We are situated this week between the last two great feasts
of the Christmas season: the feast of the Epiphany, last Sunday, and the feast
of the Baptism of the Lord, in just a few days.
The early Church saw the Baptism of the Lord as a second Epiphany in the
life of Our Lord. Where in the first
Epiphany, Jesus was revealed as the Savior, not just for Israel, but for the
entire world. This Sunday, we will hear
how, as Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descending in the form
of a dove, and the voice of the Father speaking from heaven manifest, and
reveal Jesus to not only be savior, but the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Our Gospel reading today reveals something about the Lord,
while at the same time preparing us for the feast of the baptism this Sunday. The healing of the leper reveals that Jesus
does not recoil from our sins, but draws near, “he does wish to make us clean”. There is no sin so heinous that the Lord will
not gladly forgive us, make us clean, when we come to him with a repentant heart.
Today’s reading prepares us to celebrate the Lord’s Baptism,
in which he calls all of mankind to come to the waters to be cleansed of the
Leprosy of Sin, where we also come to share in the divine nature of Christ who
was in no need of baptism, but was baptized to show us the way to salvation.
Listen to the words St. Leo the great delivers to a group of
Christians who were newly baptized: “Christian, remember your dignity! Now that
you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base
condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do
not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought
into the light of God’s kingdom. Through the sacrament of baptism you have
become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil
conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by
the blood of Christ.”
What beautiful and edifying words, which encourage us to
remember who we are. We are the leper
who has been made clean through baptism.
We’ve been given a new chance at life.
Whenever we are tempted to despair because of life’s misfortunes, we can
simply call to mind our baptism—that I have been cleansed in order to walk as a
child of the light.
As we come to the end of the Christmas season and the feast
of the Baptism, we do well to reflect on the great awesomeness of our own
baptism, that we may celebrate that feast with joy and thanksgiving, and live
out our baptism with renewed fervor and conviction for the glory of God and
salvation of souls.
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