January 13, 2008: The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

The Celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord marks a turning point: a turning-point in the Lord's life, a turning pointing in our lives as members of His Body the Church and a turning point in the lives of our parish catechumen and candidates, who will enter the Church at the Easter Vigil.

When St. John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan, Jesus formally committed himself to begin his public life, his ministry and mission as the beloved son of the Father and the Savior of all peoples. His was a ministry of preaching and healing, proclaiming that God's kingdom has come. His was the mission to invite all people to union with God, to authentic holiness, in a word, to salvation.

Our observance of Jesus' baptism reminds us of our baptism, that turning point in each of our lives whereby we become disciples of the Lord and members of His Body the Church. Whether it was many years ago or only recently, whether we were infants or adults, through the Sacrament of Baptism, we were born again through water and the Holy Spirit.

We were born into a new way of life, a life of worship and of unconditional service. Before baptism we were creatures of God and after baptism we became adopted sons and daughters of God, sharing his very life with sanctifying grace.

Once baptized, we call God our Father in the community of the Church, with both the privilege and the responsibility to worship him through daily prayer and through the celebration of the sacraments, especially the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

The Holy Eucharist is at the heart of our prayer life. Receiving the Lord Jesus in Holy Communion enables us to become one with him in a unique way and, through Him, one with each other. Recalling our baptism becomes the occasion for us today to recommit ourselves to living a new way of life, to living life differently because baptism truly marked a turning point in our lives. From then on and from now on in ways proper to our individual vocations and to the various roles of service we exercise, roles that are not identical but complimentary, we must make holy, teach and serve in and through Christ Jesus.

The turning point which baptism marked and caused in our lives means from now on that we live life with all its problems and uncertainties in a spirit of faith, hope and love. It means we live, united in faith and practice, in union with Holy Mother Church, our Holy Father and with our Bishop. It means we exercise genuine respect and obedience to the office of the Priesthood and to the leadership of the Holy Catholic Church. It means we infuse into our society great compassion and forgiveness, justice and peace. It means that we be agents of change for a renewed morality in the personal, civic, political and social arenas of life. It means we respect and protect human life from its beginning at conception all the way through to its end at natural death.

Before baptism we were members of the human family. After baptism we became and remain united with one another as members of the Church established by our Lord Jesus Christ as a visible organized community and willed by Christ to be his other presence in the world. Let us rejoice today as we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord and Savior.

In faith, hope, and love,
Father Steven C. Rogers