Jan 16: Baptism with the Holy Spirit

Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ
National Gallery, London, 1450s

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Jn 1:29-34

And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (NRSV, Jn 1:32-33).’ ”

Father, as we reflect on the words of John the Baptist recorded in the fourth gospel, words looking forward to baptism with the Holy Spirit, we can only wonder if these are the explicit words of John himself or whether they are a conclusion of the believing community arrived at in the wake of the resurrection of Jesus.

Lord, how long it takes for us to come to understand your one Word revealed to all of us in every time and place, yes, even at every moment, an unchanging Word spoken once and for all.

Even with your Word having become flesh among us in Jesus Christ, the fullness of your one revelation made visible and tangible in our midst, how difficult it is for us to make sense out of it all. We can only wonder that so many who do not explicitly know the Lord Jesus can live such holy, even exemplary, redeemed lives without the benefit of openly acknowledging him.

Over the centuries we managed bit by bit to come to a better understanding of what you speak to everyone of us once and for all in your Word. In the event which first cemented our consciousness as a people holy to you, the Exodus through the sea out of slavery in Egypt, we learned that your were calling us forth out of an enslaved past into freedom, but we were unable at that moment to get by the notion of freedom as merely social and political freedom.

After our rebellion against you in the desert and our purgation of forty years, we learned that there was more to freedom than simply social and political freedom. Sin could also enslave. In the passage through the Jordan into the land which we then understood to be our destiny, we learned that you were calling us forth as well from the slavery of sin.

But, in spite of your call, we remained in our sins and John summoned us back down to the Jordan to pass through it once again into the freedom of life without sin.

But could John the Baptist really have grasped that there was more, that we are all called to be baptized in your Holy Spirit, to pass through the waters, to go down into them to die to ourselves and come out of the water, not only with sins forgiven, but born, Father, into your very divine life?

In the resurrection of Jesus so much became manifest. In the baptism which the risen Jesus gave to his Church, the whole of human mystery is made bare. In your one act, Father, through your Word, you create, save and baptize us. To be a human is to be called to die at every moment to be reborn into a fuller share of divine life. Baptism is your one act, Lord, made visible for us under the sign of water, as Jesus is your eternal Word made visible for us in the body.

Father, may we live out the gift of our baptism in every moment of our lives by dying and being reborn to you, the same challenge of death and rebirth that is made to every human who has ever lived, in every time and place.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.