Last Sunday we celebrated the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Today we are invited to celebrate the Epiphany of the Holy Trinity. In the baptism of our Lord Jesus that is what happened. In fact, in our own baptism, and when we baptize a child, exactly the same is happening. Just like the Spirit of God came down on Jesus and the voice of God spoke to those present on the occasion of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, at our baptismal pond the same drama is enacted, and to the child who is baptized into the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, God sends His Spirit and utters the same words: “this is my son, my daughter, in whom I am well pleased”. This turns out to be another Epiphany happening.
When we celebrate the baptism of our Lord Jesus, let this message seep deep into our hearts and let us keep this memory alive and effective in our lives. With the baptism of Jesus in the Trinitarian presence, the mission of Jesus on earth is visibly and solemnly inaugurated. However, Jesus needs further clarification, confirmation and tests to pass through, for which we will find him being led by the Spirit to the desert, where Jesus will fast, which, in fact, was a feasting with his Father and the Spirit. And at the end of it, Satan gets a strong message that his time is coming to an end and Jesus was about to retake his people whom Satan, in his illusion, thought would be his. In three years’ time Jesus showed to the world and to us, whom he invited in to his Trinitarian life, the methodology to defeat the machinations of Satan and win the Kingdom. At the conclusion of His visible earthly mission Jesus commissioned his disciples and through them, us, to continue in this mission of defeating Satan and regaining the Kingdom. With the baptism of our Lord we are in the period of the Ordinary time in the Liturgical cycle and the details of this mission will be revealed to us Sunday after Sunday and through the weekdays. This revelation comes to us through many more Epiphanies all through the seasons. Let us be aware of this process and be alert to be part of this great task.
Fr. George