Baptism Of The Lord
Readings: Is 40:1-5.9-11; Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3:15-16.21-22
THE GOD WHO RANKS AMONG SINNERS
Lord Jesus, you “glory of God,” you “God who comes with power, who with his arm holds dominion” (Is 40:5. 10: First Reading), you are there today, mingled with the poor people who go to the Baptist to ask for the sign of conversion from sins. You, the Eternal One, the Immeasurable One, whom we contemplated sung by the angels (Lk 2:9-14) and adored by the magi (Mt 2:1-11) in the mystery of Christmas, you make your public life debut by standing in line among sinners waiting for baptism. But Lord, the powerful, the rich, those who count, never line up! Have you ever seen a minister, an industrialist, a prelate, or even a congressman or an alderman standing in line? No, they have the secretary who provides for them, all they need is a phone call, or at least a reserved appointment is booked for them. It is the poor people, on the other hand, who stand in line: it is the sick people who are already there, at six o’clock in the morning, queuing up in front of the ASL counters to book that exam that is so necessary and that the public facility makes you sigh so much. They are the old ladies who, at the post office, are queuing up to collect their small pension. It is the unemployed who, at the employment office, queue to find out if there is a job opening. They are the immigrants who queue for days to renew their residence permits. It is the homeless who queue at the Reception Center to get a bowl of soup or a bed for the night. It is the ordinary people who queue at offices to get a document or to pay a tax, to buy at the big sale or to get into the stadium, and sometimes (alas, increasingly rarely…) even to go to confession…
But you, Lord, what are you doing there? You “the beloved Son,” in whom the Father delights (Lk. 3:22: Gospel), are there standing in line, patiently, waiting your turn! Nor is it your turn to speak, to operate, to show off, but to make the humble gesture of the repentant sinner, the wicked man who wants to change his life, the blasphemers, the murderers, the violent, the adulterers, the thieves, the perjurers, the immoral… Truly “though you were divine in nature, you did not regard your equality with God as a jealous treasure, but you stripped yourself, taking on the condition of a servant and becoming like men” (Phil. 2:6-8). Truly you seal the beginning of your ministry with the style of “emptying yourself” that will lead you to become “a man of sorrows, well acquainted with suffering…, despised…, chastened, beaten by God and humiliated…, pierced…, crushed…, abused. …, prostrated with sorrows” (Is 53:3-5.7.10), whose mystery of suffering we contemplate moved on Calvary; the way of humiliation, which will lead you to be the ‘Crucified Messiah, scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles’ (1 Cor 1:23). But not only “you have borne our sufferings, you have taken upon yourself our sorrows” (Is 53:4), but “you have borne the sin of many” (Is 53:12); you are the “Son sent in a flesh like sin and in view of sin” (Rom 8:3); you “who had known no sin, you have been treated by God as sin on our behalf” (2 Cor 5:21).
We have only to contemplate in silence the mystery of your love, of your tender shepherding that gathers the flock so meekly and non-violently: each one knows that truly a God who mingled among sinners truly is able to “carry the lambs on his breast, lead the mother sheep slowly” (Is 40:11: First Reading), attentive to our needs, sympathetic to our weaknesses. You, O Lord, know how we are made, and permeate with your love our every reality, even the most abject and petty.
Help us always to acknowledge our faults, give us the gift of tears for our sin. And help us to understand that even our Baptism commits us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly, righteously and godly in this world” (1 Titus 2:12; 3:5: Second Reading), following your example, humble among the humble, poor among the poor, last among the last.