Dear Friends,
There is the Baptism of Repentance that John the Baptist offered and there is Christian Baptism. They both appear in the New Testament. They are not the same.
We celebrate Christian Baptism, that is a lasting immersion into Christ at the Easter Vigil. Today we celebrate the Baptism that John offered to people who came to him at the Jordan River. Among those who came was Jesus. He and John gazed at each other. John didn’t think that his baptizing Jesus was appropriate. Jesus was, after all, God-made-human – without sin. But Jesus had come to take on the sin of the world, and his baptism by John symbolized Jesus’ wholeheartedness to do so.
Then what?
What happened after the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan? They parted company.
Jesus went out into the wilderness to pray, to deepen, to wrestle with the powers of evil. Jesus went alone – but he was not alone. The angels ministered to him. Angels, it seems, hovered around Jesus – to keep him company, to encourage him to withstand evil. But who said it was easy?
Jesus was confronted by Satan who thought he could overcome Jesus. But he didn’t and he couldn’t. Jesus was strengthened by his baptism and by his time of prayer on the desert. Jesus was not overcome, but Satan promised to return for another round. He came in the garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus’ passion began and once again, did not overcome Jesus.
What of us? What can we take away from this feast this year of endless, debilitating natural storms and fatal violence against other people?
For one thing, we can take in the realization that Jesus came to take away the power of sin in people’s lives. It will take our cooperation to achieve that. For another thing, we might embrace the wilderness in which we find ourselves – accept being alone “out there” but not alone. We are called to find and walk with others who likewise want to look Satan in the eye and reject him – Satan, who comes to us in so many attractive ways. Together, we need to say no to Satan.
All of this.
Together with Jesus, who never leaves us to work out the difficulties of our lives alone.
It would be easy to skip over this part of Jesus’ experience as not pertaining to us………But it does. In the sweep of life, we are one with Jesus, from the Jordan to the garden of the Resurrection.
~ Sister Joan Sobala
