Baptism of the Lord

SUNDAY 10th Jan 2010

We have had heavy snows since Christmas time but today laity were able make access.

The Mass began with some unexpected dramatics. It was announced, “It is the Baptism of the Lord”. Then, “Heaven was opened”, and immediately there was the sound of loud rumblings. In the silence we could hear the chuckles from the congregation.

The noise was from the seeming thunder from the banks of thick snow thawing and slipping from the roof. And other crashes of long icicles from the eves.

There is a big word of COSMIC but full of little things.

“And the voice came from heaven”.

There is a lovely word from Pope Benedict xvi.

He speaks of the mystery. From the wonders the cosmic, Benedict sees the great step to the mystery of Baptism.

We all feel, we all inwardly comprehend that our existence is a desire for life which invokes fullness and salvation. This fullness is given to us in baptism ..

The Baptism of the Lord This ... is the mystery of baptism: God desired to save us by going to the bottom of this abyss himself so that every person, even those who have fallen so low that they can no longer perceive heaven, may find God's hand to cling to and rise from the darkness to see once again the light for which he or she was made. We all feel, we all inwardly comprehend that our existence is a desire for life which invokes fullness and salvation. This fullness is given to us in baptism ... The Son of God, who from eternity shares the fullness of life with the Father and the Holy Spirit was "immersed" in our reality as sinners to make us share in his own life: He was incarnate, he was born like us, he grew up like us and, on reaching adulthood, manifested his mission which began precisely with the "baptism of conversion" administered by John the Baptist. Jesus' first public act. .. was to go down into the Jordan, mingling among repentant sinners, in order to receive this baptism... Why, therefore, did the Father desire this? Was it because he had sent his only-begotten Son into the world as the Lamb to take upon himself the sins of the world (see Jn 1: 29)? The Evangelist recounts that when Jesus emerged from the waters, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, while the Father's voice from heaven proclaimed him limy beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3: 17). From that very moment, therefore, Jesus was revealed as the one who came to baptize humanity in the Holy Spirit: He came to give men and women life in abundance (see In 10: 10), eternal life, which brings the human being back to life and heals him entirely, in body and in spirit, restoring him to the original plan for which he was created. The purpose of Christ's existence was precisely to give humanity God's life and his Spirit of love so that every person might be able to draw from this inexhaustible source of salvation. (Pope Benedict XVI - from MAGNIFCAT Missalette).