Why Christ sought to be baptized

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S a question we can ask on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Even St. John the Baptist asked that question. But Christ insisted. “Suffer it to be so now. For so it becomes us to fulfill all justice,” Christ told St. John the Baptist. (Mt 3,15)

The quick answer to that question is because Christ wants to show that with baptism, he is identifying himself with the whole humanity, demonstrating his commitment to fulfill the will of his Father.

At the same time, with the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and a heavenly voice heard, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” what was established was the clear divinity of Christ and his mission of redeeming humanity.

It’s a historic event pregnant with very important implications. With no need to be baptized, he had himself baptized, even insisting on it, to institute the sacrament of baptism which is the gateway for us to Christian life, to incorporate us into the mystical body of Christ.

With baptism, we open ourselves to the possibility of receiving all the other sacraments that fully satisfy our spiritual needs with the view of attaining our salvation and our eternal life with God our Father.

We have to understand then that our life has to revolve around the sacraments that serve to build it up and make it Christ’s life as well. As the Catechism puts it, all the sacraments form one organic whole, and they “touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life.” (1210)

Some spiritual writers have also considered Christ’s baptism as his second birth. The first one was with Mary, quite hidden and known only to a few shepherds and mysteriously to three magi who came from a far country. This second one highlights the fact that Christ is the Son of God and presents him to the world as such.

Yes, Christ’s baptism also marks the transition of Christ’s hidden life, consisting of more or less 30 years of doing ordinary things daily, to his public life when he would start going around preaching and healing and ultimately offering his life on the cross.

To be sure, the life of Christ is perfectly one and consistent, thoroughly redemptive in character both in his human and divine natures, and also in his hidden and public life. The distinctions do not divide Christ since all these distinctions are held in one divine person as subject.

This truth about Christ should somehow be reflected in our own lives. We are human, yes, but we are meant for a divine destination since we are God’s image and likeness, adopted children of his. With God’s grace, this blend, so to speak, is made possible.

Also, our personal, hidden life should not undermine the public life that is also meant for us since we are social beings. We have need for privacy, for discretion and confidentiality, but all these should not be made as an excuse to avoid our social duties and responsibilities.

We should not be afraid to go public, so to speak, to give witness to our faith which is not something to be held only personally but also collectively. We just have to make sure that our “public life” should not be an occasion to seek human glory, but only for God’s glory and for the good of all.

This will be our constant danger, and therefore we need to rectify our intentions continually and see to it that the means we use for giving witness to our faith in public are in keeping with the purpose of simply giving glory to God and for the common good.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com