The people were filled with expectation. They could feel in their bones that something extraordinary was about to happen. They were going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, with the Divine Breath itself, and with a deep, fierce Love. With eager anticipation, one by one, they walked into the river to be baptized by John. When all were baptized, heaven opened and the Spirit rained on all those assembled, soaking them in Love. And each of them heard a voice from out of nowhere saying in a most intimate and tender way, “you are my Beloved, my chosen one; you are my joy and my delight.”
You might argue that only Jesus heard these words, that only Jesus experienced the descent of the Holy Spirit as he was praying. And, according to the Gospel we just read you would be right. But I believe the Gospel mirrors our life and invites us to see ourselves reflected in the story of Jesus. His story is our story; his concerns our concerns. How he handles his life rests on those two gifts made explicit at his baptism. They are deep and abiding Wisdom and Love.
All of us have these gifts. They are embedded in our soul’s DNA. They can be, and often are, obscured by life’s residue of self-enhancing and self-protective choices that are unwise and unloving, but still active.Jesus’ Baptism experience washed away that residue of temptation to worldly power and status he faced in the desert, and it allowed him to close the door forever on any and all ego driven ambition. He never succumbed to such materialistic attractions, but his desert experience gives evidence of his humanity and tells us that he, too, faced temptations and overcame them.
He emerged from the waters of baptism cleansed of those drives and soaked in love. Then he heard what all of us are meant to hear: “you are my beloved, my joy and my delight.” Those words and that experience empowered him to live from that place of deep Wisdom and unconditional love in everything he did throughout his life. Baptism is meant to do the same for us. (more…)
