On eight
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, on 8 January 2006, 7 January 2007, 13
January 2008, 11 January 2009, 10 January 2010, 9 January 2011, 8 January 2012,
and 13 January 2013. Here are the texts
of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the Angelus and eight
homilies delivered on these occasions.
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord, St Peter’s Square, 8 January 2006
.
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
On this Sunday after
the Solemnity of the Epiphany, we are celebrating the Feast of the Baptism of the
Lord, which ends the liturgical season of Christmas. Today, we fix our gaze on Jesus,
who was baptized at the age of about 30 by John in the Jordan
River.
It was a baptism
of penance that used the symbol of water to express the purification of the heart
and of life. John, known as the “Baptist”, that is, the “Baptizer”, preached this
baptism to Israel
in preparation for the imminent coming of the Messiah; and John the Baptist told
everyone that someone else would come after him, greater than he, who would not
baptize with water but with the Holy Spirit (see Mk 1: 7-8).
And so it was when
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit came down and settled upon him
like a dove, and John the Baptist recognized that he was Christ, the “Lamb of God”
who had come to take away the sins of the world (see Jn 1: 29).
Therefore, the Baptism
in the Jordan is also an “epiphany”, a manifestation of the Lord’s Messianic identity
and of his redeeming work, which will culminate in another “baptism”, that of his
death and Resurrection, for which the whole world will be purified in the fire of
divine mercy (see Lk 12: 49-50).
On this Feast, John
Paul II used to administer the Sacrament of Baptism to various children. This morning,
for the first time, I too have had the joy of baptizing 10 newborn babies. I renew
with affection my greeting to these little ones and their families, as well as to
their Godparents.
The baptism of children
expresses and accomplishes the mystery of new birth to divine life in Christ: parents who are believers bring their children
to the baptismal font that represents the “womb” of the Church, from whose blessed
waters God’s children are brought forth.
The gift received
by newborn infants needs to be accepted by them freely and responsibly once they
have reached adulthood: the process of growing up will then bring them to receive
the Sacrament of Confirmation, which precisely strengthens the baptized and confers
upon each one the “seal” of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and
sisters, may today’s solemnity be a favorable opportunity for all Christians to
rediscover with joy the beauty of their own Baptism, which is an ever-timely reality
if it is lived with faith: it ceaselessly
renews within us the image of the new person, in holiness of thought and action.
Baptism, moreover,
unites Christians of every denomination. As baptized persons, we are all children
of God in Christ Jesus, our Teacher and our Lord.
May the Virgin Mary
obtain for us an ever-deeper understanding of the value of our Baptism and of witness
to it by leading a dignified life.
MASS
IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL AND BAPTISMS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Sistine
Chapel, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, 8 January 2006
Dear Parents and
Godparents,
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
What happens in Baptism?
What do we hope for from Baptism? You have given a response on the threshold of
this Chapel: We hope for eternal life for
our children. This is the purpose of Baptism. But how can it be obtained? How can
Baptism offer eternal life? What is eternal life?
In simpler words,
we might say: we hope for a good life, the
true life, for these children of ours; and also for happiness in a future that is
still unknown. We are unable to guarantee this gift for the entire span of the unknown
future, so we turn to the Lord to obtain this gift from him.
We can give two replies
to the question, “How will this happen?” This is the first one: through Baptism
each child is inserted into a gathering of friends who never abandon him in life
or in death because these companions are God’s family, which in itself bears the
promise of eternity.
This group of friends,
this family of God, into which the child is now admitted, will always accompany
him, even on days of suffering and in life’s dark nights; it will give him consolation,
comfort and light.
This companionship,
this family, will give him words of eternal life, words of light in response to
the great challenges of life, and will point out to him the right path to take.
This group will also offer the child consolation and comfort, and God’s love when
death is at hand, in the dark valley of death. It will give him friendship, it will
give him life. And these totally trustworthy companions will never disappear.
No one of us knows
what will happen on our planet, on our European Continent, in the next 50, 60 or
70 years. But we can be sure of one thing:
God’s family will always be present and those who belong to this family will
never be alone. They will always be able to fall back on the steadfast friendship
of the One who is life.
And, thus, we have
arrived at the second answer. This family of God, this gathering of friends is eternal,
because it is communion with the One who conquered death and holds in his hand the
keys of life. Belonging to this circle, to God’s family, means being in communion
with Christ, who is life and gives eternal love beyond death.
And if we can say
that love and truth are sources of life, are life itself - and a life without love
is not life - we can say that this companionship with the One who is truly life,
with the One who is the Sacrament of life, will respond to your expectation, to
your hope.
Yes, Baptism inserts
us into communion with Christ and therefore gives life, life itself. We have thus
interpreted the first dialogue we had with him here at the entrance to the Sistine
Chapel.
Now, after the blessing
of the water, a second dialogue of great importance will follow. This is its content: Baptism, as we have seen, is a gift; the gift
of life. But a gift must be accepted, it must be lived.
A gift of friendship
implies a “yes” to the friend and a “no” to all that is incompatible with
this friendship, to all that is incompatible with the life of God’s family, with
true life in Christ.
Consequently, in
this second dialogue, three “noes” and three “yeses” are spoken. We say “no”
and renounce temptation, sin and the devil. We know these things well but perhaps,
precisely because we have heard them too often, the words may not mean much to us.
If this is the case,
we must think a little more deeply about the content of these “noes”. What
are we saying “no” to? This is the only way to understand what we want to say “yes”
to.
In the ancient Church
these “noes” were summed up in a phrase that was easy to understand for the
people of that time: they renounced, they
said, the “pompa diabuli”, that is, the promise of life in abundance, of
that apparent life that seemed to come from the pagan world, from its permissiveness,
from its way of living as one pleased.
It was therefore
“no” to a culture of what seemed to be an abundance of life, to what in fact was
an “anticulture” of death. It was “no” to those spectacles in which death,
cruelty and violence had become an entertainment.
Let us remember what
was organized at the Colosseum or here, in Nero’s gardens, where people were set
on fire like living torches. Cruelty and violence had become a form of amusement,
a true perversion of joy, of the true meaning of life.
This “pompa diabuli”,
this “anticulture” of death was a corruption of joy, it was love of deceit and
fraud and the abuse of the body as a commodity and a trade.
And if we think about
it now, we can say that also in our time we need to say “no” to the widely prevalent
culture of death.
It is an “anticulture”
manifested, for example, in drugs, in the flight from reality to what is illusory,
to a false happiness expressed in deceit, fraud, injustice and contempt for others,
for solidarity, and for responsibility for the poor and the suffering; it is expressed
in a sexuality that becomes sheer irresponsible enjoyment, that makes the human
person into a “thing”, so to speak, no longer considered a person who deserves personal
love which requires fidelity, but who becomes a commodity, a mere object.
Let us say “no” to
this promise of apparent happiness, to this “pompa” of what may seem to be
life but is in fact merely an instrument of death, and to this “anticulture”, in
order to cultivate instead the culture of life. For this reason, the Christian “yes”,
from ancient times to our day, is a great “yes” to life. It is our “yes” to Christ,
our “yes” to the Conqueror of death and the “yes” to life in time and in eternity.
Just as in this baptismal
dialogue the “no” is expressed in three renunciations, so too the “yes” is expressed
in three expressions of loyalty: “yes” to
the living God, that is, a God Creator and a creating reason who gives meaning to
the cosmos and to our lives; “yes” to Christ, that is, to a God who did not stay
hidden but has a name, words, a body and blood; to a concrete God who gives us life
and shows us the path of life; “yes” to the communion of the Church, in which Christ
is the living God who enters our time, enters our profession, enters daily life.
We might also say
that the Face of God, the content of this culture of life, the content of our great
“yes”, is expressed in the Ten Commandments, which are not a pack of prohibitions,
of “noes”, but actually present a great vision of life.
They are a “yes”
to a God who gives meaning to life (the first three Commandments); a “yes” to the
family (Fourth Commandment); a “yes” to life (Fifth Commandment); a “yes” to responsible
love (Sixth Commandment); a “yes” to solidarity, to social responsibility, to justice
(Seventh Commandment); a “yes” to the truth (Eighth Commandment); a “yes” to respect
for others and for their belongings (Ninth and 10th Commandments).
This is the philosophy
of life, the culture of life that becomes concrete and practical and beautiful in
communion with Christ, the living God, who walks with us in the companionship of
his friends, in the great family of the Church. Baptism is a gift of life.
It is a “yes” to
the challenge of really living life, of saying “no” to the attack of death that
presents itself under the guise of life; and it is a “yes” to the great gift of
true life that became present on the Face of Christ, who gives himself to us in
Baptism and subsequently in the Eucharist.
I said this as a
brief comment on the words in the baptismal dialogue that interpret what happens
in this Sacrament. In addition to the words, we have gestures and symbols, but I
will just point them out very briefly.
We have already made
the first gesture: it is the Sign of the
Cross, which is given to us as a shield that must protect this child in his life;
and as an “indicator” that points out the way of life, for the Cross sums up Jesus’
life.
Then, there are the
elements: water, the anointing with oil,
the white garment and the flame of the candle.
Water is the symbol
of life: Baptism is new life in Christ. The
oil is the symbol of strength, health and beauty, for it truly is beautiful to live
in communion with Christ. Then, there is the white garment, as an expression of
the culture of beauty, of the culture of life. And lastly, the flame of the candle
is an expression of the truth that shines out in the darkness of history and points
out to us who we are, where we come from and where we must go.
Dear Godparents,
dear parents, dear brothers and sisters, let us thank the Lord today, for God does
not hide behind clouds of impenetrable mystery but, as today’s Gospel said, has
opened the heavens, he has shown himself, he talks to us and is with us; he lives
with us and guides us in our lives.
Let us thank the
Lord for this gift and pray for our children, so that they may truly have life: authentic, eternal life. Amen.
FEAST
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 7 January 2007
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today, the Christmas
Season concludes with the celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The
Liturgy offers us, in St Luke’s account, the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
(see 3: 15-16, 21-22).
The Evangelist narrates
that, while Jesus was in prayer, after having received Baptism among the many who
were drawn by the preaching of the Precursor, the heavens opened and under the form
of a dove the Holy Spirit descended upon him. In that moment a voice from on high
resounded: “You are my beloved Son. On you
my favor rests” (Lk 3: 22).
The Baptism of Jesus
in the Jordan
is recalled and emphasized, although in different ways, by all the Evangelists.
In fact, it is part of the Apostolic preaching, since it constitutes the point of
departure for the entire arch of facts and words to which the Apostles were to render
testimony (see Acts 1: 21-22; 10: 37-41).
It was held in great
importance by the apostolic community, not only because in that circumstance, for
the first time in history, there was the manifestation of the Trinitarian Mystery
in a clear and complete way, but also because that event began the public ministry
of Jesus on the roads to Palestine.
The Baptism of Jesus
at the Jordan
is the anticipation of his baptism of blood on the Cross, and it is the symbol of
the entire sacramental activity by which the Redeemer will bring about the salvation
of humanity.
This is why the Patristic
tradition has dedicated great interest to this Feast, which is the most ancient
after Easter. “Christ is baptized and the whole world is made holy”, sings today’s
liturgy; “he wipes out the debt of our sins; we will all be purified by water and
the Holy Spirit” (Antiphon to the Benedictus, Office of Lauds).
There is a strict
relationship between the Baptism of Christ and our Baptism. At the Jordan the heavens
opened (see Lk 3: 21) to indicate that the Savior has opened the way of salvation
and we can travel it thanks to our own new birth “of water and Spirit” (Jn
3: 5), accomplished in Baptism.
In it we are inserted
into the Mystical Body of Christ, that is, the Church, we die and rise with him,
we are clothed with him, as the Apostle Paul often emphasized (see I Cor
12: 13; Rom 6: 3-5; Gal 3: 27). The commitment that springs from Baptism
is therefore “to listen” to Jesus: to believe
in him and gently follow him, doing his will.
In this way everyone
can tend to holiness, a goal that, as the Second Vatican Council recalled, constitutes
the vocation of all the baptized. May Mary, the Mother of the beloved Son of God,
help us to be faithful to our Baptism always.
MASS
IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL AND BAPTISMS
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, 7 January 2007
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
This year too, we
are meeting for a real family celebration, the Baptism of 13 children in this wonderful
Sistine Chapel, where with their creativity, Michelangelo and other outstanding
artists achieved masterpieces that illustrate the wonders of the history of salvation.
I would like immediately
to greet all of you present here: the parents, the godparents, the relatives and
friends who accompany these newborn babies at such an important moment for their
lives and for the Church. Every child who is born brings us God’s smile and invites
us to recognize that life is his gift, a gift to be welcomed with love and preserved
with care, always and at every moment.
The Christmas Season,
which ends precisely today, has made us contemplate the Child Jesus in the poor
grotto of Bethlehem,
lovingly tended by Mary and Joseph. God entrusts every child who is born to his
parents: so how important is the family founded on marriage, the cradle of life
and love!
The House of Nazareth
where the Holy Family lived is the model and school of simplicity, patience and
harmony for all Christian families. I pray the Lord that your families too may be
welcoming places where these little ones can not only grow in good health but also
in faith and love for God, who today, with Baptism, makes them his children.
The Rite of Baptism
of these children is taking place on the day in which we celebrate the Feast of
the Baptism of the Lord, an event which, as I said, brings the Christmas Season
to a close.
So far, we have heard
the account of the Evangelist Luke, who presents Jesus who remained hidden in the
crowd while he went to John the Baptist to be baptized. Jesus had also been baptized,
and, St Luke tells us, “was praying” (3: 21). Jesus speaks with his Father. And
we may be certain that he did not only speak for himself but also of us and for
us; he also spoke of me, of each one of us and for each one of us.
And then the Evangelist
tells us that above the Lord in prayer, Heaven was opened.
Jesus entered into
contact with the Father, Heaven opened above him. At this moment we can think that
Heaven has also opened here, above these children of ours who, through the Sacrament
of Baptism, come into contact with Jesus. Heaven opens above us in the Sacrament.
The more we live in contact with Jesus in the reality of our Baptism, the more Heaven
will open above us. And from Heaven - let us return to the Gospel - that day a voice
came which said to Jesus: “You are my beloved Son” (Lk 3: 22).
In Baptism, the Heavenly
Father also repeats these words for each one of these infants. He says: “You are
my child”. Baptism is adoption and admission into God’s family, into communion with
the Most Holy Trinity, into communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
For this very reason, Baptism should be administered in the Name of the Most Holy
Trinity. These words are not merely a formula; they are reality. They mark the moment
when your children are reborn as children of God. From being the children of human
parents, they also become the children of God in the Son of the living God.
However, we must
now meditate on the words in the Second Reading of this liturgy where St Paul tells
us: “He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue
of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit”
(Ti 3: 5).
A washing of regeneration:
Baptism is not only a word, it is not only something spiritual but also implies
matter. All the realities of the earth are involved. Baptism does not only concern
the soul. Human spirituality invests the totality of the person, body and soul.
God’s action in Jesus Christ is an action of universal efficacy. Christ took flesh
and this continues in the sacraments in which matter is taken on and becomes part
of the divine action.
We can now ask precisely
why water should be the sign of this totality. Water is the element of fertility.
Without water there is no life. Thus, in all the great religions water is seen as
the symbol of motherhood, of fruitfulness. For the Church Fathers, water became
the symbol of the maternal womb of the Church.
Tertullian, a Church
writer of the second and third centuries, said something surprising. He said: “Never
is Christ without water”. By these words, Tertullian meant that Christ is never
without the Church. In Baptism we are adopted by the Heavenly Father, but in this
family that he establishes there is also a mother, Mother Church.
Man cannot have God as Father, the ancient Christian writers were already saying,
unless he has the Church as mother.
We perceive in a
new way that Christianity is not merely an individual, spiritual reality, a simple
subjective decision that I take, but something real and concrete, we could also
say something material. Adoption as children of God, of the Trinitarian God, is
at the same time being accepted into the family of the Church, it is admission as
brothers and sisters into the great family of Christians. And only if, as children
of God, we are integrated as brothers and sisters into the reality of the Church
can we say “Our Father”, to our Heavenly Father. This prayer always implies the
“we” of God’s family.
Now, however, let
us return to the Gospel in which John the Baptist says: “I baptize you with water;
but he who is mightier than I is coming... he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire” (Lk 3: 16).
We have seen water;
but now the question is unavoidable: of what does the fire that St John the Baptist referred
to consist? To see this reality of the fire, present in Baptism with water, we must
note that John’s baptism was a human gesture, an act of penance, a human impulse
for God, to ask the forgiveness of sins and the chance to begin a new life. It was
only a human desire, a step towards God with their own effort.
Now this is not enough.
The distance would be too great. In Jesus Christ we see that God comes to meet us.
In Christian Baptism, instituted by Christ, we do not only act with the desire to
be cleansed through the prayer to obtain forgiveness.
In Baptism God himself
acts, Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit. In Christian Baptism the fire of the Holy
Spirit is present. God acts, not only us. God is present here today. He takes on
your children and makes them his own.
But naturally, God
does not act in a magical way. He acts only with our freedom. We cannot renounce
our freedom. God challenges our freedom, invites us to cooperate with the fire of
the Holy Spirit. These two things must go together. Baptism will remain throughout
life a gift of God, who has set his seal on our souls. But it will then be our cooperation,
the availability of our freedom to say that “yes” which makes divine action effective.
These children of
yours, whom we will now baptize, are not yet able to collaborate, to manifest their
faith. For this reason, your presence, dear fathers and mothers, and yours, dear
godfathers and godmothers, acquires a special value and significance. Always watch
over your little ones, so that they may learn to know God as they grow up, love
him with all their strength and serve him faithfully. May you be their first educators
in faith, offering together with your teaching also the examples of a coherent Christian
life. Teach them to pray and to feel as living members of the concrete family of
God, of the Ecclesial Community.
The attentive study
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church or of the Compendium
of this Catechism can offer you important help. It contains the essential
elements of our faith and can be a particularly useful and immediate means, for
you yourselves, to grow in the knowledge of the Catholic faith and to transmit it
integrally and faithfully to your children. Above all, do not forget that it is
your witness, it is your example, that has the greatest effect on the human and
spiritual maturation of your children’s freedom. Even caught up in the sometimes
frenetic daily activities, do not neglect to foster prayer, personally and in the
family, which is the secret of Christian perseverance.
Let us entrust these
children and their families to the Virgin Mother of Jesus, Our Savior, presented
in today’s liturgy as the beloved Son of God: may Mary watch over them and accompany
them always, so that they can fully carry out the project of salvation which God
has for each one. Amen.
SOLEMNITY
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 13 January 2008
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With today’s Feast
of Jesus’ Baptism the liturgical Season of Christmas concludes. The Child, who the
Magi from the East came to adore at Bethlehem offering their symbolic gifts, we
now find an adult, at the time when he is baptized in the Jordan River by the great
Prophet John (see Mt 3: 13).
The Gospel notes
that after Jesus had received baptism and left the water, the heavens opened and
the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove (see Mt 3: 16). Then a voice was heard
from heaven that said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt
3: 17). This was his first public manifestation after approximately 30 years of
hidden life at Nazareth.
Besides the Baptist, eyewitnesses of the singular event were the Baptist’s disciples,
some of whom then became Christ’s followers (see Jn 1: 35-40). It is both a christophany
and a theophany: first of all, Jesus manifests himself as the Christ, a Greek
translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means “anointed”. He was not anointed
with oil as were Israel’s
kings and high priests, but rather with the Holy Spirit. At the same time, together
with the Son of God appeared signs of the Holy Spirit and the heavenly Father.
What is the meaning
of this act that Jesus wishes to fulfill - overcoming the Baptist’s resistance -
in order to obey the Father’s will (see Mt 3: 14-15)? The profound sense emerges
only at the end of Christ’s earthly existence, in his death and Resurrection. Being
baptized by John together with sinners, Jesus began to take upon himself the weight
of all of humanity’s sin, like the Lamb of God who “takes away” the sin of the world
(see Jn 1: 29): an act which he brought to fulfilment on the Cross when he also
received his “baptism” (see Lk 12: 50). In fact, by dying he is “immersed” in the
Father’s love and the Holy Spirit comes forth, so that those who believe in him
could be reborn by that inexhaustible font of new and eternal life. Christ’s entire
mission is summed up in this: to baptize us in the Holy Spirit, to free us from
the slavery of death and “to open heaven to us”, that is, access to the true and
full life that will be “a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which
we are simply overwhelmed with joy” (Spe Salvi, no. 12).
This is what happened
for the 13 children to whom I administered the Sacrament of Baptism this morning
in the Sistine Chapel. We invoke the maternal protection of Mary Most Holy on them
and their relatives. And we pray for all Christians, so that they may understand
the gift of Baptism ever more and apply themselves to live it coherently, witnessing
to the love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
MASS IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL
AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, 13 January 2008
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
Today’s
celebration is always a cause of special joy for me. Indeed, the administration
of the Sacrament of Baptism on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is one of the
most expressive moments of our faith, in which we can almost see the mystery of
life through the signs of the liturgy. In the first place, there is human life.
It is represented here in particular by these 13 children who are the fruit of your
love, dear parents, to whom I address my cordial greeting, which I extend to the
godparents and the other relatives and friends present. Then comes the mystery of
divine life which God gives to these little ones today through rebirth in water
and the Holy Spirit. God is life, as some of the pictures that embellish this Sistine
Chapel marvelously evoke.
Yet it does
not seem out of place if we immediately juxtapose the experience of life with the
opposite experience, that is, the reality of death. Sooner or later everything that
begins on earth comes to its end, like the meadow grass that springs up in the morning
and by evening has wilted. In Baptism, however, the tiny human being receives a
new life, the life of grace, which enables him or her to enter into a personal relationship
with the Creator for ever, for the whole of eternity. Unfortunately, human beings
are capable of extinguishing this new life with their sin, reducing themselves to
being in a situation which Sacred Scripture describes as “second death”. Whereas
for other creatures who are not called to eternity, death means solely the end of
existence on earth, in us sin creates an abyss in which we risk being engulfed for
ever unless the Father who is in Heaven stretches out his hand to us. This, dear
brothers and sisters, is the mystery of Baptism: God desired to save us by going
to the bottom of this abyss himself so that every person, even those who have fallen
so low that they can no longer perceive Heaven, may find God’s hand to cling to
and rise from the darkness to see once again the light for which he or she was made.
We all feel, we all inwardly comprehend that our existence is a desire for life
which invokes fullness and salvation. This fullness is given to us in Baptism.
We have
just heard the account of the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. It was a different Baptism from
that which these babies are about to receive but is deeply connected with it. Basically,
the whole mystery of Christ in the world can be summed up in this term: “baptism”,
which in Greek means “immersion”. The Son of God, who from eternity shares the fullness
of life with the Father and the Holy Spirit, was “immersed” in our reality as sinners
to make us share in his own life: he was
incarnate, he was born like us, he grew up like us and, on reaching adulthood, manifested
his mission which began precisely with the “baptism of conversion” administered
by John the Baptist. Jesus’ first public act, as we have just heard, was to go down
into the Jordan,
mingling among repentant sinners, in order to receive this baptism. John was naturally
reluctant to baptize him, but because this was the Father’s will, Jesus insisted
(see Mt 3: 13-15).
Why, therefore,
did the Father desire this? Was it because he had sent his Only-Begotten Son into
the world as the Lamb to take upon himself the sins of the world (see Jn 1: 29)?
The Evangelist recounts that when Jesus emerged from the waters, the Holy Spirit
descended upon him in the form of a dove, while the Father’s voice from Heaven proclaimed
him “my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3: 17). From that very moment,
therefore, Jesus was revealed as the One who came to baptize humanity in the Holy
Spirit: he came to give men and women life in abundance (see Jn 10: 10), eternal
life, which brings the human being back to life and heals him entirely, in body
and in spirit, restoring him to the original plan for which he was created. The
purpose of Christ’s existence was precisely to give humanity God’s life and his
Spirit of love so that every person might be able to draw from this inexhaustible
source of salvation. This is why St Paul
wrote to the Romans that we were baptized into the death of Christ in order to have
his same life as the Risen One (see Rom 6: 3-4). For this reason Christian parents,
such as you today, bring their children to the baptismal font as soon as possible,
knowing that life which they have communicated calls for a fullness, a salvation
that God alone can give. And parents thus become collaborators of God, transmitting
to their children not only physical but also spiritual life.
Dear parents,
I thank the Lord with you for the gift of these children and I invoke his assistance
so that he may help you to raise them and incorporate them into the spiritual Body
of the Church. As you offer them what they need for their growth and salvation may
you always be committed, helped by their godparents, to developing in them faith,
hope and charity, the theological virtues proper to the new life given to them in
the Sacrament of Baptism. You will guarantee this by your presence and your affection;
you will guarantee it first of all and above all by prayer, presenting them daily
to God and entrusting them to him in every season of their life. If they are to
grow healthy and strong, these babies will of course need both material care and
many other kinds of attention; yet, what will be most necessary to them, indeed
indispensable, will be to know, love and serve God faithfully in order to have eternal
life. Dear parents, may you be for them the first witnesses of an authentic faith
in God!
In the Rite
of Baptism there is an eloquent sign that expresses precisely the transmission of
faith. It is the presentation to each of those being baptized of a candle lit from
the flame of the Easter candle: it is the
light of the Risen Christ, which you will endeavor to pass on to your children.
Thus, from one generation to the next we Christians transmit Christ’s light to one
another in such a way that when he returns he may find us with this flame burning
in our hands. During the Rite I shall say to you: “Parents and godparents, this
light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly”. Dear brothers and sisters,
always feed the flame of the faith by listening to and meditating on the Word of
God and assiduous communion with Jesus in the Eucharist. May you be assisted in
this marvelous if far from easy role by the holy Protectors after whom these 13
children will be named. Above all, may these Saints help those being baptized to
reciprocate your loving care as Christian parents. May the Virgin Mary in particular
accompany both them and you, dear parents, now and for ever. Amen!
SOLEMNITY OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 11 January 2009
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
On this
Sunday that follows the Solemnity of the Epiphany, we are celebrating the Baptism
of the Lord. This was the first act of his public life, recounted in all four Gospels.
Having reached the age of about 30, Jesus left Nazareth, went to the River Jordan and, in the
midst of a great crowd of people, had himself baptized by John. Mark the Evangelist
writes: “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened
and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came down from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased’“ (Mk 1: 10-11). These words “You
are my beloved Son” reveal what eternal life is: it is the filial relationship with
God, just as Jesus lived it and as he revealed and gave it to us.
This morning,
in keeping with tradition, I have administered the Sacrament of Baptism to 13 newborn
babies in the Sistine Chapel. The celebrant usually questions the parents and godparents:
“What do you ask of God’s Church for your children?” At their response, “Baptism”,
he replies, “And what does Baptism grant us?” “Eternal life,” they answer. And this
is the marvelous reality: a human person, through Baptism, is integrated into Jesus’
unique and singular relationship with the Father so that the words resonating from
heaven upon the Only-Begotten Son may become true for every man and every woman
who is reborn by water and by the Holy Spirit: you are my son, my beloved.
Dear friends,
how great is the gift of Baptism! If we were to take this fully into account our
lives would become a continual “thank you”. What a joy for Christian parents, who
have seen a new creature come into being from their love, to carry the baby to the
baptismal font and see him or her reborn from the womb of the Church, for a life
without end! It is a gift, a joy, but also a responsibility! Parents, in fact, together
with godparents, must educate their children in accordance with the Gospel. This
makes me think of the theme of the Sixth World Meeting of Families which
will be taking place in Mexico City
in the next few days: “The family, teacher of human and Christian values”. This
great meeting of families, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family, will
be held in three stages: first, the Theological-Pastoral Congress, in which the
theme will be deeply analyzed, also through an exchange of significant experiences.
There will then be a moment for celebration and witness, which will bring out the
beauty of a gathering of families from every part of the world, united by the same
faith and by the same commitment. And finally, the solemn Eucharistic celebration
as thanksgiving to the Lord for the gifts of marriage, the family and life. I have
appointed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, to represent me but I myself
shall be following and taking an active part in the extraordinary event, accompanying
it with prayer and intervening by video conference. From this moment, dear brothers
and sisters, I ask you to implore an abundance of divine graces upon this important
World Meeting of Families. Let us do so by invoking the motherly intercession of
the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Family.
MASS
IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL
AND ADMINISTRATION
OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, 11 January 2009
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
The words that the
Evangelist Mark recounts at the beginning of his Gospel: “You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased” (1: 11), introduce us into the heart of today’s Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord with which the Christmas Season ends. The cycle of the
Christmas Solemnities leads us to meditate on the birth of Jesus, announced by the
angels who were surrounded with the luminous splendor of God; the Christmas Season
speaks to us of the star that guided the Magi of the East to the House in Bethlehem,
and invites us to look to Heaven, which opens above the Jordan as God’s voice resounds.
These are all signs through which the Lord never tires of repeating: “Yes, I am
here. I know you. I love you. There is a path that leads from me to you. And there
is a path that rises from you to me”. The Creator assumed the dimensions of a child
in Jesus, of a human being like us, to make himself visible and tangible. At the
same time, by making himself small, God caused the light of his greatness to shine.
For precisely by lowering himself to the point of defenseless vulnerability of love,
he shows what his true greatness is indeed, what it means to be God.
Christmas, and more
generally the liturgical year, is exactly that drawing near to these divine signs,
to recognize them as impressed into daily events, so that our hearts may be open
to God’s love. And if Christmas and Epiphany serve primarily to render us capable
of seeing, of opening our eyes and hearts to the mystery of a God who comes to be
with us, then we can say that the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus introduces us into
the daily regularity of a personal relationship with him. Indeed, by immersion in
the waters of the Jordan,
Jesus united himself with us. Baptism is, so to speak, the bridge he built between
himself and us, the road on which he makes himself accessible to us. It is the divine
rainbow over our lives, the promise of God’s great “yes”, the door of hope and,
at the same time, the sign that that indicates to us the path to take actively and
joyfully in order to encounter him and feel loved by him.
Dear friends, I am
truly glad that this year too, on this Feast day, I have been granted the opportunity
to baptize these children. God’s “favor” rests on them today. Ever since the Only-Begotten
Son of the Father had himself baptized, the heavens are truly open and continue
to open, and we may entrust every new life that begins into the hands of the One
who is more powerful than the dark powers of evil. This effectively includes Baptism:
we restore to God what came from him. The child is not the property of the parents
but is entrusted to their responsibility by the Creator, freely and in a way that
is ever new, in order that they may help him or her to be a free child of God. Only
if the parents develop this awareness will they succeed in finding the proper balance
between the claim that their children are at their disposal, as though they were
a private possession, shaping them on the basis of their own ideas and desires,
and the libertarian approach that is expressed in letting them grow in full autonomy,
satisfying their every desire and aspiration, deeming this the right way to cultivate
their personality. If, with this sacrament, the newly-baptized becomes an adoptive
child of God, the object of God’s infinite love that safeguards him and protects
him from the dark forces of the evil one, it is necessary to teach the child to
recognize God as Father and to be able to relate to him with a filial attitude.
And therefore, when in accordance with the Christian tradition as we are doing today
children are baptized and introduced into the light of God and of his teachings,
no violence is done to them. Rather, they are given the riches of divine life in
which is rooted the true freedom that belongs to the children of God a freedom that
must be educated and modeled as the years pass to render it capable of responsible
personal decisions.
Dear parents, dear
godfathers and godmothers, I greet you all with affection and join in your joy for
these little ones who today are reborn into eternal life. May you be aware of the
gift received and never cease to thank the Lord who, with today’s sacrament, introduces
your children into a new family, larger and more stable, more open and more numerous
than your own; I am referring to the family of believers, to the Church, to a family
that has God as Father and in which all recognize one another as brothers and sisters
in Jesus Christ. Today, therefore, you are entrusting your children to God’s goodness,
which is a force of light and love and they, even amid life’s difficulties, will
never feel abandoned if they stay united with him. Therefore, be concerned with
educating them in the faith, teaching them to pray and grow as Jesus did and with
his help, “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Lk 2: 52).
Returning now to
the Gospel passage, let us seek to better understand what is happening today. St
Mark recounts that it was just when John the Baptist was preaching on the banks
of the River Jordan, proclaiming the urgent need for conversion in view of the now
imminent coming of the Messiah, that Jesus, who was among the crowds, presented
himself to be baptized. John’s Baptism is indisputably a Baptism of penance, very
different from the sacrament that Jesus was to institute. At that moment, however,
the Redeemer’s mission is already glimpsed because, when he comes out of the water,
a voice comes from Heaven and the Holy Spirit descends upon him (see Mk 1: 10);
the heavenly Father proclaims him as his beloved Son and publicly attests to his
universal saving mission, which will be fully accomplished with his death on the
Cross and his Resurrection. Only then, with the Paschal Sacrifice, would the forgiveness
of sins be rendered universal and total. With Baptism we do not simply emerge from
the waters of the Jordan
to proclaim our commitment to conversion, but the redeeming Blood of Christ that
purifies and saves us is poured out upon us. It is the Father’s beloved Son, in
whom he was pleased, who regains for us the dignity and joy of calling ourselves
truly “children” of God.
In a little while
we shall relive this mystery evoked by today’s solemnity; the signs and symbols
of the sacrament of Baptism will help us to understand what the Lord works in the
hearts of these our little ones, making them “his” for ever, the chosen dwelling
place of his Spirit and “living stones” for the construction of the spiritual temple
which is the Church. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, the beloved Son of God,
watch over them and their families and always accompany them, so that they may fully
carry out the plan of salvation that is brought into their lives through Baptism.
And may we, dear brothers and sisters, accompany them with our prayers. Let us pray
for the parents, godparents, and godmothers and for their relatives, so that they
may help them grow in faith. Let us pray for all of us here present so that, by
devoutly taking part in this celebration, we may renew the promises of our Baptism
and give thanks to the Lord for his constant assistance. Amen!
FEAST
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 10 January 2010
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
This morning I administered
the Sacrament of Baptism to some new-born babies at Holy Mass celebrated in the
Sistine Chapel. This custom is linked to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord with
which the Liturgical Season of Christmas concludes. Baptism suggests very eloquently
the global meaning of the Christmas celebrations in which the theme of becoming
God’s children, thanks to the Only-Begotten Son of God taking on our humanity,
is a key element. He became man so that we might become children of God. God was
born so that we might be reborn. These concepts continually recur
in the liturgical texts of Christmas and constitute an exciting motive for reflection
and hope. Let us think of what St Paul wrote to the Galatians: “God sent forth his
Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4: 4); or again, St John in the
Prologue to his Gospel: “To all who received him,... he gave power to become children
of God” (Jn 1: 12). This wonderful mystery which is our “second birth” the birth
of a human being from “on high”, from God (see Jn 3: 1-8) is brought about by and
recapitulated in the sacramental sign of Baptism.
With this sacrament
the person truly becomes a son, a son [or daughter] of God. From that moment
the purpose of his existence consists in freely and consciously achieving what was
and is the human being’s destination. “Become what you are”, is the fundamental
educational principle of the human being redeemed by grace. This principle has many
analogies with human growth in which the parents’ relationship with their children
passes through separation and crises, from total dependence to their awareness of
being children, grateful for the gift of life received and maturity and the ability
to give life. Generated from Baptism to new life, the Christian too begins his journey
of growth in faith that will lead him to invoking God consciously as “Abba”, “Father”,
to addressing him with gratitude and to living the joy of being his child.
Baptism also gives
rise to a model of society: that of brothers. Brotherhood cannot be established
through an ideology or even less through the decree of any kind of constituted power.
We recognize each other as brothers and sisters on the basis of the humble but profound
awareness that we are children of the one Heavenly Father. As Christians, thanks
to the Holy Spirit received in Baptism, our lot is the gift and commitment to live
as children of God and as brothers and sisters in order to be the “leaven” of a
new humanity, full of solidarity and rich in peace and hope. We are helped in this
by the awareness that in addition to a Father in Heaven we also have a mother, the
Church, of which the Virgin Mary is a perennial model. Let us entrust to her these
newly-baptized infants and their families, and ask for all the joy of being reborn
every day, “from on high”, from the love of God which makes us his children and
each other’s brothers and sisters.
FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
MASS AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Sistine Chapel, Sunday, 10 January 2010
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
On the Feast
of the Baptism of the Lord, this year too I have the joy of administering the sacrament
of Baptism to some new-born babies whose parents are presenting them to the Church.
Welcome, dear mothers and fathers of these little ones, and you, the godfathers
and godmothers, friends and relatives who have gathered round them. Let us give
thanks to God who today calls these seven girls and seven boys to become his children
in Christ. Let us surround them with prayers and affection and welcome them joyfully
into the Christian Community which from this day becomes their family too.
With the
Feast of the Baptism of Jesus the cycle of the Lord’s manifestations continues.
It began at Christmas with the Birth in Bethlehem
of the Incarnate Word, contemplated by Mary, Joseph and the shepherds in the humility
of the crib. The Epiphany, when the Messiah, through the Magi, showed himself to
all the peoples, marked an important milestone. On this day, on the banks of the
Jordan,
Jesus reveals himself to John and to the People of Israel. It is the first time
that he enters the public scene as an adult, after leaving Nazareth. We find him with John the Baptist to
whom multitudes have flocked, in an unusual scene. In the Gospel passage that has
just been proclaimed St Luke remarks first of all that the people “were in expectation”
(3: 15). In this way he emphasizes the expectation of Israel and, in those people who had
left their homes and their usual tasks, the profound desire for a different world
and new words that seem to find an answer precisely in the Precursor’s words, that
may be severe and demanding and yet are full of hope. The baptism John offers is
one of repentance, a sign that is an invitation to conversion, to a change of life,
because One is coming who will “baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (3:
16). Indeed it is impossible to aspire to a new world while remaining immersed in
selfishness and habits linked to sin. Jesus too leaves his home and his customary
occupations to go to the Jordan.
He arrives among the crowd that is listening to the John the Baptist and queues
up like everyone else, waiting to be baptized.
As soon
as he sees Jesus approaching, John realizes that there is something unique in this
Man, that he is the mysterious Other for whom he has been waiting and to whom his
whole life is oriented. He understands that before him stands One who is greater
than he, the thong of whose sandals he is not even worthy to untie.
At the Jordan
Jesus reveals himself with an extraordinary humility, reminiscent of the poverty
and simplicity of the Child laid in the manger, and anticipates the sentiments with
which, at the end of his days on earth, he will come to the point of washing the
feet of the disciples and suffering the terrible humiliation of the Cross. The Son
of God, the One who is without sin, puts himself among sinners, demonstrates God’s
closeness to the process of the human being’s conversion. Jesus takes upon his shoulders
the burden of sin of the whole of humanity, he begins his mission by putting himself
in our place, in the place of sinners, in the perspective of the Cross.
While absorbed
in prayer he emerges from the water after his Baptism, the skies break open. It
is the moment awaited by so many prophets: “O that you would rend the heavens and
come down!” Isaiah had prayed (64: 1). At that moment, St Luke seems to suggest,
this prayer is heard. Indeed, “The heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended
upon him” (3: 21-22); and words were heard that had never been heard before: “You
are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (v. 22). In going up out of the
water, as St Gregory Nazianzen says, Jesus “sees the heaven opened which Adam had
shut against himself and all his posterity” (Discourse 39 per il Battesimo del
Signore, PG 36). The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit come down among human
people and reveal to us their love that saves. If it is the Angels who bring the
shepherds the announcement of the Savior’s birth, and the star that conveys it to
the Magi who came from the East, now it is the Father’s voice that indicates the
presence of his Son in the world to human beings and invites them to look to the
Resurrection, to Christ’s victory over sin and death.
The glad
tidings of the Gospel are the echo of this voice that comes down from on high. Rightly,
then, Paul, as we heard in the Second Reading, writes to Titus: “For the grace of
God has appealed for the salvation of all men” (2: 11). In fact, the Gospel is a
grace for us that gives life joy and meaning, “training us”, the Apostle continues,
“to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly
lives in this world” (v. 12); that is, it leads us to a happier, more beautiful
life in greater solidarity, to a life in accordance with God. We may say that the
skies are opened for these children today. They will receive as a gift the grace
of Baptism and the Holy Spirit will dwell within them as in a temple, transforming
their hearts in depth. From this moment the voice of the Father will also call them
to be his children in Christ, and, in his family which is the Church, he will give
to each one the sublime gift of faith. This gift, which at present they are unable
to understand fully, will be sown in their hearts as a seed full of life that is
waiting to develop and bear fruit. Today they are baptized in the faith of the Church,
professed by their parents, their godparents and the Christians present here, who
will then take them by the hand in the following of Christ. Already at the outset
the rite of Baptism recalls insistently the theme of faith when the Celebrant reminds
parents that in requesting Baptism for their children, they assume the commitment
to “training them in the practice of the faith”. The parents and godparents are
reminded more forcefully of this task in the third part of the celebration that
begins with the words addressed to them: “on your part, you must make it your constant
care to bring them up in the practice of the faith. See that the divine life which
God gives them is kept safe from the poison of sin, to grow always stronger in their
hearts. If your faith makes you ready to accept this responsibility... profess your
faith in Christ Jesus. This is the faith of the Church. This is the faith in which
these children are about to be baptized”. These words of the Rite suggest that,
in a certain way, the profession of faith and the renunciation of sin by the parents,
godfathers and godmothers constitute the necessary premises for the Church to confer
Baptism upon their children.
Just before
the water is poured on the head of the newborn child there is a further call to
faith. The Celebrant asks a final question: “Is it your will that your child should
be baptized in the faith of the Church which we have all professed with you?” And
it us only after the affirmative response that the Sacrament is administered. Also
in the explanatory rites the anointing with Chrism, the clothing with the white
garment and the lighting of the candle, the gesture of the “ephphetha” faith becomes
the central theme. “These children of yours have been enlightened by Christ. They
are to walk always as children of the light. May they keep the flame of faith alive
in their hearts. When the Lord comes, may they go out to meet him...” May the Lord
Jesus, the Celebrant of the rite of the Ephphetha continues, “touch your
ears to receive his word, and your mouth to proclaim his faith, to the praise and
glory of God the Father.” Then all this is crowned by the final Blessing that further
reminds the parents of their responsibility to be for their children, “the first
witnesses to the faith.”
Dear friends,
today is an important day for these children. With Baptism, they become sharers
in Christ’s death and Resurrection, they begin with him the joyful and exulting
adventure of his disciples. The Liturgy presents it as an experience of light. In
fact, in giving to each one the candle lit from the Easter candle, the Church says:
“Receive the light of Christ!” It is the role of Baptism to illumine those being
baptized with the light of Christ, to open their eyes to Christ’s splendor and to
introduce them to the mystery of God through the divine light of faith. The children
who are about to be baptized must walk in this light throughout their lives, helped
by the words and example of their parents and their godparents. The latter must
strive to nourish with their words and the witness of their lives the torch of the
children’s faith so that they may be shining example in this world of ours, all
too often groping in the darkness of doubt, and bring it the light of the Gospel
which is life and hope. Only in this way, will they be able, as adults, to recite
with full awareness the formula at the end of the profession of faith present in
the rite: “This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess
it, in Christ Jesus Our Lord”.
In our days
too faith is a gift to rediscover, to cultivate and to bear witness to. With this
celebration of Baptism the Lord grants each one of us to live the beauty and joy
of being Christians so that we may introduce our baptized children into the fullness
of adherence to Christ. Let us entrust these little ones to the motherly intercession
of the Virgin Mary. Let us ask her to obtain that, clad in the white garment, the
sign of their new dignity as children of God, they may be throughout their lives
faithful disciples of Christ and courageous witnesses of the Gospel. Amen.
FEAST
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 9 January 2011
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today the Church
is celebrating the Baptism of the Lord, the Feast which concludes the liturgical
Season of Christmas. This mystery of the life of Christ visibly demonstrates that
his coming in the flesh is a sublime act of love by the Three Divine Persons. We
can say that from this solemn event the creative, redemptive and sanctifying action
of the Most Holy Trinity will be increasingly evident in the public ministry of
Jesus, in his teaching, his miracles, and in his Passion, death and Resurrection.
We read, in fact, in the Gospel according to St Matthew that “when Jesus was baptized,
he went up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened [for him]
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo,
a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’”
(Mt 3: 16-17).
The Holy Spirit “dwells”
in the Son and testifies to his divinity, while the voice of the Father, coming
from the heavens, expresses the communion of love. “The conclusion of the baptismal
scene tells us that Jesus has received this true ‘anointing’, that he is the awaited
Anointed One [the Christ]” (Jesus of Nazareth, New York 2007, pp. 25-26),
which confirms Isaiah’s prophecy: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen,
in whom my soul delights” (Is 42:1). He is truly the Messiah, the Son of the Most
High who, emerging from the waters of the Jordan, establishes the regeneration
in the Spirit and opens, to those who desire it, the possibility of becoming sons
of God.
Not by chance, in
fact, does every baptized person acquire the character of son, based on the Christian
name, an unmistakable sign that the Holy Spirit gives birth to man “anew” from
the womb of the Church. Bl. Antonio Rosmini affirms that “the baptized undergoes
a secret but very powerful operation, through which he is raised to the supernatural
order, is placed in communication with God” (The Ruling Principle of Method Applied
to Education, Turin 1857, no. 331). All this was fulfilled again at the celebration
of the Eucharist this morning in the Sistine Chapel where I conferred the sacrament
of Baptism on 21 newborn babies.
Dear friends, Baptism
is the beginning of the spiritual life which finds its fullness in the Church. At
the favorable moment of the sacrament, while the ecclesial community is praying
and entrusting to God a new son or daughter, parents and godparents commit themselves
to welcoming the newly baptized, sustaining them in Christian formation and education.
This is a great responsibility which comes from a great gift! Therefore, I desire
to encourage all the faithful to rediscover the beauty of being baptized and of
belonging to the large family of God, and to give a joyful witness of their faith
so that this faith may produce fruits of good and harmony.
Let us ask this through
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, to whom we entrust
the parents who are preparing for their children’s Baptism, as well as the catechists.
The entire community participates in the joy of rebirth in water and in the Holy
Spirit!
FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
MASS AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Sistine Chapel, Sunday, 9 January 2011
Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
I am glad
to offer a cordial welcome, especially to you, the parents and godparents of the
21 infants to whom, in a little while, I shall have the joy of administrating the
sacrament of Baptism. Now a tradition, this year too the Rite is taking place during
the Holy Eucharistic Celebration with which we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.
It is the Feast which, on the first Sunday after the Epiphany, concludes the Christmas
Season with the Lord’s manifestation at the River Jordan.
According
to the account of the Evangelist Matthew (3:13-17), Jesus came from Galilee to the
River Jordan to be baptized by John; indeed people were flocking from all over Palestine
to hear the preaching of this great Prophet and the proclamation of the coming of
the Kingdom of God and to receive Baptism, that is, to submit to that sign of penance
which calls for conversion from sin.
Although
it was called “Baptism” it did not have the sacramental value of the rite we are
celebrating today; as you well know, it was actually with his death and Resurrection
that Jesus instituted the sacraments and caused the Church to be born. What John
administered was a penitential act, a gesture of humility to God that invited a
new beginning: by immersing themselves in the water, penitents recognized that they
had sinned, begged God for purification from their sins and were asked to change
wrong behavior, dying in the water, as it were, and rising from it to new life.
For this
reason, when John the Baptist saw Jesus who had come to be baptized queuing with
sinners he was amazed; recognizing him as the Messiah, the Holy One of God, the
One who is without sin, John expressed his consternation: he, the Baptist, would
himself have liked to be baptized by Jesus. But Jesus urged him not to put up any
resistance, to agree to do this act, to do what is fitting “to fulfill all righteousness”.
With these
words Jesus showed that he had come into the world to do the will of the One who
had sent him, to carry out all that the Father would ask of him. It was in order
to obey the Father that he accepted to be made man. This act reveals, first of all,
who Jesus is: he is the Son of God, true God as the Father; he is the One who “humbled
himself” to make himself one of us, the One who was made man and who accepted to
humble himself unto death on a cross (see Phil 2:7).
The Baptism
of Jesus, which we are commemorating today, fits into this logic of humility and
solidarity: it is the action of the One who wanted to make himself one of us in
everything and who truly joined the line of sinners; he, who knew no sin, let himself
be treated as a sinner (see 2 Cor 5:21), to take upon his shoulders the burden
of the sin of all humanity, including our own sin. He is the “servant” of Yahweh
of whom the Prophet Isaiah spoke in the First Reading (see 42:1). His humility
is dictated by the desire to establish full communion with humanity, by the desire
to bring about true solidarity with man and with his human condition.
Jesus’ action
anticipates the Cross, his acceptance of death for man’s sins. This act of abasement,
by which Jesus wanted to comply totally with the loving plan of the Father and to
conform himself with us, expresses the full harmony of will and intentions that
exists between the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. For this act of love, the Spirit
of God revealed himself and descended to alight upon Jesus as a dove, and at that
moment the love which unites Jesus to the Father was witnessed to all who were present
at the Baptism by a voice from Heaven that everyone heard.
The Father
reveals openly to human beings, to us, the profound communion that binds him to
the Son: the voice that resounds from on high testifies that Jesus is obedient to
the Father in all things and that this obedience is an expression of the love that
unites them to each other.
Therefore
the Father delights in Jesus, for he recognizes in the Son’s behavior the wish to
obey his will in all things: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”
(Mt 3:17). And these words of the Father also allude, in advance, to the victory
of the Resurrection and tell us how we must live in order to please the Father,
by behaving like Jesus.
Dear parents,
the Baptism, that you are asking for your children today, inserts them into this
exchange of reciprocal love that is in God between the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit; through this act that I am about to carry out, God’s love is poured out
upon them, showering them with his gifts. Your children, cleansed by the water,
are inserted into the very life of Jesus who died on the Cross to free us from sin
and in rising, conquered death.
Therefore,
spiritually immersed in his death and Resurrection they are set free from original
sin and the life of grace is born within them, which is the very life of the Risen
Jesus. He “gave himself for us”, St Paul
says, “to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his
own who are zealous for good deeds” (Tit 2:14).
Dear friends,
in giving us faith, the Lord has given us what is most precious in life, that is,
the truest and most beautiful reason for living: it is through grace that we have
believed in God, that we have known his love with which he wants to save us and
to deliver us from evil. Faith is the great gift with which he also gives us eternal
life, true life. Now, dear parents and godparents, you are asking the Church to
receive these children within her, to give them Baptism; and you are making this
request by virtue of the gift of faith that you yourselves, in turn, have received.
Together
with the Prophet Isaiah every Christian can say: “The Lord… formed me from the womb
to be his servant” (see 49:5); thus, dear parents, your children are a precious
gift of the Lord, who has kept their hearts for himself in order to fill them with
his love. Today, through the sacrament of Baptism, he consecrates them and calls
them to follow Jesus, through the realization of their personal vocation in accordance
with that particular plan of love that the Father has in mind for each one of them;
the destination of this earthly pilgrimage will be full communion with him in eternal
happiness.
In receiving
Baptism these children obtain as a gift an indelible spiritual seal, the “character”
that inwardly marks their belonging to the Lord for ever and makes them living members
of his Mystical Body, which is the Church. While they become part of the People
of God, today a journey begins for these children which must be a journey of holiness
and of conformation to Jesus, a reality that is placed within them like the seed
of a splendid tree whose growth must be nurtured.
Therefore,
understanding the greatness of this gift, from the earliest centuries care has been
taken to give Baptism to newborn infants. Of course, later there will be the need
for a free and conscious adherence to this life of faith and love. For this reason,
after Baptism they must be educated in the faith, instructed in accordance with
the wisdom of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church so that this seed
of faith that they are receiving today may grow within them and that they may attain
full Christian maturity. The Church, which welcomes them among her children must
take charge of them, together with their parents and godparents, to accompany them
on this journey of growth.
Collaboration
between the Christian community and the family is especially necessary in the contemporary
social context in which the family institution is threatened on many sides and finds
itself having to face numerous difficulties in its role of raising children in the
faith. The lack of stable cultural references and the rapid transformation to which
society is constantly subjected, truly make the commitment to bring them up arduous.
Parishes must therefore do their utmost increasingly to sustain families, small
domestic churches, in their task of passing on the faith.
Dear parents,
together with you I thank the Lord for the gift of the Baptism of your little sons
and daughters; in raising our prayers for them, let us invoke in abundance the gift
of the Holy Spirit, who today consecrates them in the image of Christ the Priest,
King and Prophet. As I entrust them to the motherly intercession of Mary Most Holy,
let us ask for life and health for them, so that they may grow and mature in the
faith and with their lives bear fruits of holiness and of love. Amen!
FEAST
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 8 January 2012
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Today we are celebrating
the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. This morning I conferred the Sacrament of
Baptism on 16 infants and for this reason I would like to offer a brief reflection
on the fact that we are children of God. First of all, however, let us start with
our being, quite simply, children: this is the fundamental condition that brings
us all together. We are not all parents, but we are certainly all children.
Being born is never
a choice, we are not asked first whether we wish to be born. Yet, in life, we can
develop a free attitude with regard to life itself: we can regard it as a gift and,
in a certain sense “become” what we are: children. This transition marks a turning
point of maturity in our existence and in our relationship with our parents, which
is filled with gratitude. It is a transition that also renders us capable in turn
of being parents, not biologically, but morally.
Also before God we
are all children. God is at the root of every created being’s life and is the Father
of every human person in a special way: he has a unique and personal relationship
with every human being. Each one of us is wanted and loved by God. And also in this
relationship with God, we can be “reborn”, so to speak, in other words become what
we are. This happens through faith, through a profound and personal “yes” to God
as the origin and foundation of our existence. With this “yes” I receive life as
a gift of the Father who is in Heaven, a Parent whom I do not see but in whom I
believe and whom, in the depths of my heart, I feel is my Father and the Father
of all my brethren in humanity, an immensely good and faithful Father.
On what is this faith
in God the Father based? It is based on Jesus Christ: he himself and his history
reveal the Father to us, enable us to know him as much is possible in this world.
Believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, makes it possible to be “born
from above”, that is, from God, who is Love (see Jn 3:3).
Moreover, let us
bear in mind once again that no individual makes him or herself a human being. We
are born without doing anything ourselves, the passivity of being born precedes
the activity of what we ourselves do. It is also the same at the level of
being Christian: no one can become Christian solely by one’s own will, being Christian
is also a gift that comes before our own action: we must be reborn in a new birth.
St John says: “to
all who received him... he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
This is the meaning
of the Sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is this new birth that precedes our own action.
With our faith we can go to meet Christ, but he alone can make us Christian and
give to our will and to this desire of ours the response, dignity and power to become
children of God, which we ourselves do not possess.
Dear friends, this
Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord brings Christmas Time to an end. Let us give thanks
to God for this great mystery which is a source of regeneration for the Church and
for the whole world. God made himself the Son of Man so that man might become a
son of God. Let us therefore renew our joy in being children, as men and women and
as Christians; born and reborn to a new divine existence. Born from
the love of a father and a mother and reborn from the love of God through Baptism.
Let us ask the Virgin
Mary, Mother of Christ and of all who believe in him, to help us to live truly as
children of God, not in words, or not only in words, but with deeds. St John writes
further: “this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us” (1 Jn 3:23).
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
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 marvelous 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 labor 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 (see 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 (see 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.
FEAST
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
BENEDICT
XVI
ANGELUS
Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 13 January 2013
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
With this Sunday
following the Epiphany the Christmas Season draws to a close: the time of light,
the light of Christ who appears, like the new sun on the horizon of humanity, dispelling
the shadows of evil and ignorance. We celebrate today the Feast of the Baptism of
Jesus: that Child, Son of the Virgin, whom we contemplated in the mystery of his
Birth. We behold him today as an adult immersing himself in the waters of the River
Jordan and thereby sanctifying all water and the whole world, as the Eastern Tradition
stresses. But why did Jesus, in whom there is no shadow of sin, go to be baptized
by John? Why did he perform that gesture of penitence and conversion, beside all
those people who in this way were trying to prepare for the coming of the Messiah?
That gesture — which marks the start of Christ’s public life — comes in continuity
with the Incarnation, the descent of God from the highest heaven into the abyss
of hell. The meaning of this movement of divine lowering is expressed in a single
word: love, the very name of God. The Apostle John writes: “In this the love of
God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that
we might live through him”, and he sent him “to be the expiation for our sins” (1
Jn 4:9-10). That is why the first public act of Jesus was to receive baptism from
John, who, seeing him approaching, said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).
Luke the Evangelist
recounts that while Jesus, having received baptism, “was praying, the heaven was
opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a
voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’”
(3:21-22). This Jesus is the Son of God who is totally immersed in the will of the
Father’s love. This Jesus is the One who will die on the cross and rise again through
the power of the same Spirit who now descends upon him and consecrates him. This
Jesus is the new man who wills to live as the son of God, that is, in love; the
man who in the face of the evil of the world, by choosing the path of humility and
responsibility he chooses not to save himself but to offer his own life for truth
and justice. Being Christian means living like this, but this kind of life involves
a rebirth: to be reborn from on high, from God, from Grace. This rebirth is the
Baptism, which Christ gives to the Church in order to regenerate men and women to
new life. An ancient text attributed to St Hippolytus states: “Whoever goes down
into these waters of rebirth with faith renounces the devil and pledges himself
to Christ. He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is God, throws off
his servitude, and is raised to filial status” Discourse on the Epiphany,
10: PG 10, 862).
Following tradition,
this morning I had the joy of baptizing a large group of infants who were born in
the past three or four months. At this moment, I would like to extend my prayers
and my blessing to all newborn babes; but above all I would like to invite you all
to remember your own Baptism, the spiritual rebirth that opened the way to eternal
life to us. May every Christian, in this Year of Faith, rediscover the beauty of
being reborn from on high, from the love of God, and live as a child of God.
FEAST
OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
MASS
AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Sistine
Chapel, Sunday, 13 January 2013
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
The joy that flowed
from the celebration of holy Christmas is fulfilled today in the Feast of the Baptism
of the Lord. A further reason for jubilation comes to us who are gathered here:
indeed, in the sacrament of Baptism that I shall shortly administer to these newborn
babies is expressed the living and active presence of the Holy Spirit who, enriching
the Church with new children, vitalizes and develops her, and we cannot but rejoice
in this. I would like to address a special greeting to you, dear parents and godparents
who are witnessing to your faith today by asking for baptism for these children,
so that they may be born to new life in Christ and become part of the community
of believers.
The Gospel account
of the baptism of Jesus which we heard in St Luke’s version shows the life of meekness
and humility that the Son of God chose freely, complying with the Father’s plan
to be obedient to his desire for love for man in all things, even to his sacrifice
on the cross.
Having reached adulthood,
Jesus began his public ministry by going to the River Jordan to receive from John
a baptism of penance and conversion. What might seem paradoxical in our eyes actually
happened. Did Jesus need penance and conversion? Of course not. Yet the One who
is without sin put himself among sinners to have himself baptized, to make this
act of penance. The Holy One of God joined those who recognized they were in need
of forgiveness and asked God for the gift of conversion, that is, the grace to return
to him with their whole heart, to belong totally to him. Jesus chose to join the
ranks of sinners, to be in solidarity with them, expressing God’s closeness.
Jesus shows his solidarity
with us, with our efforts to convert and to be rid of our selfishnesss, to break
away from our sins in order to tell us that if we accept him in our life he can
uplift us and lead us to the heights of God the Father. And Jesus’ solidarity is
not, as it were, a mere exercise of mind and will. Jesus truly immersed himself
in our human condition, lived it to the end, in all things save sin, and was able
to understand our weakness and frailty. For this reason he was moved to compassion,
he chose to “suffer with” men and women, to become a penitent with us. This is God’s
work which Jesus wanted to carry out: the divine mission to heal those who are wounded
and give medicine to the sick, to take upon himself the sin of the world.
What happened at
the moment when Jesus had himself baptized by John? In the face of this act of humble
love by the Son of God, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit showed himself in
the form of a dove, while a voice from on high expressed the pleasure of the Father
who acknowledged his Only- Begotten, his beloved Son. This was a real manifestation
of the Blessed Trinity, that bears witness to the divinity of Jesus, of his being
the promised Messiah, the One whom God sent to set his People free in order to save
them (see Is 40:2).
In this way the prophecy
of Isaiah that we heard in the first reading came true: the Lord God comes with
might to destroy the work of sin and his arm rules in order to disarm the Evil One.
However, let us bear in mind that this arm is the arm stretched out on the cross
and that Christ’s power is the power of the One who suffered for us; this is the
power of God, different from the power of the world; thus God comes with power to
destroy sin.
Indeed Jesus acted
as the Good Shepherd who tended his sheep and gathered his flock, so that none might
stray (see Is 40:10-11), and layed down his life so that it might have life. It
is through his redeeming death that man is liberated from the dominion of sin and
reconciled with the Father; it is through his resurrection that man is saved from
eternal death and enabled to triumph over the Evil One
Dear brothers and
sisters, what happens in the baptism that I shall shortly be administering to your
children? Exactly this: they will be deeply united with Jesus for ever, immersed
in the mystery of his power, of his might, namely, in the mystery of his death which
is a source of life so as to share in his resurrection, to be reborn to new life.
This is the miracle that is repeated today, also for your children: in receiving
baptism they are reborn as children of God who share in the filial relationship
that Jesus has with the Father, in other words who can address God, calling him
with full confidence and trust: “Abba, Father”. The heavens are also opened above
your children and God says: these are my children, children in whom I am well pleased.
Inserted into this relationship and liberated from original sin, they become living
members of the one body that is the Church and are enabled to live their vocation
to holiness in fullness, so as to be able to inherit eternal life, obtained for
us by Jesus’ Resurrection.
Dear parents, in
asking for Baptism for your children you express and witness to your faith, to the
joy of being Christian and of belonging to the Church. It is the joy that comes
from knowing you have received a great gift from God, faith itself, a gift which
not one of us has been able to deserve but which was freely given to us and to which
we responded with our “yes”. It is the joy of recognizing that we are children of
God, of discovering that we have been entrusted to his hands, of feeling welcomed
in a loving embrace in the same way that a mother holds and embraces her child.
This joy, which guides every Christian’s journey, is based on a personal relationship
with Jesus, a relationship that directs the whole of human existence.
Indeed it is he who
is the meaning of our life, the One on whom it is worth keeping our eyes fixed so
as to be illuminated by his Truth and to be able to live to the full. The journey
of faith that begins for these infants today is therefore based on a certainty,
on the experience that there is nothing greater than knowing Christ and communicating
friendship with him to others; only in this friendship is the enormous potential
of the human condition truly revealed and we can experience what is beautiful and
sets us free (see Homily at Holy Mass for the Inauguration of the Pontificate,
24 April 2005). Whoever has had this experience is not prepared to give up his faith
for anything in the world.
Dear godparents,
it is your important duty to sustain and help the parents in their educational task,
supporting them in the transmission of the truths of the faith and in their witness
to the Gospel values and bringing up these children in an ever deeper friendship
with the Lord. May you always be able to offer them your good example, through the
practice of the Christian virtues. It is not easy to express what one believes in
openly and without compromises. This is especially true in the context in which
we live, in the face of a society that all too often considers those who live by
faith in Jesus as out of fashion and out of time.
On the crest of this
mentality, Christians too can risk seeing the relationship with Jesus as restrictive,
something that humiliates one’s fulfilment; “God is constantly regarded as a limitation
placed on our freedom, that must be set aside if man is ever to be completely himself”
(The Infancy Narratives: Jesus of Nazareth)
But this is not how
it is! This vision shows that it has not understood the relationship with God at
all, for as we gradually proceed on our journey of faith, we realize that Jesus
exercises on us the liberating action of God’s love which brings us out of our selfishness,
our withdrawal into ourselves, to lead us to a full life in communion with God and
open to others.
“‘God is love, and
he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him’ (1 Jn 4:16). These words
from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian
faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny”
(Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, no. 1).
The water which will
sign these children in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
will immerse them in that “fount” of life which is God himself and will make them
his own true sons. And the seed of the theological virtues, faith, hope and charity,
sown by God, seeds that are planted in their hearts today through the power of the
Holy Spirit, must always be nourished by the word of God and by the sacraments so
that these Christian virtues may grow and attain full maturity, until they make
each one of them a true witness of the Lord.
As we invoke upon these little ones the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, let us entrust them to the protection of the Blessed Virgin; may she
always preserve them with her motherly presence and accompany them at every moment
of their lives. Amen.
