By allowing himself to be baptized by John, Jesus sanctify the waters of the Jordan and established the Sacrament of Baptism. Today’s feast offers us an opportunity to pause and reflect on how deeply we understand the gift of our own baptism. Here, as with an all sacraments, we Catholics and our Orthodox brothers and sisters stand in a different place from many other Christians.
For some of our Christian brothers and sisters what we call sacraments are at best symbolic. The bread and wine of the Eucharist remain merely bread and wine. They are unchanged. So also the human being after being baptized remains unchanged.
This is not our theology.
For us, baptism brings about a transformation, we are reborn in baptism. The catechism of the Catholic Church says it most clearly:
1265 Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte “a new creature,” an adopted son of God, who has become a “partaker of the divine nature,” member of Christ and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Do we believe this?
I’m afraid that all too often the answer is no. We do not believe that we are different from the unbaptized, and that is the reason why we don’t behave any differently than the unbaptized.
Are we sinners? Yes. But we are also saints, made holy by the grace of God. Hundreds of times each day we choose which side of ourselves we will put forward. Every time we speak or act we choose either to act as sinners or as saints. Some people think it’s impossible for us to be sent. My response is simple, “with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26).
Christ did not establish a symbol; he established a sacrament, with real power.
Today let us choose to unleash that power and show ourselves to be sons and daughters of God.
