The Lord's Baptism

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 1/17/02)

The liturgical celebration of the Lord’s baptism is like a hinge leading us from the Christmas season into ordinary time. We are to live every day in the spirit of Christmas. In other words, having put on Christ at baptism (cf. Gal. 3:27), we are to make Him present through us all year long, not just during the Christmas season when we particularly recall His birth among us as our Savior and Lord. The first reading proclaimed at the Mass of the Lord’s Baptism and taken from the prophet Isaiah, provides an image by which we are encouraged and instructed to live out our baptism on a daily basis. "I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness" (Is. 42:6-7). We live out the spirit of Christmas by living fully the new life we receive in baptism when we put on Christ and make Him present in and through our daily lives, and, in this way, become "lights to the nations."

Practically, though, how are we to be a light? First, we become a light by being enveloped by Christ the Light through prayer and reflection on God’s Word. Pope John Paul II on a visit to New Orleans in 1987 said: "If you really wish to follow Christ, if you want your love for Him to grow and last, then you must be faithful to prayer. It is the key to the vitality of your life in Christ. Without prayer, your faith and love will die. If you remain constant in daily prayer and in the Sunday celebration of the Mass, your love for Jesus will increase." We become light through the constant renewal of our commitment to prayer.

We are also a light by witnessing to the Truth, which brings light. When we renew our commitment to Christian unity, we imitate Jesus in His prayer to the Father and, thereby, witness to the Truth. As we prepare to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18-25, it is important to recall the prayer of Jesus to His Father in the gospel of Saint John. Jesus prayed: "…that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn. 17:21). Jesus revealed to us in this high priestly prayer that Christian unity will witness to our unbelieving world that Christ was sent by God the Father. Through our commitment to praying and working for Christian unity, our lives shine out as lights in the world, proclaiming Jesus as Son of God and Lord.

We are also a light by witnessing to the Truth which brings light when we work for peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God" (Mt. 5:9). Peace is not the absence of conflict, but a deeper reality. It is a transcendental reality, a gift from God, that begins in the human heart and, from there, permeates all that exists. Jesus gave this gift to His followers before He was offered up for our salvation. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…" (Jn. 14:27). In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, the Holy Father called for a day of fasting on December 14^th, and invited "representatives of the religions of the world to come to Assisi on January 24, 2002, in order to pray for an end to hostilities and the advancement of true peace" (L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, November 21, 2001, p.1). I invite all our people to be in prayerful union with our Holy Father on January 24^th and to follow the Assisi meeting through the communications media. We put on Christ and allow Him to shine out from us when we pray and work for peace in our hearts and in our world, and, in this way we become lights to the world.

Another way we are a light witnessing to the Truth, which brings light, is when we witness to the truth about life. We, the bishops of the United States, have formulated a pastoral plan for pro-life activities based on a consistent ethic of life. "A wide spectrum of issues touches on the protection of human life and the promotion of human dignity. As Pope John Paul II has reminded us: ‘Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an indivisible good’ [The Gospel of Life, no. 87]" (USCCB, Pastoral Plan for Pro-life Activities, A Campaign in Support of Life, p. 2). In order to be lights to the Truth and to live out in our daily lives the spirit of Christmas and our new life in Christ through baptism, we must tirelessly work for the defense and promotion of human life from its first moment at conception through every stage of life to natural death. It is particularly poignant that immediately after killing his brother, Cain responds to God’s inquiry about the well being of Abel: "I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?" In this story is revealed our relationship and responsibility to every other human person. We are our brother’s keeper. Each of us is called to defend the human person from the cold and utilitarian grasp of science to retrieve his/her stem cells, and from the legal, yet morally wrong, decision of a mother to terminate his/her pre-born life. We are called to provide for the needs of pregnant women to assist them in bringing their children to term, to provide quality educational opportunities for all children, to help men and women find work, to help immigrants and the poor find opportunities consistent with their dignity as persons, to stop domestic abuse, to reach out to the sick, and provide assistance to the elderly for prescription drugs and other needs. We are called by virtue of our baptism to be Christ to the men and women – born and pre-born – of our day. When we do these things, we allow Christ to shine out from us, we continue the season of Christmas all year long and we become lights in our world.

Yes, as we move from the Christmas season into ordinary time, we are to relive the mystery of the Lord’s baptism in our lives by responding more fully to God’s choice of us in baptism. We have been called by God to be lights. By accepting more completely the identity He has given in Baptism: to be His beloved son or daughter by putting on Christ, (cf. Gal. 3:27) and, by allowing Christ to shine out through our lives in our words, deeds and actions, we become lights to our world. Our mission is to live out the words in our first reading and become "a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness" (Is. 42:7).

We have been called! By consistently working to have dynamic lives of prayer, we will allow Christ to live in us and through us. This will enable us to be lights working for Christian unity, true peace and respect for human life from conception through every stage of life to natural death. Through baptism we have accepted Christ and His teachings, we have been adopted as the children of God, we have been incorporated into the Body of Christ His Church, we have put on Christ and been sent as "lights to the nations." Yes, we have been called to witness to the Truth. Do not be afraid to be the saints of the new millennium! God has chosen us, and He will bring to completion the work He has begun in each of us (cf. Phil. 1:6)!

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