Today's feast has several layers or dimensions to it. It speaks to us at several different levels. Today's feast speaks to us of new beginnings. We have just celebrated new life through the birth at Bethlehem. We are at the beginning of a new year. And, in commemorating the baptism of Jesus, we celebrate the new life we all received at the beginning of our own lives at our own baptisms. As human beings we are constantly in need of new beginnnings, we are constantly in need of renewal. That is the way we experience life. Unless an individual or a community renews itself on a regular basis, unless it is the constant recipient of new blood, it stagnates and eventually dies.
That is why the baptisms of those little babies that you find recorded on your newsletter today are so important. The refreshing water of baptism connects us to Jesus and refreshes our community. The essay on the feast on the front-piece of you missalette expresses this connection very well: "Every parish font is a tributary of the river Jordan. Every time a new member is baptised into our own community 'by water and the Holy Spirit', the river Jordan flows through our parish. The waters of baptism make us holy, and proclaim to all who have the eyes to see it, that the life of God has been given to this child. The life of God flows amongst us."
Apart from the babies being welcomed into the Christian community, in many cases the ceremony of baptism brought the parents and families back to the very point and place in which they first encountered God through ritual and celebration. This little baby is leading them back to a significant place, to a holy place, to another 'new beginning'. Baptism is primarily a community event, a community rejoicing at the advent of new life. Those of you who come to this Mass will have witness for yourselves many, many time how much baptism enlivens and enhances our liturgy here. It is actually an enjoyable event, and a joyful celebration.
Today's feast speaks to us very eloquently of the humanity of Jesus. Through submitting to the baptisms of John, Jesus signals his intention to enter fully into the entire range of human experiences. Many religious people visualise Jesus as constantly hedging his divine bets. Because of their understanding of his divinity, they present him as a sort of divine Houdini who could escape from any human experience at any time he wished. Today's feast gives to lie to that defective understanding of Christmas and the incarnation. Through immersing himself in the river Jordan, Jesus is signalling that nothing human will be avoided or reneged upon. This is no divine play-acting; He embraces human life in all its fullness.
The third layer of today's feast is of course an invitation to revisit our own beginnings, a reminder of the baptismal promises made by our parents and godparents on our own behalf at our baptism. As Christians we are constantly recalled to the baptismal font, we are constantly invited to begin again, to renew ourselves, and to renew our committment to the Christian way.
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