The baptism
of the Lord begins a new kind of life for Jesus. At his baptism, Jesus gives up his anonymity and
takes on his public mission. The baptism
of Jesus is his public anointing to bring about justice and peace. His only
motivation in taking on this mission is his love for God and for all that
belongs to God. The heart and soul of his
mission is to show that love is a matter of living in a right relationship with
God, with all of creation, and with each other. In carrying out that mission, Jesus proves
that love is a matter of justice and the fruit of justice is peace. This is the peace that Jesus left us, the
peace of heart that comes from living the right way. Because we are united to
Christ in baptism, justice and peace born of love for others is the heart and
soul of our own baptismal call as well.
God himself
bears witness to this call in the first reading from Isaiah. In that reading, God testifies on behalf of
an unnamed servant, whom He has chosen and anointed with His Spirit to carry
out his justice. On one level, we know
that God is testifying about Jesus. On
another level, however, God is also testifying about us. By virtue of our own baptism, we become
followers of Christ and servants of God, chosen by Him and upheld with His Holy
Spirit to carry out His mission of justice and peace.
Through his
own life and mission, Jesus shows us that the servant of justice opens the eyes
of the blind and sets captives free. A
true servant of God also lives in peace, neither breaking a bruised reed nor
quenching a smoldering wick (Is 42:3), all the while, working quietly without attracting
needless attention. Jesus makes this
clear when he goes to the synagogue after his baptism and sojourn in the desert. Once there, Jesus modestly reveals himself to
be the true Servant of Peace and Justice, the Son in whom the Father is well
pleased. This is the new life that Jesus
took on with his baptism.
For
us, baptism also means taking on a new life.
Through baptism, we are consecrated to God in a formal way and anointed to
embody the values of Jesus in our own lives, to bear witness in both word and
deed to the truth of his message. Our
calling therefore is to seek justice and peace by giving ourselves to each
other through ministry in our families, in our faith community, and in society. With gentleness and patience and without
drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves, we heal the bruised reed and
protect the smoldering wick; we do not destroy them.
In Jesus’
time and for us today, the bruised reeds and smoldering wicks are the poor, the
outcast, the oppressed, the refugee, and the sinner. We might think of those who live in darkness as
stubborn or arrogant; those who give the appearance of refusing to see the
light of truth. But their stubbornness
or arrogance might arise from their fear of others or fear of failure.
We often
think of prisoners as those who are in jail. Prisoners are also those we hold
captive with our criticism, our judgment and condemnation. This might include
our children when they do not meet our expectations or follow our advice. It also might include those who are different
from us, the homeless, the foreigner, the immigrant, or the poor. Because these
persons do not measure up to our standards, they never escape the captivity of
our scrutiny. In our day, the bruised
reed and smoldering wick are our vulnerable brothers and sisters wherever and
whenever we meet them.
A very human
response is to shun those we find different and unacceptable. Our baptism with Christ, however, calls for a
different response. The example of Christ
requires that we not turn our backs on our own. We give others their just due because they are
children of God no less than we are. In
everything we do, our goal is to be like Christ by doing our part to fulfill
his mission on earth. Peter claims that
Jesus fulfilled his role in God’s plan by doing good works and healing the
afflicted. God calls all of us to
continue that same mission inaugurated by Jesus at his baptism. In that spirit, we respond to those around
us, especially those closest to us, with the love of Christ. This is our new life in Christ, and it begins
with our own baptism.
