The Baptism of Jesus
one
By meditating on the events from the life of Jesus we can deepen our friendship with him and allow Him to live in and through us – making us like him more and more, step by step. Today we learn from the event that kicks off His public life – His baptism in the Jordan River. To appreciate this event we must know what it means to be made in the image of God and what it means to have the likeness of God. These mean two different things.
All people are created in the image of God which means every person is
· Endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul
· The soul has the powers of intelligence, freedom and emotions which are the capacity to share in God’s divine life given by the Holy Spirit.
· Because every person is made in the image of God, we all have inalienable rights that must be respected
two
To be in the likeness of God means to have received the gift of the Holy Spirit who brings the Father and the Son into our soul and makes us sharers in the life of God, which is grace, making us adopted sons and daughters of God. We are all part of the human family by being created in the image of God. We become part of the family of God by receiving the Holy Spirit and sharing in God’s divine life.
God created all people to receive the Holy Spirit and share in His life as His adopted children. But we are not born into this world with the gift of the Spirit dwelling within us. It is a gift that must be received and it is a gift that can be rejected and lost. Adam and Eve were given the gift of the Holy Spirit in Genesis 2:4 and rejected this gift with original sin. As a consequence every human is born into this world in the image of God, but without the likeness of God – the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us share in the divine life.
three
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented.16 And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him;17 and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
four
The Baptism of Jesus teaches about our own baptism
When you were Baptized
· The Holy Spirit descended within you
· You became a daughter or son of God
· God the Father proclaimed:
· This is my beloved son, with whom I am well please
Why do you love your children and think they are amazing?
· Just because they are your children!
· God loves you for the same reason!
You can’t feel safe, or at home in the world,
Or set out to reach your full potential
Until someone tells you:
· You are good
· You are worthwhile
· I delight in you
That is what God is trying to tell you in your Baptism.
You are His child,
· He loves you not because of what you do,
· But because of what you are – His son or daughter
Josef Pieper, Faith, Hope, Love, p. 174-176.
What matters to us, beyond mere existence, is the explicit confirmation: It is good that you exist; how wonderful that you are! In other words, what we need over and above sheer existence is: to be loved by another person…. For a child… being loved by the mother is literally the precondition for its own thriving… man succeeds in fully ‘existing’ and feeling at home in the world only when he is ‘being confirmed’ by the love of another.
A good Father and Mother don’t love their child because it’s a high-performance child.
· They love their child because it’s THEIR CHILD.
· And that’s why God, your Father, loves you.
· Is just because You’re His Child!
Recognizing that love
· should take away your anxiety about measuring up.
Recognizing that love
· should make you strong,
· should make you confident that you belong in the world,
· and that the universe is better,
· and that God is pleased, because you exist.
five
Let us conclude with three practical steps to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in everything:
First, pray to the Holy Spirit, consistently, with perseverance & with regularity. That prayer could be a spontaneous one: “Help, Holy Spirit!” Or a person could simply say, “Holy Spirit, come! Come through Mary!”
We don’t give enough importance or credit to this the most important thing: prayer. We don’t see results so we give up. When instead Jesus has told us often enough: “Ask & you will receive.”
Second thing. Be attentive to the invitations, promptings, nudging SOF the Holy Spirit, without becoming OCD about them, though! Follow through with them. That way your spiritual ears become more & more refined to listening to Him.
Thirdly. Read the book by Jacque Phillips book: In The School of the Holy Spirit”. That is a great but simple guide to becoming acquainted with the Holy Spirit & to learning how to listen to Him!