Christmas decoration in the church of St john the Martyr Catholic church by Fr Sunny John O.Carm.
Baptism of the Lord- 2008
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
In African countries the baptism of a child is usually followed by a happy reception where children are sure to eat rice. As a result, the baptism dress is sometimes referred to as your rice dress. Thinking of baptism easily makes people think of rice. And sometimes when you are talking of the rites of baptism, all they hear is the rice of baptism. Though the connection between baptism and rice is altogether accidental, let us utilize it as a memory aid for the meaning of baptism.
What does baptism mean? The meaning of baptism can be found in the four letters of the word RICE. R stands for Rebirth. In baptism we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed from original sin and become sons and daughters of God in a special way. I stands for Initiation. At baptism we are initiated or admitted into full membership in the church, the community of the children of God in the world. C is for Consecration. In baptism we consecrate and dedicate ourselves to seek and to spread the kingdom of God. We commit ourselves to be servants of God, to do God’s will and serve God with our whole lives. And E is for Empowerment. At baptism the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and empowers us, equips us, gives us the moral strength to say no to evil and to live as God’s children that we have become.
The baptism of John is not like our baptism; it is not a sacramental baptism. We believe, of course, that we are conceived in Original Sin and that the primary effect of that sin, which is to bar us from eternal happiness, can be washed away only by sacramental baptism.
You may have a question arising in your mind or someone already asked you about: “Why would Jesus, Son of God, who never committed sin, who could not commit sin, why would he come for baptism? We know one thing; that was totally unnecessary for him. But it was a wonderful sign to everybody else.
There is only one possible answer: Jesus takes the place of the sinner; He identifies Himself with sinners; Jesus became just like us. By entering the waters to be baptized by John he was saying, "I am truly one of you. I am taking all of your sins upon myself. I have not sinned. I have come into this world to make possible your salvation."
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He stepped into the Jordan and received the baptism of repentance as if He were a sinner. There was a law in Tokyo around the year 1900 that no foreigner could take up residence there unless he had a "substitute." There were natives who hired themselves out for this purpose. If the foreigner broke any law, the substitute suffered the penalty for it, even if the penalty was death.
Jesus – in the Jordan, upon the cross, and in the grave – is our substitute. He took our place. He paid the penalty on our behalf. And, while He stands where a sinful people should be standing, He is identified as the Messiah: John the Baptist recognizes Him as such, the Spirit descends on Him, and God's voice from heaven says, "This is my Son."
There is so much theology, so much Church teaching in this very simple Gospel, for example, the teaching of the Trinity. We are told, "The heavens opened. The voice of God was heard from the heavens. There was a brilliant light. The dove appeared as the voice of God was being heard, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' “Commentators on the Scriptures say this is a clear sign of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This, too, was an epiphany.
Scripture scholars speak of three epiphanies and this is the second of the three, that when Jesus went to be baptized he was revealed to be the Son of God by the voice of God his Father and the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The first one you know the feast of the Epiphany when the Wise Men, the kings if they were that, came to visit Jesus after he had been born in Bethlehem.
Then there was a third epiphany when Jesus began his public life and went to a wedding feast in Cana to which Mary, Jesus and his followers had been invited.
There were three things happened in the gospel today:
1: heaven is opened for him
2: Descending of the Holy Spirit upon him
3: God the father is pleased and accepted as beloved son
These three things should happen when we pray; Heaven opened, anointing of the Holy Spirit and the voice from the Father.
To hear these three let me make two conditions; there is no condition from God.
a) Pray that our attitude will change even if our situation will be the same. Concrete example. When I moved here on July 2007, almost every day morning I have to see the homeless man in front of the church door and sometimes inside the church. I was really annoyed by that and ask them to move and looked at them badly. Then I prayed; the situation is same but now when I open the door he will be there to say good morning to me and if I pass him on the road he will make sure he greets me. So pray for a positive attitude towards our negative situation.
b) Forgive others and forget the wounds that costs by others. Let me give you a story. Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face’. They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life”. The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?” The friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it,” Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone. People say; it takes minutes to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Then you will hear the voice of God and you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and you will see the Heaven opened for you.
My dear brothers and sisters, Each one of us is beloved of God, no matter what we have done, no matter what our lives have been, no matter how many failures we feel we are guilty of, no matter how many sins we have committed, no matter how worthless we feel, no matter how we feel we have to conceal our true selves from others because we think we are no good inside. God loves every single one of us, no matter the past, no matter the present. God says, "This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter." I cannot think of anything more encouraging. You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. God does not want you to be somebody else. God loves you because you are you, made in his image and likeness.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
In African countries the baptism of a child is usually followed by a happy reception where children are sure to eat rice. As a result, the baptism dress is sometimes referred to as your rice dress. Thinking of baptism easily makes people think of rice. And sometimes when you are talking of the rites of baptism, all they hear is the rice of baptism. Though the connection between baptism and rice is altogether accidental, let us utilize it as a memory aid for the meaning of baptism.
What does baptism mean? The meaning of baptism can be found in the four letters of the word RICE. R stands for Rebirth. In baptism we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit. We are cleansed from original sin and become sons and daughters of God in a special way. I stands for Initiation. At baptism we are initiated or admitted into full membership in the church, the community of the children of God in the world. C is for Consecration. In baptism we consecrate and dedicate ourselves to seek and to spread the kingdom of God. We commit ourselves to be servants of God, to do God’s will and serve God with our whole lives. And E is for Empowerment. At baptism the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and empowers us, equips us, gives us the moral strength to say no to evil and to live as God’s children that we have become.
The baptism of John is not like our baptism; it is not a sacramental baptism. We believe, of course, that we are conceived in Original Sin and that the primary effect of that sin, which is to bar us from eternal happiness, can be washed away only by sacramental baptism.
You may have a question arising in your mind or someone already asked you about: “Why would Jesus, Son of God, who never committed sin, who could not commit sin, why would he come for baptism? We know one thing; that was totally unnecessary for him. But it was a wonderful sign to everybody else.
There is only one possible answer: Jesus takes the place of the sinner; He identifies Himself with sinners; Jesus became just like us. By entering the waters to be baptized by John he was saying, "I am truly one of you. I am taking all of your sins upon myself. I have not sinned. I have come into this world to make possible your salvation."
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He stepped into the Jordan and received the baptism of repentance as if He were a sinner. There was a law in Tokyo around the year 1900 that no foreigner could take up residence there unless he had a "substitute." There were natives who hired themselves out for this purpose. If the foreigner broke any law, the substitute suffered the penalty for it, even if the penalty was death.
Jesus – in the Jordan, upon the cross, and in the grave – is our substitute. He took our place. He paid the penalty on our behalf. And, while He stands where a sinful people should be standing, He is identified as the Messiah: John the Baptist recognizes Him as such, the Spirit descends on Him, and God's voice from heaven says, "This is my Son."
There is so much theology, so much Church teaching in this very simple Gospel, for example, the teaching of the Trinity. We are told, "The heavens opened. The voice of God was heard from the heavens. There was a brilliant light. The dove appeared as the voice of God was being heard, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' “Commentators on the Scriptures say this is a clear sign of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. This, too, was an epiphany.
Scripture scholars speak of three epiphanies and this is the second of the three, that when Jesus went to be baptized he was revealed to be the Son of God by the voice of God his Father and the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The first one you know the feast of the Epiphany when the Wise Men, the kings if they were that, came to visit Jesus after he had been born in Bethlehem.
Then there was a third epiphany when Jesus began his public life and went to a wedding feast in Cana to which Mary, Jesus and his followers had been invited.
There were three things happened in the gospel today:
1: heaven is opened for him
2: Descending of the Holy Spirit upon him
3: God the father is pleased and accepted as beloved son
These three things should happen when we pray; Heaven opened, anointing of the Holy Spirit and the voice from the Father.
To hear these three let me make two conditions; there is no condition from God.
a) Pray that our attitude will change even if our situation will be the same. Concrete example. When I moved here on July 2007, almost every day morning I have to see the homeless man in front of the church door and sometimes inside the church. I was really annoyed by that and ask them to move and looked at them badly. Then I prayed; the situation is same but now when I open the door he will be there to say good morning to me and if I pass him on the road he will make sure he greets me. So pray for a positive attitude towards our negative situation.
b) Forgive others and forget the wounds that costs by others. Let me give you a story. Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face’. They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: “Today my best friend saved my life”. The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?” The friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it,” Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone. People say; it takes minutes to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Then you will hear the voice of God and you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit and you will see the Heaven opened for you.
My dear brothers and sisters, Each one of us is beloved of God, no matter what we have done, no matter what our lives have been, no matter how many failures we feel we are guilty of, no matter how many sins we have committed, no matter how worthless we feel, no matter how we feel we have to conceal our true selves from others because we think we are no good inside. God loves every single one of us, no matter the past, no matter the present. God says, "This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter." I cannot think of anything more encouraging. You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. God does not want you to be somebody else. God loves you because you are you, made in his image and likeness.
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