I
like 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.
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 (‘dunking’) - the Church’s preferred way to
baptize. There were audible sounds of delight as I took little “Izzy,”
as they called her then (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, mind you: 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 in the congregation becomes ‘family’ as we
surround the baby with our love, our prayers, and our welcome.
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. Think of that! 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 distant, deaf, or detached we may be.
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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