TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 3:13-17

The longer I have the privilege of living on the planet we call, "Earth," the more I am beginning, just beginning, to realize the necessity of the ultimate identification that God has made with mankind through the Man, Christ Jesus, and, the need for our response in identification with Jesus as men and women consecrated to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus had a purpose within to come to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  There is in the Greek something called an infinitive of purpose that appears to have been expressed by Matthew’s Greek text rendering of (v.13), "tau baptisthenai hup’ autou."  There is a purpose expressed in this movement by Jesus.  There is also a purpose expressed in the baptisms of John in moving men toward God.

Let us hear the text.

13  Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.
14  John tried to prevent him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?"

The play on words here is interesting.

Jesus comes to John to be baptized.  John insists -- "Ego chreian echo hupo sou baptisthenai, kai su erche pros me ?"  "I (myself) have need of you to be baptized, and You have come to me?"

The Church so rightly insists upon the sacrament of baptism (that identification) that seals the relationship between God and man.

Jesus initiates.

Man follows in response to God’s movement toward man.

Man, our Immanuel, follows fully and completely and perfectly -- the purpose of God the Father.

We read of water, seas, oceans, rivers and lakes in the scriptures.  The saints speak of waters when they speak of mystical union with God.

In speaking of that union which begins in the holy baptism for all Christians, we hear St. Therese of Lisieux say -- "Therese had simply, like a drop lost in the ocean.  Jesus only was left."

Margaret of Cortona says -- "I am his daughter.  He said so.  Oh, infinite gentleness of my God!  Oh, word so long desired, so urgently besought!  Ocean of Joy!"

Catherine of Sienna speaks of -- "The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish."

Did not St. Peter also pull fish from the sea into the boat?  Did not St. Peter dive into the sea when he heard the voice of the resurrected Jesus on the shore calling and John said -- It is the Lord?

There is the need for us to be baptized, identified fully with Jesus, yes, Jesus, the One who took the first step in grace toward us all!

What we hear in these passages of our Lord’s baptism is the desire of God to see us go all the way in the Way, the Truth and the Life -- Jesus -- all the Way in mystical union with God, as with all the saint.  And, all the Way we will surely go, because God will purposefully prepare us all to be the chaste virgin for Christ, that we might be made like our Mother, that example of perfect holiness, the spouse of the Holy Spirit, Maria.

As the Light broke into the chaos of Genesis 1:1-2, so, let the Light break into the darkness through baptism, the Spirit moving upon the waters.

Where does baptism purposefully lead us, beloved of God?

Bonaventura said, speaking of mystical union with God, what baptism begins for us -- "If you desire to know how these things come about, ask grace, not instruction; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not diligent reading; the Spouse, not the teacher; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that totally inflames and carries us to God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections."

Like the waters that flow in the City of God (cf. The Apocalypse / Revelation), so, is it the desire of God that we should go all the Way in Jesus into union with God.  St. John Vianney said -- "To be loved by God, to be united to God, to live in the Presence of God, to live for God!  Oh!  How wonderful life is --- and death!"  For the Christian, our baptismal destiny in the purpose of God is union with God.

The saints show us there need be no delay!

15 Jesus said to him in reply, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed him.

Jesus and John showed us by this simple act of Jesus and John that it is "fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."  Yes, that spoke of them.  But, yes, that also speaks of all of the baptized!  It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness as well.  Yes, always in the power of the graces of God!

We need the hand of God.

St. Therese said -- "The very moment God sees us fully convinced of our nothingness, he reaches out his hand to us."

So, the Right Arm of the Lord, the Hand of God, reached into the Jordan and he was baptized by John.

16  After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him.
17 And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son,  with whom I am well pleased."

How happily we hear these words.

God the Father and God the Holy Spirit is well pleased with Jesus.

Is it any wonder the Holy Spirit calls us all to the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5-6)?

Thomas Aquinas said -- "Obedience is the perfection of the religious life; by it a man submits to man for the love of God, as God rendered himself obedient unto men for their salvation."

What may we yet learn from the righteousness which Jesus and John fulfilled at the Jordan for us all?

The greatest thing we learn is that through the obedience of Jesus and John at the Jordan, we have the starting point in baptism for our own complete obedience to the faith we have come to know in and through the Church in Jesus Christ.

May Mary, our Mother, show us this true path to the fulness of the faith we have in Jesus.

May we live out our baptism fully by means of the Holy Spirit’s power.

May the Father say of us too at the time of the judgment day -- "This is my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased."



Deus et Sanctissima.