An image of our own baptism

Father Andrzej Wrostek
The Baptism of the Lord
January 12, 2025

My dear friends, many times we ask ourselves perhaps who is a human being? Who is a human person? What sets us apart from other creatures? Why did God want man for his own sake? 

Today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord comes to help us answer this question. We are already looking at the adult Christ who comes to the River Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. John’s baptism was for the Israelites a sign and testimony of a change in their way of life. That is conversion and penance. Christ did not need this as John the Baptist himself testifies. Therefore, Jesus did not come to the Jordan River to convert and do penance. He came to drown the sins of the whole world in the Jordan River and then, in his own blood, on the Cross. 

For Christ, at the moment of baptism in the Jordan River, a new stage of life begins. He now exchanges his hidden life in Nazareth for the life of a wandering teacher. He will travel throughout the land of Israel, proclaiming the Good News of salvation which he will seal with his blood shed on Calvary. He receives the power of attorney from the Father to carry out this work when the voice of the declaration of love floats over the waters, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Christ’s baptism is an image of our own baptism, through which we received God’s life, and we became God’s beloved children. It was then that the heavenly Father said to each of us personally, “You are my son. You are my daughter. Today I have begotten you.” 

Saint Louis, King of France, used to say that he valued the palace chapel where he was baptized more than the cathedral where he was crowned king. In the cathedral, as he said, he became only the King of France. In the palace chapel, where he was baptized, he became a child of God. 

How do we strive to be God’s children? Do we cooperate with the grace of baptism? We often hear, “I believe, but I don’t practice.” Faith without works is dead. To say, “I’m a believer, but I do not practice,” is the same as saying, “I live, but I do not need to breathe.” 

Saint Augustine wrote these profound words, “There are no riches, no treasures, no honors and no goods of this world that can replace the good that is the faith — being a child of God. 

Let today’s Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord be a reminder for us of the place and day when God’s declaration of love rang out over each of us when we became his beloved children.