[Isaiah42:1-4,6-7; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17]
When we were Baptised, we were baptised in the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, in today’s Gospel we hear The Father speak at the Baptism of The Son with the visible presence of The Holy Spirit. This day two thousand years ago, when the Trinity show their eternal unity and Jesus gives us an example of how we can enter into his family and become his adopted brothers and sisters.
We know that Jesus did not need to be baptised. By convincing John to Baptise him, Jesus was standing in ‘solidarity with sinners.’[1] Jesus, as true God did not need Baptism. Jesus, as true man, needs us to take up Baptism and follow him allowing us as mankind, to journey towards our Father’s eternal home.
The words we hear today from Isaiah in our first reading would have been very familiar to Jesus. He would have heard them growing up, he would possibly have read them out in the Synagogue. In fact, those at Mass yesterday would have heard, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus reading from another similar section of Isaiah, where there is also mention of the blind recovering their sight and prisoners being set free. Jesus knew Scriptures and realised that He was on earth to fulfil them.
The response to the psalm is very much needed in our days too. ‘The Lord will bless his people with peace.’ With all that is going on; remembering that what we see in the news is only a fraction of what is going on. The conflicts in Africa, barely get a mention, and yet if we read the latest information from Cafod, we see that there has been fighting in Sudan for over 1000 days now, causing millions to flee; seeking a place of safety. This has put pressure on the aid agencies and on the neighbouring countries.[2] When we pray that psalm this Sunday let’s remember all of those who are affected by conflict, and ask God to bring peace to our world.
In the second reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear St Peter, in the house of Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion, recognising that God was extending His call to those outside the Jewish faith. It is noticeable how Peter describes Christ’s message as being ‘the good news of peace’. As Christians we need to be advocates of peace, very easy when we live in a country which is for the most part peaceful; but for our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted this must seem like a forlorn hope.
The Baptism of the Lord marks the start of the public ministry of Jesus, one of His final messages to the disciples was to instruct them to go out to the whole world and Baptise in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, demonstrating how important Baptism is for the Salvation of mankind.
When I celebrate a Baptism service, I usually state that this is the start of a journey and that the parents, godparents and all those present, are witnesses to the start of the journey. But that is not where their part in the journey ends. Those present are called to witness to the child being baptised the teachings of the Lord, to be good role models, to help the parents to bring the child up in the Faith which we all profess. We may not be able to hear it the way those present at the Baptism of the Lord heard it, but at every baptism the voice of God is saying, this is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased. If we teach the child well enough and the child grows up living a life in Faith then at the end of the journey, they will hear the voice of God saying, ‘Well done true and faithful servant, come in, I have a place prepared for you.’
Further Reading
Homiletics Directory of the Catholic Church
E. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
131. The feast of the Baptism of the Lord, a dimension of Epiphany, closes the Christmas season and opens it outward into Ordinary time. When Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, something enormous happens. The heavens are torn open then, the Father’s voice is heard, and the Spirit is seen coming down in visible form upon Jesus. This is an epiphany of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. But why does such a vision occur in the moment when Jesus is baptized? The homilist must give some answer to this question.
132. The explanation lies in Jesus’ purpose in coming to John and being baptized by him. John is preaching a baptism of repentance. Jesus wants to make this sign of repentance together with the many others who were coming to John. At first John tries to prevent him, but Jesus insists. And his insistence expresses what he intends: he means to stand in solidarity with sinners. He means to be where they must be. The same thing is expressed by the Apostle Paul using a different kind of language: “He who knew no sin became sin for our sake” (2 Cor 5:21).
133. And it is precisely in this moment of intense solidarity with sinners that this immense trinitarian epiphany takes place. The Father’s voice thunders from heaven, declaring, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” And we must understand that what pleases the Father is precisely the Son’s willingness to stand in solidarity with sinners. In this way he shows himself to be the Son of this Father, this Father “who so loved the world that he gave to it his only Son” (Jn 3:16). In the same instant, the Spirit appears like a dove, descending upon the Son, functioning as a sort of accreditation or authorization of the whole unexpected scene.
134. The Spirit who shaped this scene and indeed prepared for it through the long centuries of Israel’s history – “Who spoke through the prophets,” as we profess in the Creed – is present to the homilist and his hearers, opening their minds to an ever deeper understanding of the scene. The same Spirit accompanied Jesus in every moment of his earthly existence, shaping each of his actions into a revelation of his Father. Thus, we can hear this morning’s text from the prophet Isaiah as an expansion within the heart of Jesus on the Father’s words “You are my beloved Son.” Their loving dialogue continues: “You are my chosen one with whom I am well pleased, upon whom I have put my Spirit … I the Lord have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations.”
135. The responsorial psalm on this feast seizes on the words of Psalm 29, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters.” The Church sings this psalm as a celebration of the words of the Father which we are privileged to hear and the hearing of which, is our feast. “Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” – this is the “voice of the Lord over the waters, over the vast waters. The voice of the Lord is mighty. The voice of the Lord is majestic” (Ps 29:3-4).
136. After Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit sends him out into the desert to be put to the test by Satan. Then Jesus, still and ever guided by the Spirit, appears in Galilee proclaiming the Kingdom of God. In the course of his spellbinding preaching and his wonderful miracles, Jesus once said, “There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished” (Lk 12:50). With these words he referred to his coming death in Jerusalem. In this way we learn that Jesus’ baptism by John was not his ultimate baptism but an acting out in symbolic fashion of what he would accomplish in the baptism of his final agony and death on the cross. For it is on the cross that Jesus shows himself, not merely in symbol but in very deed, in complete solidarity with sinners. There he “became sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21), there “he was made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13). There he went down into the chaos of the waters of the underworld and drowned our sins forever. But from the cross and from his death, Jesus is also brought up from the waters, called to resurrection by the Father’s voice which says, “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased. Today I have begotten you” (Heb 1:5). This scene of death and resurrection is the masterpiece of the Spirit’s writing and direction. The voice of the Lord over the mighty waters of death raises his Son from the dead, majestic and mighty. “The voice of the Lord is mighty. The voice of the Lord is majestic.”
137. Jesus’ baptism is the pattern also of ours. In baptism we go down with Christ into the waters of death, and our sins are drowned in those waters. And because we have gone down with Christ, we also come up from the waters together with him and hear – mighty and majestic – the Father’s voice directed to us as well. It pronounces a new name for each of us, in the depths of each of our hearts: “Beloved! In whom I am well pleased.” We hear this name as ours not because of any good deeds we have done but because Christ in his overflowing love willed to share his relationship to his Father with us.
138. The Eucharist that is celebrated on this feast deepens all the patterns of this story. The Spirit appears hovering over the gifts of bread and wine which the faithful bring. The words of Jesus – “This is my body, this is my blood” – announce his intention to receive the baptism of death for our sake. And the assembly prays, “Our Father” together with the Son because it has heard the Father call it “Beloved” together with him.
139. Jesus once said in the course of his ministry, “Whoever believes in me, as scripture says, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’” Those living waters began to flow within each of us at our baptism, and they become an ever stronger river with every celebration of the Eucharist.[3]
Please remember in your prayers
- All those who are sick, either at home or in hospital, especially those who have very few or no visitors.
- Those who have died and those who grieve for them.
- All people affected by war and that international treaties for the protection of non-combatants and civilians are respected and adhered to.
- All those attending the RCIA programmes
- Those attending the Youth Alpha programme which is a prerequisite for the Confirmation programme in our Pastoral Area.
- The success of the Pastoral Area Mission Plan.
Deacon Tony
10th January 2026
[1] Homiletic Directory, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
[3] Homiletic Directory, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments