JESUS BAPTIZES WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Baptist represents, as few others can, the effort of men and women of all times to purify themselves, reorient their existence and begin a more worthy life. This is his message: «Do penance, return to the right path, put your life in order». This is also what we hear over and over in the depth of our conscience: «I need to change, I ought to be better, I must act more worthily».
This desire for purification is noble and indispensable, but it’s not enough. We struggle to correct mistakes, we try to fulfill our debt with more responsibility, we intend to make things better, but really nothing new is awakened in us, nothing exciting. Soon the passing of time returns us to the mediocrity of every day. The same Baptist recognizes the limit of his effort: «I baptize you only with water; someone greater will baptize you with Spirit and fire».
Jesus’ baptism encloses a new message that radically surpasses the Baptist. The Gospel writers have taken great care with this story. The heavens, which remained closed and impenetrable, are opened in order to show their secret. When they open, it’s not to discharge the divine wrath that the Baptist announced, but the gift of God’s love, the Spirit, who rests peacefully over Jesus. From heaven is heard a voice: «You are my beloved Son».
The message is clear: with Christ, the heavens have remained open; from God flows only love and peace; we can live with confidence. In spite of our errors and our unbearable mediocrity, even for us «the heavens have remained open». Even we can hear with Jesus God’s voice: «You are for me a beloved son, a beloved daughter». From now on we can confront life not as a «soiled history» that we have to constantly purify, but as a gift of the «dignity of God’s children» that we must take care of with joy and gratitude.
For whoever lives this faith, life is full of moments of grace: the birth of a child, the contact with a good person, the experience of a pure love… that put in our life new light and warmth. Quickly we seem to see «heaven open». Something new is beginning within us; we feel ourselves to be alive; what’s best in our heart is awakened. What we maybe have dreamt about secretly is now given in an unexpected form: a new beginning, a different purification, a «baptism of the Spirit». Behind these experiences is a God who loves us as Father. There we find God’s Love and God’s Spirit, the «giver of life».
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
