Posted by The WORD in other words (2017) by Fr Ronnie Crisostomo SVD – Dasmarinas, Cavite
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord – A
One of the things I hated doing as a young seminarian was washing my clothes but I had to do it because it was part of the training. Without much notion about this chore, once I soaked all my dirty clothes together without separating the colored from the white ones. After some hours I found out that a red colored shirt stained the rest especially the white ones. It took only one shirt to affect the others.
Jesus’ baptism is understood as a dimension of his incarnation; it is considered as his immersion or being “soaked” into humanity’s condition as sinner thought he was sinless. By going down to the Jordan to be baptized by John, Jesus joined the rank of sinners and assumed that “ugly” dimension of his incarnation — humanity’s sin. Through his action, Jesus showed his solidarity with his brothers and sisters burdened by their sinfulness.
Furthermore, the Church Father loved to say that Jesus needed to plunge into the waters in the Jordan so that by his being “soaked” in it, he might consecrate it and this might cleanse his brothers and sisters’ sinfulness.
Just as Jesus needed to be “soaked” into humanity’s condition in order to become truly a credible savior in touch with humanity’s core and predicament, so does humanity need to be “soaked” also into the Spirit of God to become truly Christ-like children of God.
