When Jesus was baptized by his cousin on the banks of the Jordan River
Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos
WHEN JESUS WAS BAPTIZED BY HIS COUSIN ON THE BANKS OF THE JORDAN RIVER
That baptism is not the sacramental one we received. That of the Baptist was a ritual purification bath still in use today in the Jewish tradition.
Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.
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Dear brothers and sisters,
in our lives we are all looking for justice. Justice for a wrong suffered, for a person we love who was affected by an injustice, for various social situations and so on. Seeking justice involves seeking that everyone gets what is due to them, according to the classic definition of justice offered by the jurist Ulpian in Digest. The feast of the baptism of the Lord is the feast of the justice of the man who receives the love of God. Once you receive this love, he brings it to others.
In the song the Today's Gospel Jesus approaches the Baptist to be baptized. Giovanni refuses. Jesus then responds with what is the center of this solemnity:
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""Leave it for now, for it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness". Then he let him do it.".
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Fulfill all justice it means for Jesus to be baptized. Let's clarify: that baptism is not the sacramental one that we received. That of the Baptist, brother of the Lord (that is, his cousin, but in Hebrew cousins are referred to as brothers), it was a ritual purification bath, the so-called מקווה (mikveh) still in use today in Jewish tradition. Jesus does not have original sin to wash away through that Sacrament of Baptism which he himself instituted [cf.. Mt 28,19-20]. That mikveh he asks it precisely to do justice to the will of God the Father. So that the mission of man's salvation for which the Father sent him is the center of everything.
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By being baptized, Jesus carries out an act of justice: gives the Father what is due to him. So immediately afterwards the heavens open wide. And behold the voice of the Father and the Holy Spirit become visible. The whole Trinity is present. The Father says that Jesus is his Son and he is pleased with that Son. From that moment Jesus' three years of preaching and his healing miracles began.
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From the justice of the Father Jesus draws grace and strength to express God's truth in words and signs. All this will also lead him to welcome the terrible days of the Passion and the glorious resurrection. God the Father and the whole Trinity offer this possibility to us too.
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The Baptism of the Lord it is a good opportunity to also remember our sacramental Baptism, when the Lord washed away original sin and our bond with evil. From that moment we were also adopted by the Trinity. We have become children of the Eternal Father in Jesus Christ. We have become Sons in the Son. Therefore, if we responsibly and freely respond to the call to be children and accept his grace, God also places his pleasure on us.
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What does this mean in concrete terms? First of all, since we were conceived, God began to love us with a visceral and profound love. This love has accompanied us throughout our lives until today. A love that is, at the same time, maternal and paternal. Because God is Father, and as a father he gives us the Son and from the beginning he gives us the desire to know and seek the truth, because Jesus is the truth. And at the same time he gives us the Holy Spirit Love. Which is the maternal part of God. Hence the expression of the Blessed Pontiff John Paul I who, leaving some a little perplexed, during one of his catechesis he said "God is father and mother" [cf.. Angelus, 10.09.1978] thus implying that both fatherhood and motherhood are contained in the whole.
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Let us bring this knowledge of the truth to the whole world through tenderness and kindness. In this way we will transform our baptism from a sacramental act to an act of concrete love for our neighbor. The historian Cesare Cantù wrote: «Charity is the only treasure that increases by sharing it». We ask the Lord, today, to remember our baptism, to rediscover that they have always been loved unconditionally and for
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Amen.
Santa Maria Novella in Florence, 6 January 2023
Epiphany of the Lord
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