BY VERY REV. MSGR. GABRIEL OSU
Then Jesus came form Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John hindered him, saying: “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” In answer, Jesus said to him “; let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires”. So John agrees.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up our of the water. Then heaven was open to him, and he saw the spirit of God coming down like a dove coming upon him, then a voice from heaven saying “This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased”- Matthew 3:12-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22.

“Tell us by what authority you to do these things have. In Matthew 21:23-27; Mark 11:27-33; and Luke 20:1-8.

It is stated: one day as he was teaching and evangelizing the people in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes alone with the elders, come up and said to him: “Tell us by what authority you do these things or who it is who gives you this authority”.

Jesus answered them: III will also ask you a question. John’s baptism was it from heaven or from people? They debated among themselves saying “I we say ‘from heaven’, he will say ‘way did you not believe in him?’

Yet if we say ‘from people’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet”. So they answered that they did not know where it came from. Jesus said to them: IINeither do I tell you by what authority I do these things”.

From the beginning of his public life, at his baptism, Jesus is the “Servant”, wholly consecrated to the redemptive work that he will accomplish by the “baptism” of his passion. This is in the catechism of Catholic Church 565.

The essential rite of Baptism consists in immersing the candidate in water or pouring water on his head. While pronouncing the invocation of the most Holy Trinity the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1278.

The fruit of Baptism of baptismal grace is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive Son of the Father, a member of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

By this very fa.ct the person baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ and made a sharer in the Priesthood of Christ. Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. Because of the character Baptism cannot be repeated cf Ds 1609 and Ds 1624. It is also in the catechism of the Catholic Church 1280.

In recourse to Luke 3: 16: in case of necessity, any person can baptize (usually baptizes a priest) provided that he has the intention of doing that which the Church does and provided that he pours water on the candidate’s head while. Saying: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit”. This is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1284.

As to Acts 8:35, Philip not only explained to the Ethiopian eunuch who was meant by the suffering servant but he also points out that there is no hindrance to a eunuch and foreigner entering the community of that servant by baptism.

Baptism is basically a declaration of the acceptance of Christ’s Lordship. The rite celebrates the separation of believers from their former status and the beginning of a process of body transformation that will be completed in the future. Immersion in water signifies the disappearance of the past life, washed away by the stream.

The one coming out of the water is newly born. He or she is a new person. Newness of life means that in Jesus resurrection divine love has been poured forth into the world leading it to total liberation from the past. Jesus resurrection is the beginning of new life. Faith and hope in the resurrection are an active denial of death.

“For all of us indeed have been baptized in a one Spirit into one body. whether Jews or Greeks whether slaves or free and we where all caused to drink the one Spirit”- 1 Corinthians 12:13. The universal church is the body of Christ because baptism and the Eucharist unite all believers and all communities with the one Lord.

Through baptism we begin to have filial relationship with the Father. Baptism is the second birth through water and the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact we are not only called children of God, but we really are.

Jesus wanted to identify with sinners, to take on himself their condition of bondage and walk with them along the road to freedom.