The Baptism of Our Lord, By Rick Stevens, Fiat Ventures

The Baptism of Our Lord

By Rick Stevens, Fiat Ventures

The trees are gone, the lights are down and the decorations are stowed. The Holidays are now a memory.  January has arrived and, except for the lucky few who are taking tropical vacations or lavish ski trips, all we have is the cold to look forward to.  Right?

Well, maybe not. The days are actually getting longer and we have all the promise of a new year to contemplate. Believe it or not, Spring is just a little over two months away. That time of renewal and rebirth, when the leaves return and green buds appear on branches.

In today’s gospel reading, John the Baptist is running around the desert baptizing everyone he can to prepare them for this renewal and rebirth. John is a unique guy who we get to know intimately during Advent.  Picture him as a senior at Dead Sea High School running around with a camel hair coat and leather belt, ordering wild honey and locust pizza from Dominos.

You want to think of him as weird but he has such a genuine, selfless, yet confident manner that you can’t help but think of him as cool and someone you want to listen to.  John’s message is one of repentance, aimed at reminding all of us that the next two months or so can be a time of quiet reflection and examination of conscience.

In addition to making and trying to keep New Years’ resolutions, we can use this pre-Spring cleaning time to look at the habits and behaviors that make us less proud of ourselves than we should be. These might be simple actions like respect for others by the way we treat them with dignity or respect for ourselves by the way we take care of our physical and spiritual health,   For as John the Baptist tells us, we need to be ready to receive the baptism that the Lord will bring and that requires open minds, pure hearts and clear consciences.

So while Jesus’ baptism in the Holy Spirit will overshadow John’s baptism with water and his message of preparing the way through repentance, John’s role is important nonetheless. It reminds us that when we live in Christ, we live in the hope and expectation of living a happy life.