The Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate today, is one of three events in the life of Jesus linked in some way with the feast of Epiphany, which we celebrated last Sunday, but which traditionally falls on January 6th, crowning the twelve days of Christmas. When we think of Epiphany, we think first of all of the visit of the Magi to the Holy Family in Bethlehem: the manifestation of Israel’s God to non-Jews, to Gentiles. Actually, though, Epiphany was first of all about the event we mark today, the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, marking the beginning of our Lord’s public life and career as a prophet, teacher, a worker of wonders. And, thirdly, the wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine, is also linked to Epiphany.
Three mysteries — the adoration the Magi; the Baptism of the Lord; and the wedding at Cana — brought together in the feast of Epiphany. Only a few decades ago the pope saints of the Second Vatican Council, John XXIII and Paul VI, instituted today’s distinct feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate one week after the adoration of the Magi on Epiphany. And as for the wedding at Cana — that happens to be next Sunday’s Gospel! So we’re here today to celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and the beginning of our Lord’s public work, but the adoration of the Magi and for that matter the wedding at Cana aren’t far from our thoughts.
Today officially marks the end of the Christmas season, of the celebration of our Lord’s Incarnation, his taking on our human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After today the creche and the Christmas decorations will be gone, along with the wonderful musical settings of the Latin Missa de Angelis that we sing at Christmas and Easter. We begin Ordinary Time, which takes us through the public life and teachings of the Lord Jesus on the road to Lent and Easter, the celebration of the Paschal Mystery of our Lord’s death and resurrection.
When we think of Epiphany, we think of the light of the star leading the Magi to Jesus, the light of the world — the true light that enlightens every human being coming into the world, as we read on Christmas Day from John 1. The Christmas season is a season of light. And yet what of Ordinary Time, which starts this week? When we think of the Baptism of the Lord, which we celebrate today, and the wedding at Cana in next Sunday’s Gospel, what do we think of? The Baptism of the Lord and the wedding at Cana are precisely the first two Luminous Mysteries, or Mysteries of Light, of the Holy Rosary promoted 20 years ago this year by Pope St. John Paul II.
The Mysteries of Light, the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, are precisely the mysteries of Jesus’ public life and career in between the Joyful Mysteries of the Christmas season and the Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Paschal Triduum. In other words, the Luminous Mysteries are the mysteries of Ordinary Time. Christmas is a season of light, but for precisely that reason, Ordinary Time also is a season of light. We are going from light to light. The light has come into the world; it doesn’t go away when we pack up our Christmas decorations! We all share in the light of Christ by virtue of our Baptism, in which we are reborn in water and the Holy Spirit into the life of sanctifying grace as adopted sons and daughters of God and members of Christ’s body, the Church.
Do you know that, among its many other names, Baptism is also called the sacrament of enlightenment? In Baptism our hearts and minds have been enlightened by the light of Christ. We must live as men and women who have been enlightened. More than that! The light of the world is Jesus, but in Matthew’s Gospel he tells his disciples, “You are the light of the world.” We who have been baptized into Christ are called to be Christ in the world. We must walk in the light, 1 John says. Again, from today’s second reading, we must “reject godless ways and worldly desires and live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Light is a metaphor, a symbol. We are called to walk in and reflect the light of divine truth and love. We must live and walk in God’s truth and love. But, you know, love, like Baptism, has other names. Mercy, for instance, is simply another name for love: love in relation to fallenness and evil. Today I want to highlight another one of love’s alternate names: a word particularly exemplified in the Baptism of the Lord, in the wedding at Cana, and in the whole Christmas mystery of the Incarnation.
That word is: solidarity. What is solidarity? Simply put, solidarity is having each other’s backs. Solidarity is love saying: Your problem is my problem. It’s our problem. We’re in this together. I’ve got your back.
Why did our Lord go to John for baptism? This was of course not the Christian sacrament of Baptism; it was a ritual of repentance and renewal of life. All kinds of sinners came to John for baptism: tax collectors, prostitutes, soldiers, even Pharisees and Sadducees. But our Lord was sinless; he had nothing to repent. So why be baptized? Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, among many others, tell us that Jesus was baptized in solidarity with sinners. That is, he identified with us; he made our condition, our need, his concern — as he did in the Incarnation itself. “For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” That is an act of divine solidarity: God saying to us, “We’re in this together. Your problems are my problem.”
He did this also in the wedding at Cana, after allowing his mother to prompt him. “O woman, what have you to do with me?” sounds like a refusal of solidarity, as if the distress of the hosts of the wedding party and even his mother are no concern of his! But we know our Lady sees through this apparent refusal from what she says to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.” She knows and trusts her Son’s solidarity with the need that she has brought to him.
Let’s look around us and open our eyes to the needs of others, as Jesus did, as Mary did, whether we share them or not. People who may be different from us. Take Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of January for those suffering from religious discrimination and persecution. “How is it possible,” the Holy Father asks, “that many religious minorities currently suffer discrimination or persecution?” This is inhuman and insane, to use the pope’s words. Religious differences are important, but Pope Francis says they should not obscure the great unity of being brothers and sisters in the human family.
Many Christians suffer terribly in unfriendly lands around the world from North Korea and China to many places in the Middle East (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran) and Africa (Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria). By some measures Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. Let’s join Pope Francis in prayer for our brothers and sisters suffering around the world.
Even here in the United States Catholics and other Christians are sometimes targeted by acts of hatred, but there’s a reason Pope Francis focuses on religious minorities. In the US, according to the FBI, acts of hatred against Jews outnumber acts against all other religious groups combined. Second after Jews are Muslims—both tiny percentages of the population, but suffering very disproportionately to their numbers.
We can show the light of Christ to others simply by having their backs: by resisting any kind of antisemitic or anti-Islamic attitudes, or any other kind of discriminatory attitudes, that people around us may express, and perhaps even examining ourselves to see if we might sometimes fail to embrace fully those of other religions as brothers and sisters in the human family. Solidarity with all, regardless of differences both great and small, is one important way to perpetuate the light of Christ, the light of Christmas, throughout the year.
Copyright © 2000– Steven D. Greydanus. All rights reserved.