The Father reveals the Son's mission
On the banks of the Jordan, John the Baptist preached repentance from sin to receive the kingdom of God is near. Jesus comes down with the crowd in the water to be baptized. The baptism was a ritual for Jews Penitence, so I approached acknowledging their sins. But the baptism that Jesus not only receives a baptism of repentance: the manifestation of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit give a precise meaning. Jesus is praised as "beloved son" and on him rests the Spirit, which invests the mission of the Prophet (proclamation of the message of salvation), priest (the only acceptable sacrifice to the Father), king (messiah savior as expected) (cf. Preface).
Baptism of Christ is "our baptism
The editors of the evangelists tend to have the baptism of Jesus as the baptism of the" new people of God, the Church's baptism. In the book Exodus, Israel is the oldest son who is freed from Egypt to serve God and offer the sacrifice (Exodus 4:22), and the people passing through the wall of water between the Red Sea and the path through the dry Jordan River. Christ is the "beloved son" who offers the only acceptable sacrifice to the Father, Christ "out of the water" is the new people that is finally released: the Spirit descends on Christ only, but remains on him "because people recognize him as the Messiah, sent to bring good tidings to the poor "(preface). The Spirit who had no permanent home for men (Gen 6.3) now remains for Christ in the Church.
The mission of Christ is prefigured in that of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. The "Servant of Yahweh" is the one who brings on himself the sins of the people. In Christ, who is undergoing a public act of penance, we see the solidarity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in our history. Jesus does not distance itself from sinful humanity: on the contrary, it identifies itself to better "make known the mystery of the new bath" (pref.) and the resulting apostolic commitments entailed for the disciple.
the rediscovery of baptism
Born and bred in the faith of the Church, Christians need to rediscover the greatness and the demands of vocation baptism. E 'paradoxical that baptism, which makes man a living member of the Body of Christ, does not have much place in the explicit consciousness of the Christian and the majority of the faithful do not feel the entrance into the Church through Baptism as the initiation the decisive moment of their lives.
The baptism given to us in the name of Christ is a manifestation of prevenient love of the Father, the Son of participation in the Paschal Mystery, communication of a new life in the Spirit, so it puts us in communion with God, he integrates into his family, is a transition from solidarity in sin to solidarity in love. A new awareness has been aroused in the baptism Church of the Spirit today more than ever, in the Christian communities, is the Christian life as "living out one's baptism," and occurs more in adults the need to retrace the steps of his baptism by a 'catechumenal "made a deep life of faith lived in community, linked to a serious knowledge of Scripture.
The baptism of our son
It 's a much-debated problem not so much for the value and effectiveness of baptism given to the child and for his opportunity in today's society. We have entered an era characterized by pluralism and the values \u200b\u200bof brotherhood and personal responsibility. The family no longer the decisive influence of the past, the parents are not able to make definitive choices for their children, and the rapid transformation of society makes it even more difficult for religious education. Even worse, the statistics say they experience a lot of children are not baptized then made sufficiently trained and educated in the Christian faith. The reasons that lead some parents to seek the baptism of their children may be the social convenience, the family tradition and the fears of superstitious nature.
The solution is not easy and the experiments in progress may give rise to discomfort, surprise, denial. It should include the issue as part of a "pastoral cluster 'that tends to the renewal of baptismal catechesis and to accompany the catechumenal entire family baptized. This is not to fix the date of baptism, but follow a path of faith.
The baptism of Jesus
From a sermon by Saint Gregory Nazianzen, bishop
(Discourse 39 for the Baptism of the Lord, 14-16. 20, PG 36, 350-351. 354. 358-359)
Christ in baptism becomes light, we enter into his glory, and Christ was baptized, inabissiamoci with him to go with him to glory.
John gives the baptism, Jesus came to him, perhaps to sanctify man by whom was baptized in water, but also certain to bury the old man completely in the water. Sanctifies the first Jordan to sanctify us and sanctifies us. And because it was spirit and flesh in the Spirit sanctifies and water. The Baptist
not accept the request, but Jesus insists.
"I have need to receive baptism from you" (cf. Mt 3, 14), so does the lamp to the sun, the voice of the Word, the friend of the bridegroom, who is the greatest among those born of women to him who is the firstborn of every creature, who in their mother's womb leapt for joy at one who, still hidden in the womb, he received his adoration, the one that ran and would still ahead, the one who had already appeared and would see her at the time.
"I must be baptized by you ', and also add," in your name. " He knew that he would receive the baptism of martyrdom and that, like Peter, was not only washed his feet.
Jesus rises from the water and brings up all the whole cosmos. Break down and see the heavens opened, those heavens that Adam had closed for himself and all his descendants, those wide open skies and foreclosed as the paradise it was for the flaming sword.
And the Spirit testifies to the divinity of Christ is symbolically presented above is the one who's all the same. A voice from the depths
of heaven, from the same depth from which it came Who at that time received the testimony.
Spirit appears visibly as a dove, and in this way, honor the deified body, and then God must not be forgotten that long before had also been a dove that he had announced the end of the flood. We honor
So on this day Christ's baptism and celebrate this festival as it should. Purify
totally and advanced in this purity. God is pleased with nothing so much as the conversion and salvation of man. For a man, in fact, have been rendered all the divine words to him were made and the mysteries of revelation.
Everything was done for you to become a living force for other men. Be perfect lights in front of that immense light. You will be flooded with its heavenly rays. Will come to you, very clear and direct, the light of the Trinity, which so far have not received a single radius, from the only God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom should be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
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