Marking Christ’s baptism a sign of rededication

This weekend, many Christians mark the baptism of the Lord, the definitive declaration of His identity and the Father’s sealing of His Son’s mission to humanity.

The word ‘baptise’ is from Greek and means ‘to immerse’. It is a good description of what baptism symbolises for Christians — our being saturated in the life of Christ so that we are actually assimilated into Him; we actually become members of Christ’s Body through our baptism into Him (I Corinthians 12:13).

We are called, by our baptism, to become radically identified with Christ. The same Spirit who is in the Lord Jesus throughout His ministry is also imparted to us. God the Holy Spirit is the infinite love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father.

Jesus comes from the Father to draw us, by means of the Holy Spirit, into the depths of the love of the Most Holy Trinity, into the communion of wisdom and tenderness of the Blessed Trinity.

Literally, the Father adopts us as His own beloved sons and daughters, and it is the mission of Jesus, the Well-Beloved Son upon whom the Father’s favour rests (Luke 3:22), to share with us the Spirit of them both.

The Holy Spirit fuses our spirits with the Lord Himself; for “all who are joined to the Lord are one spirit with Him” (I Corinthians 6:27).

Commemorating the Lord’s baptism and recalling His consecration to the mission He received from the Father, we are invited to rededicate ourselves, once more, as a new year lies ahead, to our own share in our Saviour’s work.

For just as He was sent by the Father, so now He also sends us, filled with the Gifts of God the Holy Spirit (see John 20:21).

We need not be anxious or afraid for the challenges and onerous tasks that are to be undertaken daily.

We are fortified and equipped with “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead” (Romans 6:10-11).

The Father looks on us with the same infinite love He has for Jesus, His Son. We are now brothers and sisters of the Son of God. The Father says of each of us: “You are my beloved daughter ... You are my beloved son.”

We are claimed, now and forever, as God’s own children. Do not be afraid.

Happy new year.