Jan 8 Mon: THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him." Jesus went to meet John the Baptist as just one more person among the crowd; he mingled with thousands of others who had come from all over the country."
As far as the other people in that crowd were concerned, the carpenter from Nazareth was a man just like any other. But John the Baptist, recognizing him as the Son of God, did not want to baptize him. “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus insisted, and John finally had to give in.
When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
Some days later John was faced with an unusual group of inquirers.
What a lot of gossip there was going on! Is he the Christ? Is he Elijah? Is he a Prophet? So many rumors were flying around that the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
“For someone with little supernatural outlook, it might seem that John the Baptist wasted an opportunity of winning converts. John could even have answered with the testimony which Jesus was to give of him: ‘He is the Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear’."
However, those who went to ask John were in no frame of mind to understand those words correctly. “He did not deny, but confessed ... I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness."
Seeing the messengers' disappointment, he added: “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."
Our Lord also showed himself to us when, with the light of the Holy Spirit, he made us grasp that he was at our side as we went along our path through life; and he was asking us, as he asked John, to bear witness to him. Each of us must bear witness to Christ. This is what he wants us to do: to get to know him, and then to share with others the saving news that we have found him.
St. Josemaría tells us: “All my children are Christ passing through the world. You are not known. Yet, all over the world, friends and colleagues at work are discovering Christ in your brothers, in you. Afterwards they too will bring Christ to other hearts and minds. You are Christ passing along the street. But you must walk in his footsteps."
“Now, do you understand the greatness of your mission?"
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