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January 6, 2021
Praised be Jesus Christ! This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord which marks the end of Christmas season. This is another epiphany/manifestation where we are given an opportunity to see and hear that that Jesus is more than just one of us. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11). He is the Son of God.
As it happened on the banks of the Jordan that morning, it is happening at every baptismal font every day in the world, when the minister of Baptism says: ‘…I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ And the people of God proclaim: ‘Blessed be God who chose you in Christ.’
My dear brothers and sisters, today’s feast should help us see ourselves coming out of ‘Jordan waters’ as it happened on our babptismal day, washed clean from our sins. For by baptism we are freed from the power of darkness, every stain of sin, original and personal, is removed and we become sharers in God’s own life and his adopted children. We are incorporated into Christ and formed into God’s people, built up together in the Spirit into a house where God lives. We are made into a holy nation and a royal priesthood. The door to life and to the kingdom of God is open.We are joined to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Are we ready to hear him put us out and say ‘you are my child, the beloved, in you I am well pleased.’ Since our baptism, God never stops speaking these words to us. All we probably need is to quiet the voices of the popular culture around us, and listen to this voice, ‘you are my child, the beloved, in you I am well pleased,’ and help others hear it to as we do us ourselves hear it.
Think of it, when was the last time you really heard someone delighting in you or felt appreciated, loved and taken special? If us human beings can delight in the presence of those who care about us, what of this voice that came from heaven? The words reverberated in the hearts of the all people present - “You are my Son, the beloved, in you I am well pleased.”
As for John the Baptist on that day, it takes the courage of faith and humility for us to hear the voice of God. To embrace that kind of Epiphany, we have to accept our identity before God – created in His image but not God. St. Irenaeus, one of the early church theologians wrote: ‘The glory of God is the human person fully alive.’ We are all called to be fully human, alive and to glorify God.
May the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord where God is manifested to us in Jesus Christ, bring us the grace to trust in Him, and give us the special grace to hear the voice of God: ‘You are my son, my daughter, my beloved, in you I am well pleased.”
Together in Christ Mission
Fr. Alfred Tumwesigye