Today we come to the end of the Christmas Season by celebrating the third great epiphany, the showing to the world God in human person. The first ‘epiphany’ was at the birth of the child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem, when he was visited by shepherds representing the poor, the marginalized and the sinful for whom Jesus had specially come. The second ‘epiphany’ happened shortly after the first, when the ‘wise men’ from ‘the East’ came to worship the newly born Jesus. They represented all those peoples and nations who were being invited to be numbered among God’s own people through the mediation of Jesus as Lord.
The third great ‘epiphany’ occurred much later. Jesus is now an adult, probably about 30 years of age. In today’s Gospel (Luke 3:15‑16, 21‑22), we are brought to the banks of the Jordan River, somewhere north of Jerusalem, where John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, is living out in the desert. The desert, in some ways, is a place where God can be found, although for Jesus it was also a place of trial and temptation. For the early Church Fathers, the desert provided both experiences.
John the Baptist leads a very austere life, dressed in the simplest of clothes and sustaining himself on whatever nourishment he can find. He has made a name for himself as a man of God, and large numbers come out to hear and be influenced by him.
Just prior to today’s Gospel passage we are told that John was, “…proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:5). It is important not to misunderstand the meaning of these words. It would be quite wrong to think that people simply had to come for baptism in the river for all their sins to be wiped out. That would be little more than superstition. The baptism itself was a symbolic act which had to be accompanied by an inner change.
Repentance implies a radical change in the way we look at the meaning and purpose of life and how we live that life ourselves. Repentance is much more than just feeling sorry for the things we have done. It calls for a total reorganization of one’s attitudes so that such errant or hurting behavior would simply disappear from one’s life.
And the ‘forgiveness of sins’ is much more than God just wiping out the guilt and the threat of punishment that our sins might involve. The damage our sins do always lasts for a very long time and cannot be undone. If I have murdered someone, that person stays dead no matter how sorry I feel. If I destroy a person’s reputation, it may remain destroyed forever. Hurtful words spoken cannot be called back.
Then, like Jesus, our baptism brings with it a serious obligation to share our faith with others, both by word and by example. It involves much more than simply ‘saving our souls’ and ‘leading sinless lives’.
We are called to be living witnesses of the Gospel, to be the salt of the earth, to be a city on a hill, to be a candle radiating light into the surrounding darkness. We are called to be united with one another in our Christian community Building the City of God®. Sadly, one wonders how often this is our reality, when we see so many Catholics acting like total strangers to each other at a Sunday parish Eucharist!
All those words of Isaiah from the first reading (Isaiah 42:1-7) and applied to Jesus are to be applied to each one of us as well. Our baptism is not simply some past event recorded in some dusty parish register. It is a living reality that is to be constantly deepened and enriched.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!