HOMILY OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD — YEAR A

HOMILY OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD — YEAR A 

HOMILY THEME: THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

BY: Fr Stephen ‘Dayo Osinkoya

Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11/ Titus 2:11-17; 3:4-7/Luke 3:15-16,21-22

Today, we solemnly celebrate the feast of “The Baptism of the Lord.” Till yesterday, we celebrated an ‘infant Jesus.’ From today, we celebrate an ‘adult Jesus.’ This is why today’s celebration marks the transition from the liturgical season of Christmas into the liturgical season of Ordinary Time.

Through his Baptism, Jesus the sinless God-man accepts, inaugurates his public ministry and identifies it with that of the suffering Servant of God whose mission we are told in the first reading (Isa42:1-4,6-7), was to bear all kinds of sufferings on behalf of the people and to bring justice, judgment and salvation to everyone as God’s agent. In this reading, the Prophet Isaiah says, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit, he shall bring forth justice to the nations.”

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Here we see that Jesus is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit and is declared by God the Father as His beloved Son. And this is what happens to us too when we are baptized, i.e. at baptism we are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit and obtain a new life; next, we also become a child of God in Jesus Christ. Baptism therefore, manifests or reveals who a Christian is

By our own Baptism we are committed as Christians to participate actively in the Church´s life and liturgy and “to exercise (our) baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity” (CCC, 1273). Prayer as well as works of apostolate should be a part of every Christian´s life.

As the chosen of God we are called to radiate God’s love in the world, to bring about justice in the world.

Many of us claim to be God’s beloved (Christians) by the virtue of our baptism, but we are very intolerable of others weaknesses. By the virtue of our baptism, we too like Jesus are inaugurated into our mission in the world- the mission to heal the brokenness of our world. God has given us as light to the world, hence, Matthew 5:16 reminds us of our mission of shedding light unto the darkness of the world, when it says “Let your light shine.” But quite unfortunately, many of us Christians are chief contributors to the darkness that is enveloping our world today.

We are called by God to restore sight to the blind – by teaching and instructing the ignorant and the confused. But instead, many of us are blinding others more by lies, deceit, gossip, false-witness, wrong advice/counsel, etc.

Acts 10:34 makes us to understand that we can only become the beloved of God by doing only that which pleases Him. Doing the will of the Father is exactly what characterized the life and ministry of Jesus – By accepting to become like us in all things but sin. By going about doing good and healing those oppressed by the devil. (Acts 10:38)

This means for us that we can and should look to the life of Jesus as examples of how to lead the perfect life we are called to live. We are not sinless, like Jesus, but we can aim to live our lives using him as our model. And those things with which Isaiah describes the suffering servant can give us types and patterns of behaviour that we can strive to emulate.

We must be teachers and healers, bringing God’s message to all; we must be humble servants, putting God’s will before our own; we must be gentle in our dealings with others, non-judgmental and supportive; we must be faithful to God and his Word, we must fight for justice in the world, to do what we can to even the playing field for all people.

And from the Gospel today, we must be righteous – that is, we must abide by the just laws of our church and state, living out our lives as men and women to the best of our abilities. It’s only thereafter, that God can say about us also “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt 3:17)

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