I noticed a headline on the internet about a Swedish Artist – Geert van der Vossen. He has created a floral tribute to Sweden’s coronavirus patients. He has ‘planted’ over 6000 metal ‘flowers’, which he has created himself, in a field as a memorial to the victims of the virus in the area in which he lives. This has obviously given him a lot of personal satisfaction and a feeling that he is really doing something to remember those who have died.
Sunday, Jan 10th, is the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord and reminds us of our identity. The liturgical season of Christmas is concluded with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. By Baptism, we become sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, members of his Church, heirs of Heaven, and temples of the Holy Spirit. It is a day to thank God for the graces we have received in Baptism, to renew our Baptismal promises and to preach Christ’s “Good News” by our transparent Christian lives of love, mercy, service and forgiveness.
The Gospel today describes Jesus’ baptism, and identifies with God’s chosen people who in their turn became aware of their sinful lives and their need for God’s forgiveness. The Baptism of the Lord Jesus is the great event celebrated by the Eastern churches on the feast of Epiphany because it is the occasion of the first public revelation of all the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity, and the official revelation of Jesus as the Son of God to the world by God the Father. Today marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.
Fr.Kadavil is a recently retired priest and is now chaplain of the Sacred Heart Nursing Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor in the USA. He writes: “It is worth noting that neither John nor Jesus invented baptism. It had been practiced for centuries among the Jews as a ritual equivalent to our Confession. Until the fall of the Temple in 70 A.D., it was common for Jewish people to use a special pool called a Mikveh — literally a “collection of water” – as a means of spiritual cleansing, to remove spiritual impurity and sin. Men took this bath weekly on the eve of the Sabbath, women, monthly. Converts were also expected to take this bath before entering Judaism. The Orthodox Jews still retain the rite. John preached that such a bath was a necessary preparation for the cataclysm that would be wrought by the coming Messiah. Jesus transformed this continuing ritual into the one single, definitive act (receiving Baptism), by which we begin our life of faith.