I
love to tell the story of a baptism I did years ago for the daughter of
some dear Italian friends of mine. The baptism took place in a
one-thousand-year-old church in a tiny town in Tuscany and it brought
together at least 50 family members from all over Italy. I have many
fond memories of that celebration. It took place on a
picture-perfect day in early October, the gently sloping hills brilliant
in shades of gold and green, the sky the bluest blue you can imagine. A
landscape worthy of Van Gogh!
The baptism itself was great fun, like most
baptisms, and this one was especially so because almost none of the
family in attendance had ever seen a baptism by immersion. There
were audible sounds of delight as I took little “Izzy,” as they called
her (it’s Elizabeth now, I assure you!) and plunged her three times into
the great stone font that was festooned with garlands of beautiful white
flowers.
And I have another memory of that celebration
that will long remain with me. The church was about a half-mile distant
from the little country inn where we were all staying, and to get to the
church, the whole family - parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and
a pack of little cousins dressed in their Sunday best - formed a kind of
procession (a fairly loose procession: this was Italy, not Germany!)
that wound its way over the hillside, stopping at one point for a group
photo in front of a lovely wayside shrine with a statue of the Madonna
and Child. Elizabeth’s baptism was, in every sense of the word, a
family affair.
Every baptism is a family affair, of course!
Ours here at St. James are doubly so: there’s the family, immediate and
extended, of the baby being baptized, and there’s the family of the
parish. In the deepest sense of the word, each one of us becomes
‘family’ as we surround the baby with our love, our prayers, and our
welcome. (One of the sad things about the worst days of the pandemic was
that we not being able to do communal baptisms – sad because baptism is
all about family: the family that brings their new baby to the church
with great anticipation, and the family of faith – the Church – that
welcomes its newest member with great joy.
The story of Jesus’ baptism that we heard from
Luke’s gospel today makes it clear that his baptism was a family affair,
too. Luke paints the picture simply and beautifully. We can see the
people lining up at the water’s edge to be baptized by John the Baptist,
their hearts filled with resolve and expectation. At the end of the line
is Jesus who steps forward to be baptized after everyone else. But Luke,
unlike Matthew and Mark, does not describe the actual baptism. Instead,
he zeroes in on what happened immediately afterwards. He tells us that
after Jesus had been baptized he was praying (Luke loves to talk about
Jesus praying), and it was while he was praying that it became clear
that his baptism was a family affair. The heavens opened up, we are
told, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove, and
his Father’s voice was heard from heaven, “You are my beloved Son. With
you I am well pleased.” A family affair for Jesus this most
certainly was: Jesus, the Father’s only-begotten Son, Jesus the one in
whom the Holy Spirit lived and breathed as in no other, Jesus who long
before he took flesh and became part of our family, was at the heart of
God’s, family, the Holy Trinity.
My friends, this feast of the Baptism of the
Lord not only celebrates the family affair that was the baptism of
Jesus; it also celebrates our baptism, the day that we became part of a
great family, the family of faith, the Church. And every day since, the
Spirit of God has been living within us, the Spirit of love and joy and
peace, the Spirit who gives each of us a family resemblance to Jesus.
And every day since, the Father has been looking upon us fondly and
speaking words like the ones he spoke at the baptism of Jesus: You are
my beloved son, my beloved daughter, in you I am well pleased!
And, my friends, God doesn’t stop speaking
those words even when we lose our way and follow paths that take us away
from Jesus and his Gospel. God is faithful even when we are not, and God
has ways of getting through to us no matter how deaf or detached we may
be.
And for those who question their faith or their
relationship with the Church because of the sins and failings of Church
leaders – question whether they can any longer be part of the family
that is the Church - even then, God never stops embracing them; never
stops seeing them as beloved sons and daughters, never stops inviting
them to find in the Church – no matter how flawed and imperfect – their
home, their family, their path to God.
Dear friends, two Sundays ago we celebrated the
feast of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Today we celebrate
the feast of the Baptism. But I will always think of this as a second
feast of the Holy Family - our holy family, the family that we are,
thanks to our baptism: the family of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
the family of the Church. Baptism really is a family affair!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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