{"id":1532,"date":"2015-01-11T14:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T19:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2015-01-11T14:00:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T19:00:37","slug":"baptism-of-the-lord-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/baptism-of-the-lord-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Baptism of the Lord, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Baptism of the Lord<\/a>
\nIsaiah 55:1-11
\n1 John 5:1-9
\nMark 1:7-11
\nJanuary 11, 2015<\/p>\n

Today our celebration of our Christmas Season draws to a close with our celebration of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus.\u00a0 Our Christmas Season began with our celebration of Jesus\u2019 birth.<\/p>\n

Since then we have celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family, The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and most recently the Epiphany.<\/p>\n

All of these celebrations are intimately tied to the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 However, today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, which occurred when Jesus was around thirty years old.\u00a0 So, why link His Baptism to His birth?<\/p>\n

We might begin answering this by first reflecting on when Jesus tells Nathaniel that it is not enough to be born of flesh.\u00a0 We must also be born of the Spirit.\u00a0 We are born of the Spirit in baptism so Jesus\u2019 own baptism represents a new birth for him.\u00a0 So we begin Christmas with the human birth of Jesus and we end Christmas with the celebration of spiritual birth.<\/p>\n

We can also reflect on the link between Jesus\u2019 birth and baptism as a question of why He was born.\u00a0 Jesus was Son of God and seated at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 He became human like us in birth so that He might come and proclaim God\u2019s love and mercy.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 mission really kicks in at His baptism.<\/p>\n

In our second reading we hear that Jesus came through water and blood<\/em>.\u00a0 The water is, of course, the waters of Baptism and the living waters of the Holy Spirit and the blood is the blood that flowed from His side as He hung crucified upon the Cross.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 mission is completed in His Crucifixion and so we link His birth, Baptism, and Crucifixion.<\/p>\n

This idea of mission is important to our understanding what Baptism is for us.<\/p>\n

John baptized for one reason, for the forgiveness of sins<\/em>.\u00a0 Jesus had no sins so it would seem that Jesus would not need to be baptized but John himself tells us that Jesus\u2019 baptism is much more than his.\u00a0 John tells us that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 We see this in Jesus\u2019 own baptism when the dove descended upon Him.<\/p>\n

At Jesus\u2019 Baptism we also hear God the Father say to Jesus, \u201cYou are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 In His Baptism, Jesus is identified as God\u2019s Son and in baptism we become children of God in a new way.<\/p>\n

Why is God well pleased with Jesus?\u00a0 Because now Jesus is going to fulfill what God sent Him for, the redemption of His people.<\/p>\n

All that is signified in Jesus\u2019 Baptism, we receive in our own baptism.\u00a0 Jesus began His public ministry from His Baptism.\u00a0 In baptism, we come to the water and receive new life and a mission.<\/p>\n

We are empowered for our mission by the Holy Spirit we receive in baptism.\u00a0 As we receive the Holy Spirit, we are given gifts.\u00a0 We receive a common mission to proclaim the gospel but we are each called to do it in different ways.<\/p>\n

As a priest I proclaim the gospel in a very public way but all of you share in this mission.\u00a0 It can be as a parent teaching their child about the faith.\u00a0 Sometimes we think it is the job of the religion teachers to teach the children about Jesus.\u00a0 It is but it begins in the home.\u00a0 If a child never sees their parents pray or live the gospel, can the child really understand what our faith is about.<\/p>\n

So parents and teachers both proclaim the gospel but we do to people in general not just in what we say to them but in how we act towards them.\u00a0 Do we show that God cares?\u00a0 Do we show that we care?<\/p>\n

We might also ask ourselves, \u2018do we show that knowing Jesus makes a difference in our lives?\u2019<\/p>\n

Remember the people from Jesus\u2019 hometown who thought<\/em> they knew who He was, the son of a carpenter.\u00a0 They had only seen the human side of Jesus.\u00a0 In His Baptism, His divine side came to be known.\u00a0 Do we show that we are changed by knowing Jesus?<\/p>\n

Jesus was both human and divine.\u00a0 We are born human and then receive the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 It\u2019s often easier to just be human.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to be holy.\u00a0 I know I struggle but I also know that when I fail God will forgive me and strengthen me to do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Baptism of the Lord Isaiah 55:1-11 1 John 5:1-9 Mark 1:7-11 January 11, 2015 Today our celebration of our Christmas Season draws to a close with our celebration of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus.\u00a0 Our Christmas Season began with our celebration of Jesus\u2019 birth. Since then we have celebrated the Feast of the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Baptism of the Lord, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[62,82,11],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-oI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}