The Lord – the Word made Flesh – was born in this world riddled with difficulty, conflict and disease. We have celebrated His birth and, at the Epiphany, his manifestation to the world that He came to save. This Sunday, the Gospel takes us thirty years on – to His baptism in the Jordan by John. The Holy Spirit is seen and the voice of the Father proclaims Jesus as “the Beloved” on whom “favor rests”. This event marks the beginning of the Lord’s public ministry. After the hidden life of Nazareth, the time has come for the Lord to embark upon the three years of preaching, healing and teaching that would lead him to Passion, Death and Resurrection – all for our salvation; all out of love for us. All was done so that, in the words of St Paul in his Letter to Titus, “We should be justified by His grace, to become heirs looking forward to eternal life.”
Despite the circumstances in which we find ourselves – no matter how difficult they may be – we can be confident in the power of the Saviour Who has come. There must be something of John the Baptist about us, as we point the way for others towards the person of Jesus. Now is the time for us to listen to the Prophet Isaiah and to say, as John the Baptist said: “Here is your God.”
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