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01/11/2009
ReadingsIsaiah 55:1-11
1 John 5:1-9
Mark 1:7-11
What a curious event the Baptism of Christ is. John the Baptist was preaching repentance to the people, and the sign of a man’s personal repentance was that he would be baptized by John in the Jordan; this action was an acknowledgement of his personal sins and the desire to live a holier life. Why then did Jesus request John’s baptism? He had no sins and could not live a holier life. John realized this and resisted baptizing his cousin. Yet Christ insisted that he too must be baptized. Many of the Church Fathers saw in Christ’s baptism a kind of reverse action: instead of the water purifying Christ, by his baptism he purified the waters, thus making them ready for the sacramental baptism that he would institute – a baptism far more powerful than John’s. This baptism would wash away all sin and give its recipient birth into the family of God and entrance to all the sacramental mysteries.
The reading from 1st John is steeped in these sacramental mysteries. John speaks of “three that testify” – water, blood and the Spirit. These three witnesses are the three sacraments of initiation: water for baptism, blood for the Eucharist, and the Spirit for confirmation. In the early Church, a catechumen received all three of these at the same time, initiating the new believer into the Church and the life of grace made possible by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. By receiving these three witnesses, we ourselves are given the power to testify to the reality that “Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5).
John in his Gospel also invokes the three sacramental witnesses during the scene of Christ’s crucifixion. He states that at Christ’s death, “he handed over the Spirit” (John 19:30). Who is the Spirit “handed over” to but the Mother of God and Christ’s beloved disciple, representing the Church and all disciples of Jesus until the end of time? Then John recounts that the soldier pierced Jesus and “immediately blood and water flowed out” (John 19:34). The sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are given their power from the side of Christ – as God created new life from the side of Adam so He creates new life in the Church from the side of Christ. While it is Christ’s baptism that introduces the sacramental economy, it is his death that seals it. All three sacramental mysteries are present at his saving death, and are thus empowered by it.
St. Paul tells us that “you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God” (Galatians 4:7). In order to enter into the mystery of this divine sonship, one must receive sacramental initiation into Christ’s body, the Church. By doing so, the words of the Father – “You are my beloved Son” (Mark 1:11) – become as much the believer’s possession as they are Christ’s, and he becomes a true member of the family of God, an heir to the Almighty.
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