The readings for the The Baptism of the Lord - Year A may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011126.cfm
Today,
the evangelist Saint Matthew
paints a scene that appears in all four gospels,
The Baptism of the Lord.
This event marking the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.
Picture the Jordan River.
See John the Baptist
doing what he has was literally conceived to do.
Calling people to repentance.
Preparing the way of the Lord.
See the crowds
and those standing by
watching the spectacle.
See Jesus arriving and asking to be baptized.
Immediately,
John reacts with confusion,
hesitating
and with good reason.
Because Baptism
washes clean the stain of sin
and Jesus is the sinless Son of God.
John tries to reason with Jesus,
Which is never a good idea by the way,
trying to reason with God.
Because He is God and we are not.
But despite John’s pushback,
Jesus gently insists, saying,
“Allow it now,
for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Or in other words,
“this is how God wants it done.”
How different our lives would be
if our actions were guided by that phrase,
“this is how God wants it done.”
From the very start of Jesus’ public ministry,
Jesus chooses to stand with us, not above us.
He enters the muddy waters with repentant sinners,
not because He needs to repent,
but because we do.
This is who our God is.
Always reaching down to us,
so He can lift us up.
In the Jordan
Jesus is making something very clear.
Repenting is not optional.
Conversion is not a step we can skip.
Even though He has no sin to confess,
Jesus stands with sinners and embraces
the path that all of us must walk.
He shows us that there is a right way to approach God -
and that way begins with
humility, honesty and repentance.
Jesus enters fully into our human condition.
He knows weakness, struggle, suffering and temptation.
And yet, he calls us to repentance, to conversion,
not as a punishment
but as a great gift of mercy and grace.
Because repentance is not about shame.
Repentance is about freedom.
There is no renewal without repentance.
There is no healing without truth.
When Jesus rises from the Jordan,
The heavens open.
The spirit descends.
And the Father’s voice is heard saying,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Those words are spoken
as Jesus humbly steps into
the muddy waters of repentance.
The same is true for us.
We hear God’s voice most clearly
when we humble ourselves,
admit our need,
and return to Him with contrite hearts.
And In the Sacrament of Confession,
we do exactly that.
We step into the waters
of God’s overwhelming mercy and grace.
So many of us carry guilt or shame
that was never meant to be carried for long.
We avoid Confession,
because we fear judgement,
what people will think,
maybe fearing to relive
those weaknesses and failings all over again
or maybe worse,
we’ve been misled by the enemy into thinking
we don’t need to go to confession,
thinking we can just confess directly to God
outside of the sacrament.
And while God can forgive wherever He wills,
Jesus gave us a sure and sacramental way to repent.
Today,
Jesus invites us to remember our baptism
and to live it
as the beginning of our need for God’s grace,
not the end.
To remember that our Baptism
calls us to a life of ongoing conversion.
A life of falling and rising,
sin and forgiveness,
repentance and grace.
So let us not be afraid to go to confession.
To confess our sins.
God knows them already anyway.
They’re no big secret to HIm.
Let us not be afraid
to call out what we need to change
and to receive God’s mercy and grace
in the confessional.
Where we can look up.
Because the heavens are still open.
The Spirit is still at work.
And the Father
is still waiting to speak those words
over every repentant heart,
“You are my beloved son.
You are my beloved daughter.
With whom I am well pleased.”
