Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with the readers of Exaudi his reflection on the Gospel of this January 1, 2025, entitled: “Son of God with Christ”.
Isaiah 40, 1-5. 9-11: “The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all men will see it”
Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord, my soul”.
St. Paul to Titus 2, 11-14; 3, 4-7: “He saved us through baptism that regenerates us”
St. Luke, 3, 15-16. 21-22: “After Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened”
Shortly after the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, a woman of about thirty came to me and said: I have come to thank you. I was completely disappointed. The Christmas holidays, instead of filling me with joy, plunged me into a deep depression and loneliness. I had already decided to take my life. I saw no point in it, I felt useless, despised, dirty, worthless. Likewise, I don’t know why I came to the cathedral. You insisted several times: “Today, Father, God repeats to each of us: You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. You don’t know how those words penetrated my heart and I made the decision to face life with its challenges and difficulties because God loves me. I still get depressed, and I don’t overcome my crises well, but I remember those words, and they help me a lot. Thank you” I don’t remember much of what I said that day, nor have I known what happened later with this person, I only know that if we seriously think that we are children of God and that He loves us, our life will have another meaning.
The Christmas cycle closes with the celebration of the baptism of Jesus, which is another manifestation of his person. Birth shows him to us as “God-with-Us”, the “Incarnate Word”, the “True Savior”. The Epiphany opens new horizons for us with the universalism of salvation, he is a God for all, who breaks down barriers and makes all peoples brothers, “Light that enlightens all nations”. The Baptism of Jesus, as a prelude to his apostolic life, shows us, on the one hand, his connection and brotherhood with all men who in the baptism of John sought repentance and conversion, but on the other hand it is the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God and sent by the Holy Spirit. Thus, while he takes on John’s baptism with water for purification according to ancient Jewish usage, he shows the great difference of baptism according to the Spirit, which transforms the heart, giving new life. The Spirit reveals the true identity of Jesus and marks his mission in history.
Although John the Baptist already proclaimed him as “one more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie,” it is the voice of the Heavenly Father and the confirmation by the presence of the Spirit, who give the full manifestation of the person and the task of Jesus. The declaration: “You are my Son, the beloved; in you, I am well pleased,” ratifies the mission that Jesus will carry out in the history of salvation. Jesus freely commits himself to the work of God the Father, walking in the construction of a new Kingdom, where the poor and the forgotten have a special place. The meaning of Jesus’ baptism is to insert himself into the Project of God the Father, who wants everyone to have life and to have it in abundance. But these words and this project do not remain only in Jesus, they extend to every human being who must recognize themselves and recognize men and women as “beloved children of God.” If we see ourselves as true children of God, we cannot have inferiority complexes or drag around a life considered useless. Recognizing our dignity as children of God, therein lies all the strength and vitality of the believer. But it also commits us to recognize others as true children of God, with whom we have to build his dream and his plan of salvation. Therefore, when we see ourselves as children of God, the temptations of discouragement, as well as the discrimination and injustice against those who share the same divine filiation, seem absurd.
The manifestation of Jesus as a person of the Holy Trinity also has great importance in teaching us what happens in the baptism of every believer. Every baptized person is received and invited to fully live this Trinitarian communion. Thus, those baptisms that, in an attempt to make them more solemn, are made to seem private and special, make no sense, because they break the community and the sense of brotherhood that baptism gives us. Baptism, being a very personal commitment, in our case assumed by the parents and godparents, is situated as the beginning of the spiritual path, but it cannot remain in an internal sphere, but implies a responsibility towards others, a challenge to make our world a new world: the Kingdom of Jesus.
Many see baptism as a kind of social initiation and almost as a pretext for a family gathering or celebration. But it is much more, it is the beginning of participation in divine life. Others see it as a requirement, but baptism is not a passport to eternity, as if it were a credential or a ticket that accredits us to participate in religious events. Baptism is much more: a gift of divinity and a personal commitment to join Jesus’ proposal. Every day we should renew our baptismal commitments. It would be enough for us to remember the renunciation of living in a world of sin, selfishness and death, and to assume the commitment to believe in God the Father, to unite ourselves with his Son Jesus and to let ourselves be led by God the Holy Spirit. We will have to strongly renew this baptismal sense, both the parents and godparents, as well as the baptized themselves. Through Baptism, we are grafted into the Mystical Body of Jesus, and we become temples of the Holy Spirit, not to boast of false dignities, but to assume our special role as disciples and missionaries united to the same mission of Jesus.
What meaning have we given to our baptism? How am I living my dignity as Son of God? How do I build my community in the likeness of the Triune God, in whose life we participate through baptism? How do I respect my person and that of others, knowing that it is a temple of the Holy Spirit?
Good Father God, who in the baptism of Jesus invited us to participate in your Trinitarian life, grant that, joyfully assuming our dignity as your children, we may work in the search for true union, harmony and peace for all peoples. Amen
