You are my beloved Son

“LORD, OPEN MY EYES”

A SHORT REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY.

 

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

Gospel

Mark 1:7-11

'You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you'

1.      In the course of his preaching John the Baptist said:

 

2.      ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.

3.      I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

4.      It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee

5.      and was baptised in the Jordan by John.

6.      No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him.

7.      And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’

 

Christmas time ends today. During Christmas time we see and meditate on Jesus as he is prepared for his mission of saving the world. It is a dynamic period – conception and birth as a servant, born, living and working thirty years in a family, born like everyone human to a human mother and dependent on her, God the Father inviting the poor of Juda to worship (the shepherds), inviting the nations of the world (the wise men from the east). He grows in wisdom and the favour of God and his fellow men. NOW he is ready for his life’s task.

At the Jordan he is baptised: he takes on himself the reparation for all the sins of humanity of which he is a member by his birth as a human being. By baptism he offers himself to his Father as the sacrifice that will renew creation.

The Father anoints him with the Holy Spirit. In his humanity he is filled with the Godhead. As a sponge is soaked in water so Jesus is soaked in the Spirit of God. He will through the Spirit fulfil the mission given him by God.

The Father proclaims his pleasure in his Son. Jesus is filled with zeal and enthusiasm to begin. Nothing can stop him even persecution and death on a Cross.

In Baptism we are given the same mission and the same Holy Spirit to fulfil it. Are you full of zeal, excitement and divine power? No? Then pray as Jesus, the man, prayed. You will become like him.