Each year, it strikes me more and more how our celebration of Christmas in the Church contrasts to our secular world’s recognition of the Christmas season. In secular culture, it seems like the Christmas season starts either around Halloween or early November and then ends on December 26 after Christmas Day has passed. However, in the Catholic Church, the liturgical season of Christmas starts with the vigil masses on Christmas Eve and concludes with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate this weekend. During the holy season of Christmas, our Church invites us to celebrate the birth of Christ into the world and into our hearts, to reflect upon the gift of salvation that is born with Christ, including the knowledge that Christ was born to die for us.
Today’s feast celebrates the way Jesus allowed himself to be baptized by his cousin John the Baptist in the Jordan River before he started his public ministry. The US Catechism for Adults states that although Jesus was completely faithful to the will of his Father and free from all sin, he chose to be publicly baptized in the Jordan River so that his immersion into the waters of baptism would be a sign to all of humanity for our need to die to ourselves in order to do the Father’s will. Through his baptism, Jesus shows solidarity with humanity in order to reconcile us to the Father. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives the great commission to his disciples, telling them to go to people everywhere and to make them his disciples, baptizing them in the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Through this mandate to baptize, Jesus establishes the manner by which we are to die to sin, both original sin and our actual sins, and to begin our new life in Christ and to be initiated into the Body of Christ in the Church.
In some ways, we can see the Baptism of Jesus and our own baptism being foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures through the Israelites passing through the Red Sea as they leave slavery in Egypt and travel through the land that God had promised to them. Just as the Red Sea was a gateway passage for the Israelites on their journey, so our baptism is our gateway into the Church and into the Catholic faith as we become members of God’s family. Jesus, through his own baptism, leaves us this sign. We follow Jesus into the waters of baptism into a new life that we share with God.
Our Gospel today states that at the time of his baptism, Jesus prayed and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. The Holy Spirit worked in Jesus in amazing ways. After his baptism and after his time of temptation in the desert, Jesus began his public ministry and his public proclamation of God’s kingdom. He started teaching in the synagogues and astonished all who heard him. He called men out of ordinary life to be his disciples. He performed miracles, cured the sick, and cast out demons. Not only do we follow Jesus into the waters of baptism, but in our journey through life as his disciples, we are called to enter into his mission and ministry.
As I state often as a priest, we as disciples baptized in Christ are called to action, to live out our faith. As we continue our journey in the Year of the Eucharist here in the Diocese of Jackson, we are called to reflect upon how the Eucharist is not just the Body of Christ we receive in Mass, but we are to live as members of the Body of Christ in everyday life as well. As I thought about the Year of the Eucharist that we are currently celebrating and how we can live out our Christian vocation that we receive in our baptism and the spirit of the Eucharist, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy come to mind. As you leave Mass today, you will receive a handout of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, of which there are seven in each category. The corporal works of mercy are probably very familiar to you: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick, and burying the dead. During the two weeks around Christmas, I had four funerals, only one of which was a St Jude parishioner. I see doing those funerals as what I can do as a priest to help bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy are perhaps less familiar to us. They include: admonishing the sinner, instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, comforting the sorrowful, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injury, and praying for the living and the dead. One example is perhaps being able to forgive someone who has committed a wrong against us. Forgiveness can be one of the most difficult and challenging things we do as human beings. Perhaps there is so resentment or anger in our hearts that has been weighing on us that we find difficult to forgive.
As we think about our own baptism that initiated us into discipleship in Christ, perhaps we could reflect upon the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and perform one on them in an intentional way this week. Even if we regularly do some of these works of mercy, maybe we can think of one we could do that is not part of our regular way of life. Within this upcoming week, try to do that work of mercy. Also, really reflect upon the spiritual and corporal works of mercy and think of how you can more fully incorporate them in your life of faith. For indeed, as we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ today, we also celebrate the call we receive in our own baptism.
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