By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
In Water, in Spirit and in the Word
The Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord: January 13, 2019
Isaiah 40: 1-5,9-11; Titus 2: 11-14, 3:4-7; Luke 3: 15-16,21-22
Baptism – a moment when one is reborn, reborn through the waters, in the Spirit and by the Word – a moment when one is BORN AGAIN.
The Water: Hailing from Chennai, India, water has a special meaning for me! There have been moments that I have stood still in front of that immensity of water, on the Marina beach looking at the coast of the Bay of Bengal, wondering what a power that lies there. And it did show up once with all its true power – the Tsunami that hit in 2004… and the devastating floods that have come and gone!
Water is not merely refreshing and renewing, but it is resetting. If that vocabulary from the e-world can be used, it would mean starting from the beginning once again. The waters of baptism claims exactly that effect on us. Being born again is not merely to undergo a ceremony and start judging the rest as damned; go around asking each other, ‘are you saved?’ and ‘are you born again?’ or ‘are you twice born’ and all those ungodly questions! Baptism is to reset my life, restart it with virtues and convictions that give me a new existence altogether, an openness beyond measure, a love beyond compare, because I am born again as a child of God.
The Spirit: The Mark of Ownership, the seal of the covenant between the Father and me, the One who makes me the dwelling place of God and the One who makes me call God, Abba Father! If at all we can use that term figuratively, born again, would mean be born after I am born; yes, after I am born as a human being, I am born again in the spirit as human person!
Being born again as a human person in the Spirit, is to receive within me that all transforming presence of the Holy Spirit, which does not allow me to be any being, but makes me become a human ‘person’, a person after the image of God! Being born again is to possess this personal sanctity and interpersonal sensitivity: personal sanctity of purity and detachment from the tendency to sin; the interpersonal sensitivity of accepting each other as brothers and sisters, born of that One Father! These, personal sanctity and interpersonal sensitivity are the marks of the indwelling Spirit – a total absence of unholy arrogance and inhuman pride.
The Word: The Word, made flesh, who speaks to us and invites us to a life that is modelled after him. To be born again is to be transformed into the image of Christ, to put on the mind of Christ and to bear his likeness.
I was once amused by the sharing my elder sister who teaches in a Government School in a village on the outskirts of Chennai. She shared about her children in class, who do not know terms like Christian or Catholic, telling her, “Teacher neenga Yesu thaane, appadina leavu mudinji varum pothu sweet eduthuttu vaanga!” (Teacher you are Jesus isn’t it? then bring sweets when you come after Christmas holidays – instead of saying, ‘you are a christian’, they say, ‘you are Jesus, isnt it?’). That set me thinking- Aren’t you Jesus? Am I not Christ? Have I become another Christ – alter christus? The Word challenges us towards that… to be born again, is to be reborn in the image of Christ: it is not just an event, but an experience; not just a happening, but a process for life,which is begun at the moment of our baptism!
Let us remember today the great gift we have been given in our Baptism and resolve to live that call to be Born Again – in water, in Spirit and in the Word.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.