By Praveen Bandula, CSC –
Readings: Is 42: 1-4, 6-7; Acts 10: 34-38; Mt 3: 13-17
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Today through the Feast of Baptism of the Lord, the Universal Church is inviting and preparing each one of us to be immersed in God’s Spirit. The anointing of the Spirit is waiting for each one of us. All of us are eligible to such a great blessing. Then how could we prove our eligibility?
The answer is very clear. St. Peter says that anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God. We need to question ourselves, ‘what is right according to God?’ It is nothing but ‘Love your God and love your Neighbor as you love yourself.’ Jesus is 100% eligible for receiving the God’s Spirit because he was chosen by God and there is no fault in him.
Jesus lived his life by proclaiming the good news of God. The good news is ‘God loves you.’ Jesus showed God’s love to people through various ways like preaching, healing, questioning the authority, feeding with bread and by raising the dead etc. He was able to do all these things just because of the power he had received from God. Though he himself is God, he didn’t use his power and Spirit for himself. He used them to manifest the love of God to people. When we go through the readings very deeply we understand that we can’t achieve anything without the help of God’s Spirit and power.
By receiving baptism from John the Baptist Jesus wants to show that he is one with us in living a complete human life. He does not want to separate himself from being a human. The message we need to draw from the feast of baptism is that humility will make you to stand high in the sight of God. God loves those who humble themselves. Let us learn a message from Jesus that we need to humble ourselves before God so that he will be pleased with us and fill us with his Spirit.