It's a biggie, folks. It's the end of the Christmas season (No, really, it is. Some say Christmas day - pshaw. Some say Epiphany...well, kinda. But this is really it. Unless you have an artificial tree and are truly old school and want to keep it up to Candlemass...that's like the very beginning of Feb. And then you are hardcore.).
But it's a Solemnity and feast where we remember and meditate upon Christ's baptism by John the Baptist, in the Jordon. Yeah, the really cool baptism, the first one that really counted. The one that makes all the others count for something; actually count for everything.
Christ being baptized is a representation of his death and resurrection, and ours as well. When we get baptized, we die to our very selves and human nature and are reborn in Christ. He did it first, so that we can do it too. It's the penultimate Christmas gift in every way. From the penultimate Christmas Gift. Yeah, meditate on that for oh, the next few thousand years! The richness of our faith and the liturgical year frequently has me waffling between laughing and weeping with joy. Really, it's just cool. And this solemnity is one of the examples why. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
Rejoice.
Song: "Isaiah 61", by Matt Maher. "The spirit of the lord is upon me..."
From morning prayer, of course:
"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came out of the water and the heavens opened before him."
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