The Baptism Of Jesus

Fruit Of The Mystery: Openness To The Holy Spirit

The following meditations are provided to assist you while praying the Holy Rosary. It is offered in a format where a question is posed to lead the meditation and then is followed by an answer below it.  It may be more helpful to grow in your meditation skills if you try to contemplate the question while praying this decade of the Rosary, and view the possible answer upon completing the prayers for the Mystery.

The meditations below offer possible answers to questions regarding these Mysteries.  Because the Wisdom of God is infinite, there are limitless insights that one may gain from meditating repeatedly upon the questions surrounding these Mysteries.  There are no wrong or right answers when praying the Holy Rosary in this way.  We are simply seeking to be inspired in our understanding of who Jesus is and how much He loves us, as the Holy Spirit gently guides us through reflective prayer.

For many reasons it may be difficult to engage our minds to enter into meditating on the Mysteries at hand.  An alternative option is to simply meditate upon the meaning of the core prayers of the Holy Rosary as you are praying them.  You may find these reflections on the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be prayers to be helpful during these times.

Humility

Though John recognized that Jesus was completely sinless and did not need to be baptized, Jesus tells him that it is necessary to “fulfill all righteousness.”  Righteousness in Christ is simply a technical way of saying that our ‘wrongs’ or sins are made ‘right’ in the eyes of God if we believe that Jesus came to make us whole and see us through our weaknesses.  We see the great humility of Jesus who chooses to unite Himself with those who sin, so that we may be healed and make righteous decisions that draw us closer to Him.  The more we lower ourselves in humility with Jesus, the more open we become like Him to have the life-giving Holy Spirit descend upon us.  It is by the power of the Holy Spirit which we receive for the first time in Baptism that we are able to make decisions that help us to live Holy lives.  We must continually call upon the Holy Spirit to renew His grace within us as we fall often in our human nature.

2.  Why is humility so important to receive the Holy Spirit?

Because the human creation was given the gift of free will, no matter how good something is for us, God never forces anything upon us.  Therefore, unless we are humble enough to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit through prayer, He will not come to dwell within us.  Also, consider that a vessel cannot be filled by anything unless it is first emptied.  If we are to be vessels filled by the selfless love of the Holy Spirit, we cannot be filled with pride and selfish love.  We must first be emptied in all humility to receive His graces.  The Son of God tries to teach us this as He submits Himself to baptism at the hands of one of His own creation- a baptism which was intended for sinners.

3.  Why do we become baptized when we are infants and not as adults?

In our human condition, there is no humility more perfect than that of a very young child.  From this perspective it makes much sense why we would baptize babies into the Catholic Faith.  Though the child may not comprehend the Sacrament they are receiving, the Holy Spirit does not demand a perfect understanding here- for no level of human intellect can comprehend His infinite nature.  When we consider that the action of the Holy Spirit during Baptism occurs beyond the realm of our physical senses, it becomes clearer that the magnitude of this supernatural experience is far beyond what any human being has the power to grasp.  Baptism is a simple act of faith that initiates our lives as Christians.  It is our daily choices and the way in which we live our lives that affirms this faith.  In the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Church officially recognizes our intent to live Christian lives and calls down the Holy Spirit upon us once again to empower us along this journey.  This pattern of baptizing new believers, and then confirming them in their faith at a later date can be traced back to the apostles and the first Christian communities in Sacred Scripture.

Beloved Sons and Daughters

Jesus is the greatest leader of all time, because He leads by example. He never asks anything of us that He did not first do Himself.  As we are Baptized into the Church, we are called to begin our public ministry of service to Him.  This ministry is chiefly concerned with witnessing His unselfish love to one another through our words and actions.  It is a life long ministry which begins as early as we can smile and bring joy to others, as even babies can do in such a special way. As we grow physically and spiritually, we are called as members of the Church to use our unique gifts, time and treasures in ways that only we were created to do.  To inspire us to great heights in carrying out His mission, Jesus continually speaks His love to us in the world around us.  As the brothers and sisters of Jesus, Our Father also calls each of us His “beloved sons and daughters” as He did for Jesus at His Baptism.

By making this anointing public, Our Father shows how Jesus truly is the Messiah which was foretold by Isaiah and the other prophets. Not only was this helpful for John the Baptist to recognize that Jesus was indeed the Christ, but it helped all those present believe that this was the Son of God.  Among those present were some of His future apostles, including Andrew and John.  On a personal level Our Father’s message of love was directed toward Jesus Himself.  Knowing all things, and that His Son would go head to head with His greatest enemy during forty days of fasting, the Father inspires Jesus emotionally for the battle by en-couraging (filling Him with courage and Love) Him and telling Him how proud and well pleased He is with Him as His Son.

Prayer

After Jesus finishes praying, the Holy Spirit begins to descend upon Him.  Knowing that the Father always answers His prayers, we understand that Jesus was praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  In this prayer, Jesus seeks to remain one with the Father in His mission to carry out the Divine Will for the salvation of souls.  Anytime we attend a Baptism for children, family or friends, we should always plead with the Father, as Jesus did, for the Holy Spirit to descend upon the recipient to empower them with the grace to be faithful to their call to witness Christ’s love in their lives.  As we are called to embrace Jesus’ mission on earth for the salvation of souls, we must continually pray to be filled by the power and courage of the Holy Spirit so that we too remain one with the Divine Will.

Uniting Our Baptism With Christ’s Baptism

1.  Why would Jesus get baptized, which is symbolic of the washing away of our sins, if He had never sinned?

In His Mercy and Love for His creation, all things Jesus did on earth and will do forever in Heaven always demonstrate how much He truly loves us.  Every move Jesus made in His earthly life was an act of reparation for our sins.  Jesus encountered every decision and situation we face as humans, so that all things could return to glorify the Father when done through Him, with Him and in Him.  In other words, though we are imperfect, whatever actions we perform or words we speak can be made perfect when they are united to what Jesus did.  A great example is the Baptism of Our Lord.  In our Baptism, though our faith is incomplete, we are still able to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit because Christ joins us to His Baptism.

Water Baptism

1.  Why does Jesus use water to symbolize our Baptism?

Jesus later would teach us through Nicodemus, that if we want to live within His Kingdom, we would have to be born of water and of the Spirit.  Water is an outward sign of an inward reality.  Its symbolism serves to show that we become washed clean internally of our sins.  Not only do we see this in the waters of the Jordan River, but more importantly at the foot of the Cross, where blood and water flow from the side of Jesus (John19:34).  This represents that we must come to Jesus from whom flows the ‘living water’ of the Holy Spirit.  It is in His Passion and death on the Cross that we find the value of our Baptism (where we die with Christ to our sins), and it is in His Resurrection that we are offered new life.  

Importance of Baptism

1.  Before Jesus ascends to Heaven He instructs His disciples to continue baptizing all in the power of His Name (Mark 16:15-16).  Why is this so important?  How does our life change when we are baptized?

This Sacrament is important for many reasons, but mostly because it was a command from Jesus.  Like everything He asks us to do, it is always for our own good- because He loves us.  Through this Sacrament Jesus communicates this love to us in the form of the Holy Spirit.  It is by the grace and love we receive within us at Baptism that we are placed in an order of life higher than our own.  As we enter this communion of love with God, we partake in His supernatural life.  This divine nature that now dwells within us has the power to shape our actions, which then take on a new value far surpassing that of our human nature alone, because they have a value which is now also truly divine.  It is in this process of being formed in the likeness of Christ that we become prepared to enjoy the fruits of eternal life in Christ.  Not only does Jesus desire for us to be happy with Him for all eternity, but in choosing to trust in Him and live this way now we become blessed to experience His peace and love on earth, even during our most difficult times.

2.  Does the Holy Spirit only descend upon us in Baptism?  How else do we draw down the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit does come to us in Baptism, but this is only the beginning of our relationship with Him.  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity, and like any good relationship the more we interact and communicate with someone, the stronger and more intimate our bond becomes.  We should call upon the Holy Spirit often in prayer to strengthen this bond of love.  We do this in a most simple way when we bless ourselves with the sign of the Cross, as we draw down God’s Mercy and grace through our openness to receiving the Holy Spirit.  It is a way we can begin all of our daily actions to show our commitment to His Most Holy Will.

Doing Our Best

Though John has lived his entire life preparing for this encounter with Christ, He does not feel worthy enough when He is actually faced with the situation.  Jesus encourages Him to follow through because it is part of His plan.  John was made whole to accomplish this task by the very presence of Jesus who made even the waters they were standing in Holy, because He draws all things to Himself.  If we place ourselves before the presence of our Lord through prayer, scripture or the Blessed Sacrament, we too will be strengthened to do our best and carry out what He asks of us.

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