Article Title: HOMILY ON THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD
Author: Fr Ben AGBO
Date Added: 2009-01-14
Theme: :BAPTISM AS WITNESS OF OUR SALVATION
On this great feast of the baptism of our Lord, the end of the Christmas season and the First Sunday of the Ordinary time of the year, we need to reflect very seriously on the significance of baptism in the work of our salvation. We shall look at the three ‘Rs’ of our salvation-Redemption, Repentance, and Regeneration.
1.REDEMPTION-This is what has been done and accomplished already that we need to believe in to be saved. Today’s first reading, from 1 Jn 5:1-9 says: Anyone who has been begotten by God has already overcome the world: this is the victory over the world-our faith in Jesus Christ who came by water and blood and the spirit as the three witnesses. In the gospel, Mk 1:7-11,John said: ‘I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’. Then we hear the testimony of God, This is my beloved Son, my favour rests on him’ As Jesus was called God’s beloved son at his baptism, so too, we become beloved children of God at our baptism. According to the Vatican 11 document ‘Ad Gentes’, no 7, “Baptism is the door through which we enter the church”. It enables us to relate to God as Our Father and to each other as children of God. The disposition to say ‘Our Father’ not ‘My Father’ is the foundation for every prayer.
The biblical symbol of our redemption is BLOOD, cf Ex.12:23 & Col.1:13.The work of our redemption has been finished. He did even while we were still sinners,cf.Rom.5:8.
2.REPENTANCE-This means our complete break with sin. Looking at baptism from this perspective, we see that Jesus did not need baptism but wants to fulfil all righteousness and then show us how to become ‘bona fide’ Christians. According to St Augustine, “The Lord desired to be baptized so that he might freely proclaim through his humility what for us was to be a necessity”. cf Jn.3:3f.We must be baptised of water and the spirit in order to be saved. Water symbolizes our repentance and purification from sin. A new covenant now ensues.
3.REGENERATION-This means the work of the Holy Spirit unto our sanctification. As God himself testifies about his son Jesus Christ, “This is my beloved son in whom am well pleased”, He also wants to make the same testimony about every one of us when we begin to habitually do his will.cf,1 Jn.3:9 & 2 Pet.1:3f.Then shall the life in the Spirit be realized and we can face no more condemnation, cf Rom.8:1f. This is what Jesus means when he said that No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born again of water and the Spirit because what is born of human nature is human, and what is born of the Spirit is spiritual.
CONCLUSION
“O that today, you will listen to His voice; harden not your hearts as at Meribah” cf, Ps 95. It is important for us to note that not all those who were redeemed from Egypt repented and reached the promised land (salvation). Some, due to stubbornness and lack of trust in God were disqualified. Ps 95 v 10 says “For forty years I was wearied of this people and I said… Never shall they enter my rest”. Regeneration is the end-point of salvation since the target of baptism is for us to be born again. Saint Leo the Great speaking on this says “Thanks to the sacrament of baptism you have been turned into the temple of the Holy Spirit, don’t let it ever happen that you drive away so noble a guest by your evil deeds; or ever again submit to the power of the demon; for the prize you were bought with is the precious blood of Christ.” (Christmas homily, 3).
We need to reaffirm the importance of infant baptism – that wonderful apostolate by which we initiate our little children into the fold of the children of God. To neglect this is as good as neglecting to feed, cloth, clean, or care for them when they are unable to ask for these things. However, one cannot fail to see one disadvantage which infant baptism produces in the church today: the danger of the young Christians growing up unconscious of the three dimensions of their baptism to wit, redemption, repentance, and regeneration. It remains very important that every believer makes the fundamental option to follow Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour in thought, word, and action. This is the significance of our baptism.
