Epiphany events Theophanies

FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
Sunday, January 9
Matthew 3:13-17  

Mass Homily  

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Raymond . . .
Sent: Sun, 9 January, 2011 17:24:34
Subject: Baptism of Lord

Baptism of Lord 2010

The Baptism of the Lord is the closing event of the Christmas season, not because it is joined to the infancy of Christ chronologically, it happened during the adulthood of Jesus, of course, but because it is joined to the epiphany events theologically.  It is one of the great epiphanies, one of the great revelations of God.  However, unlike the manifestation to the shepherds or the Magi, it manifests the divinity of Christ in the context of the Blessed Trinityitself.  

This is what gives it its own particular character.  The story of the Incarnation and the hidden years in Nazareth opens with the Trinity and closes with the Trinity.  The angel Gabriel announces to Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the Power of the Most High would overshadow her and therefore the Holy One to be born of her would be called the Son of God; and the Church closes the Christmas season with the Trinity as revealed in the Baptism of Jesus.

Highly significant too are the words spoken to Jesus by the Father:  “You are my beloved Son.  In you I am well pleased”.  This saying is at first glance similar to the words spoken by the Father at the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain top.  But there is, on closer inspection a notable difference.  At the transfiguration the voice of the Father was directed to the Apostles “This is my beloved son....Listen to him.” whereas at the Baptism the voice addresses Jesus himself directly “You are my beloved Son.....”  The Father here focuses his gaze on Jesus alone; he has eyes for only Jesus, and this draws from him, as it were, a spontaneous cry of love: “How I love you my son”.  It is as if we are privileged for an instant to witness the inner life of the Blessed Trinity itself; the eternal and ineffable love that passes between the Three Divine Persons themselves.
This is a precious moment for us indeed, a moment that surpasses in a way all the great Theophanies of the Old Testament, from the Divine voice in the Garden of Eden to the mystic visitors of Abraham and the visions of the great prophets.

This is the first time that the Blessed Trinity is brought into focus for the whole people of God; the first Epiphany, not of the Word made flesh, but of the Triune Personhood of God.  That this revelation should be made through an expression of the Fathers’ love for the Son is so beautifully fitting for the God who is love itself.  And that this expression of the Father’s love for his Son should also be made precisely when the Son, through his baptism, identifies himself with us in our sinfulness and need of cleansing assures us that we ourselves are caught up in that love of the Father for his Son.