Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday - 6th January 2024
Abbot Paul • January 5, 2024
As you know, this year is the Year of Mark, in that we’ll be reading from Mark’s Gospel throughout the year at Sunday Mass. Mark’s is by far the shortest of the four Gospels, but it’s remarkably full of detail and of great interest, as it was for the first of the four to be put together and written in its present form. Today, strangely, we read Mark’s account of what happened when Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist in the Jordan, (Mk 1: 6-11). I say strangely, as this Gospel passage will be repeated on Monday, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, one of the three events celebrated at the Epiphany. Today, of course, is really the Epiphany, but in England and Wales, it’s been transferred to tomorrow, Sunday, as though Catholics couldn’t go to Mass two days in a row. I seem to remember we did so two weeks’ ago!
“In the course of his preaching John the Baptist said: ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’” The passage begins with the testimony of John. He refers to Jesus as someone, not knowing at this stage who the Messiah actually is, only that he is following behind him and is more powerful than he is. He sees his relationship with the Messiah as that between a servant and his lord. Most importantly, he states that the Messiah will baptise with the Holy Spirit, whereas he baptises with water as a sign of repentance and cleansing from sin. The Holy Spirit consecrates us a sons and daughters of God, as well as purifying us of sin.
It’s at this point that Jesus appears on the scene and is baptised by John. Mark always writes succinctly. This is what he says: “It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John. No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’” Jesus has travelled from his hometown down to Judaea and is baptised by John in the Jordan. If he is the Messiah, why do that? For the same reason as he was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary and became man, a human being, through the working of the Holy Spirit. The Incarnation and its manifestation to the world took place that we might be saved. In descending into the water, Jesus sanctifies it for our baptism and salvation. It’s at that very moment that John has this extraordinary vision of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The heavens appear to be torn apart, the Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove and the voice of the Father is heard to say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” Here the Father addresses his Son directly, unlike at the Transfiguration, when he addresses Moses and Elijah and the three apostles, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.” The baptism of Jesus is the second theophany to be celebrated at the Epiphany, the third being the transforming of water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana.
Let us give thanks for our own baptism and pray that all men and women will come to know the grace of baptism and adoption as God’s sons and daughters. What a glorious gift of God Baptism is.
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