Dive in, be Transformed, & be Empowered!

Listen to homily
Praise the Lord! What is so intimidating about water? For many, to go swimming or just to be near water can be terrifying. There are certain things about water that can be scary. How about drowning. There is a fear of being submerged and not being able to receive the oxygen we need to live. After submersion there is the mystery of the deep. It can be dark and cold, we may not know what is at the bottom of this water we find ourselves in. Lastly, there is pressure. If we go down too far, we are in danger because of the crushing weight of the water above us.

John wanted to prevent Jesus from being baptized. He couldn't understand why Jesus, God's own son, the person who is sinless would need to be baptized for repentance. Perhaps John's problem with Jesus is our problem too. We can't understand why Jesus would want to enter into our experience. Like John, we ask, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” How can this be? We can't believe that Jesus would want to share in our human condition.
These are legitimate fears, but evidently Jesus is not fearful of water. In fact, he heads south to the Jordan River from Galilee to be baptized, “for it is fitting for to fulfill all righteousness.” Or maybe Jesus had a fear of water and was able to overcome it because of his great love for us. He wanted to be in solidarity with us. Perhaps he wanted to enter into our own fear and was willing to be baptized to journey with us into our own sinfulness.

Our fear of water can be very much like the fears we face in our lives. Sin can be dark and cold. There is the fear of drowning in a sin and not being able to climb out of it. Sin can bring pressures into our lives that weigh us down and have the potential of crushing us.
Yet, we have a God who loves us so much that he is willing to enter the water with us. He is willing to forsake himself in order to draw us out of the water and to give us new beginnings. After Jesus is submerged, he comes out of this dark and mysteriously murky water and the Spirit descends upon him. As we hear in Acts, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.”

So no longer do we need to fear these dark waters because of the assurance we have in knowing that it is the Lord who enters into these deep places with us. And as Jesus rises from the waters of his own baptism, we rise from the waters of our baptism to be renewed in faith and assured of God's great love for us. It is then through Jesus that we know that we too can surface, regain the light, find warmth, and be relieved from the pressure of sin. It is through the waters of our own baptism that we can share in this, “victory of justice,” as Isaiah says.

As this feast marks the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, let it be a celebration of our hearts being changed so radically that we become co-ministers with Him. For that is what the Lord has called us too isn't it? The objective of our Christian faith is to enter into the dark and cold places that others find themselves and raise them to the light and warmth of resurrection. To help others burst through the surface of these terrifying waters and help them be made new through Christ Jesus. And as it was John's hand that lead Jesus out of the water, let it be the hand of Jesus to lead us out of the water. And we can know the words of Jesus as he says to us, “I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Because Jesus shares with us in baptism, we are called through our baptism to share in the Lord's ministry. If we think for a second that Jesus will take care of others by himself and we need not step up to the plate and take the initiative of faith to help others, we are gravely mistaken. If we think we can simply pay parish staff to do the work of training our children in the faith or believing that our priests can take care of it, we are sadly in denial. Just to give you a heads up. Right now we have 120 active priests in the Diocese of Green Bay. In 10 to 15 years, that number will be less than 80 and subsequent years much lower. Because we are baptized with Christ we are called to the ministry of Christ and that means that we are now called to be co-heirs with him, co-ministers with him, sharing in this divine life of bringing others to life in him. Yes, Jesus, “went about doing good and healing those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” But if we don't do the same through the power of our own baptism, his ministry can not continue and our community will be at a loss, our world deficient on faith.

Our challenge today is to find ways to enter into Jesus' ministry. To do good for others by sharing with others the love of Christ Jesus. This weekend is vocations weekend and we as a Church are not even close to what we could be and should be in fulfilling the obligations of our own baptism--to preach the gospel to the world. It is easy for me to speak here in this Church, but the real challenge is for you to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in your workplaces, in your schools, and in your neighborhoods. Then we, like Christ can raise others up from these dark places and give them the new beginning that Chris has given each of us.