Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel Mark 1:7-11 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
[John the Baptist] preached, saying, “After me comes he who is
mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and
untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and
was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up
out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn
open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You
are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
MASS AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Sistine Chapel, Sunday, 8 January 2012
[I have highlighted parts
of Pope Benedict's homily]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is always a joy to celebrate this Holy Mass with the baptism of children on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. I greet you all with affection, dear parents, godparents and all of you, relatives and friends! You have come here — you said so aloud — so that your newborn babies may receive the gift of God’s grace, the seed of eternal life. You, parents, have desired this. You thought of Baptism even before your child was born. Your duty as Christian parents made you think immediately of the sacrament that marks entry into divine life and into the community of the Church. We can say that this was your first educational decision as witnesses of the faith to your children: it is a fundamental decision!
The parents’ task, helped by the godfather and godmother, is to raise their son or daughter. Raising children is very demanding and at times taxes our human capability, which is always limited. However, educating becomes a marvellous mission if it is carried out in collaboration with God who is the first and true educator of every human being.
In the First Reading, we heard from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, God addresses his people precisely as a teacher. He puts the Israelites on their guard against the danger of quenching their thirst and appeasing their hunger at the wrong sources: “Why”, he says, “do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?” (Is 55:2). God wants to give us good things to drink and to eat, things that do us good; whereas at times we use our resources mistakenly, we use them for things that are useless, indeed, even harmful. Above all, God wants to give us himself and his Word. He knows that in distancing ourselves from him we will soon run into difficulty — like the Prodigal Son of the parable — and, especially, that we will lose our human dignity. And for this reason he assures us that he is infinite mercy, that his thoughts and ways are unlike ours — fortunately! — and that we can always return to him, to the Father’s house. Thereafter he assures us that if we receive his Word it will bear good fruits in our life, like the rain that waters the earth (cf. Is 55:10-11).
We responded to these words which the Lord has addressed to us through the Prophet Isaiah with the refrain of the Psalm: We will “draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation”. As adults, we have striven to draw from the good springs for our own good and for the good of those entrusted to our responsibility, and you in particular, dear parents and godparents, for the good of these children.
And what are “the springs of
salvation”? They are the Word of God and the sacraments. Adults are the first
who should nourish themselves at these sources, so as to be able to guide those
who are younger in their development. Parents must give much, but in order to give they
need in turn to receive, otherwise they are drained, they dry up. Parents
are not the spring, just as we priests are not the spring. Rather, we are like
channels through which the life-giving sap of God’s love must flow. If
we cut ourselves off from his spring, we ourselves are the first to feel the
negative effects and are no longer able to educate others. For this reason we
have committed ourselves by saying: We will “draw water joyfully from the
springs of salvation”.
And we now come to the Second Reading and to the Gospel. They say that the first and principal education takes place through witness. The Gospel speaks of John the Baptist. John was a great educator of his disciples, because he led them to the encounter with Jesus to whom he bore witness. He did not exalt himself, he did not wish to keep his disciples bound to him. Yet John was a great prophet, his fame was very great. When Jesus arrived John drew back and pointed to him: “After me comes he who is mightier than I…. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:7-8).
The true teacher does not bind people to himself, he is not possessive. He wants his son or daughter, or disciple, to learn to know the truth and to establish a personal relationship with it. The educator does his duty fully, he assures his attentive and faithful presence because his objective is that the person being educated listen to the voice of truth speaking to his heart and follow it on a personal journey.
Let us return once again to the witness. In the Second Reading, the Apostle John writes: “And the Spirit is the witness” (1 Jn 5:7). He is referring to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who bears witness to Jesus, testifying that he is the Christ, the Son of God. This is also apparent in the scene of the Baptism in the River Jordan: the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus as a dove to reveal that he is the Only-Begotten Son of the eternal Father (cf. Mk 1:10). In his Gospel too, John underlines this aspect where Jesus says to the disciples: “When the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning” (Jn 15:26-27). This is a great comfort to us in the work of educating in faith, because we know that we are not alone and that our witness is sustained by the Holy Spirit.
It is very important for you parents, and also for
the godparents, to believe strongly in the presence and in the action of the
Holy Spirit, to invoke him and to welcome him within you, through prayer and
through the sacraments. It is
he, in fact, who illumines the mind and warms the heart of the educator so that
he or she can pass on the knowledge and love of Jesus. Prayer is the
first condition for teaching because by praying we prepare ourselves to leave
the initiative to God, to entrust children to him, who knows them before and
better than we, and who knows perfectly what their true good is. And
at the same time, when we pray we listen to God’s inspiration in order to do
our part well, which in any case is our duty and which we are bound to
do. The sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Penance, enable us to
carry out our educational action in union with Christ, in communion with him
and continuously renewed by his forgiveness. Prayer and the sacraments
obtain for us that light of truth thanks to which we are able to be at once
tender and strong, gentle and firm, silent and communicative at the right time,
admonishing and correcting in the right way.
Dear friends, let us therefore all invoke the Holy Spirit together so that he may come down upon these children in abundance, consecrate them in the image of Jesus Christ and always go with them on their journey through life. Let us entrust them to the motherly guidance of Mary Most Holy, so that they may grow in age, wisdom and grace and become true Christians, faithful and joyful witnesses of God’s love. Amen.
Holy Family Home for Girls, Bacolod City, Philippines
These are the three sacraments of
initiation, all of which were received by some of the girls, two of them by
others, some years ago on Pentecost Sunday.
May each of us thank God today for our parents and godparents who brought us to be baptized so that we might receive 'the seed of eternal life'.
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
First Sunday after the Epiphany
Feast of the Holy Family
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 1-10-2021 if necessary).
Epistle: Colossians 3:1-7. Gospel: Luke 2:42-52.
Authentic Beauty
Authentic beauty, however,
unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love,
to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in
the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.
Jesus bleibet meine Freude
