Homily for Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

I know I have shared this story before, but it is one of those that is seared into my memory. As a seminarian I did a summer of chaplaincy at a hospital in Palo Alto. I was called to a room with a mother and daughter, the daughter was ill. The mother was crying a lot. So I asked her to share, and what eventually came out was they were relatively newly baptized, and their pastor (non catholic) assured them once baptized nothing bad would happen.

January, it’s the month many say they want to get healthier, lose weight. Gym memberships are started; bow flex and other equipment is purchased. There is the resolve, for a while. Then the membership gets forgotten, the treadmill becomes a nice place to hang clothes, the resolve gone. Then we complain we are still overweight, so then comes the fast and easy things...pills, electric gadgets, all to make it as easy as possible. And the results?

To say these are interesting times is an understatement. We have a political climate that many of us have not experienced before. We have a pandemic that has disrupted everything. Our world’s climate changes, and people’s homes and livelihoods are being destroyed. It can be frightening and it can make us angry and sad; all at the same time. It can test our understanding of our faith, our understanding of God and what it means to be a baptized believer of Jesus Christ.

Good, because therein lies growth.

Mark’s account of the Baptism is terse, but wonderful. I love what it says after Jesus comes out of the water: “he saw the heavens being TORN open and the Spirit...descending upon him.” 

Such energy in that choice of words. It’s like a child with a present tearing through the wrapping paper to get to the gift so anxious to get to it. Mark will use that same language at the death of Jesus, referring to the curtain in the temple at the moment of death. Meaning the veil between humanity and God is no more, it is torn asunder.

God tears through to open up heaven and earth. So desirous God wants heaven to be on earth that God rips across the divide, and the Spirit comes.  And the Spirit, as we follow that Gospel, will move Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan and then right into active ministry.

Such an incredible gift we have been given from God. We are given the beloved Son, who fully entered into the human condition to show us the extent of God’s love for us, and to enable us to work with God to conquer the evil in our lives and in the world; to go and work to build up Heaven here on earth.

Baptism is not a club membership, nor something done to appease grandma, abuela, nonni. Baptism initiates a life of work. It inspires us to go into the mess of this life, the chaos of this life, and confront it. Confront not with violence, not with force, but with healing, with forgiveness, with compassion, with generosity, with love. 

Jesus did the same. He manifested God’s love in his actions, in showing to the world how God is, so that we can be as God.  

Is it easy, no, of course not. None of us are promised an easy life in baptism. If we are, then that is malpractice by someone. 

To lose weight, we have to actually exercise, we have to actually watch what we eat. We have to actively participate in caring for our bodies.

It is the same with faith, the same with our mission. It requires our participation, wholly and consciously participating.

Yes there are real concerns, real evil in this world. We can see the killing of innocents, from the unborn to the sick and elderly, the poor and disadvantaged, those of color, women, children in schools.  We can see the evil of racism in this world, in this country.  We can witness too many young people hurt themselves because they have given up hope.  

We have a lot of work to do. God calls us to this work, as his own son worked to confront the chaos and darkness. 

It cannot be with violence, but only by our self-giving, by the grace within us, by being human.

It is with our words, peaceful demonstrations, it is with our own actions of making the right decisions that benefit the many in the long terms, not just ourselves today.  

We Christians, when we use that grace, wonderful things have happened. We have the work of Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta and the continued work of her community. We have the ongoing work of Fr. Greg Boyle in LA. Groups like Unbound Ministries who came earlier this year. There is our own Catholic Charities. We have seen tears of happiness in our own parking lot as we have distributed food. We have Watched our young persons mature into more solid, strong adults.

So much more out there, empowered by our own baptisms that we can do.

Christmas has ended. The Spirit has descended upon us, the heavens have been ripped open. Let’s get to work.