Daily Gospel Reflection – The Baptism of the Lord
January 9, 2023
The Baptism of the Lord
Gospel: Mt 3:13-17
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan
to be baptized by him.
John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you,
and yet you are coming to me?”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness.”
Then he allowed him.
After Jesus was baptized,
he came up from the water and behold,
the heavens were opened for him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and coming upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens, saying,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
January 9, 2023
The Baptism of the Lord
Gospel: Mt 3:13-17
Friends, Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism points to the significance of this foundational sacrament.
Listen to the great theologian Gregory of Nazianzen: “Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift. . . . It is called ‘gift’ because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; ‘grace’ since it is given even to the guilty.” Jesus said, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” Baptism is the sacramental ratification of that choice.
And this is why we speak of Baptism as justifying us and washing away our sin. We are—all of us—born into a deeply dysfunctional world, a world conditioned by millenia of selfishness, cruelty, injustice, stupidity, and fear. This has created a poisonous atmosphere that conditions all of our thoughts and moves and actions.
Do you see why the stress on grace is so important? Baptism is the moment when the Holy Spirit draws us out of this fallen world and into a new world, the very life of the Trinity. That’s why Baptism involves being born again, lifted up, enlightened, transformed, saved—and why the Church speaks of the baptized as a “new creature.”
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