Today we anticipate Christ’s baptism in the Jordan.
On this Feast, I often think of what my own baptism means to me. It is a mystery of the Church, a Sacrament. Baptism is a participation in something so much bigger than myself, it feels impossible to adequately express what something so personal, so mystical, and yet so universally transformative, actually means.
So we look first to Christ’s own baptism, and what it means for us. He goes first into the water so that we might then be enlightened by his actions, so that we might be illumined and come to understand the magnitude of blessings that He bestows on us through his own immersion.
For when we are baptized, Scripture tells us that we are baptized into Christ's death. Hearing this might at first be quite troubling. And yet, this death in which we participate in, Christ’s death on the Cross, leads decisively to new life.
It is not a passive death, nor a final death. Christ’s time in the tomb is not spent idly. Dying on the Cross, Christ gets right to work. He descends into Hades, and he rises again, but he does not rise alone. He raises us up, he elevates all of humanity, he cleanses us in the waters of the Jordan as well, and he cleanses us by the shedding of his blood.
Thus, Christ opens for us a path that lets us imitate him: to die to the world and live in Him. For dying to the world, dying to yourself, this really means turning away from what we have tricked ourselves into thinking is "us": the Passions, our sins, our earthly cares. But the real "us" - that is found in Christ. That is where we find our true identities, and then we get to truly LIVE, to participate in what is beautiful and radiant, and pure, having been baptized and pledged to a life in Christ. And so, by being baptized himself, Christ shows us precisely where we begin this life.
A life that participates not in corruption, but in perfection. A life that is comforted by the the Holy Spirit which descends upon us, and a life that is heralded by a proclamation from on High that this is God’s beloved Son, and that He is with us, and here for us.
Glory to Jesus Christ!