been blessed here at St Jude as having had a lot of different baptisms here in our parish recently. Baptisms are always such a joyful occasion for our families and for our community of faith. In the rite of baptism, the parents of the child being baptized are told that they are to be the first of teachers and the best of teachers to their child in our faith. Jesus had his family who taught him in the ways of the faith as he was growing up, just as most of us had parents, godparents, and other family members present us for baptism as infants and who formed us and educated us in the faith. Yet, we also had others outside of our extended family who prepared us in the faith, who were examples and inspirations for us. It would be wonderful for us to think of all those who had an impact on our lives of faith, to reflect upon the impact they had on us, and perhaps thank them and show appreciation to them for the way they have impacted us on our journey of faith.
For the next weeks, we will be journeying through Ordinary Time until we start the holy season of Lent with Ash Wednesday on March 2. Blessings to all of you - have a good week. Father Lincoln.
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