Fr. Tom's Homily | The Baptism of the Lord

Fr. Tom Konopka
Jan 10
2 min read

Updated: Jan 17

As today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and we end the Christmas season, our life with Christ is not ended. In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we see the mission of the Messiah and ours is. Jesus lived this mission, and he left it to His Church to continue. This is what we need to be about.

We are not baptized into an institution. We die with Christ and rise with him in the waters of baptism to a new life and a new identity. We are baptized into an unending relationship with Christ. Just as the Father anointed Jesus with the Spirit and witnessed to who His Son was, so we were anointed at baptism with the Sacred Chrism and our identity was confirmed. We are to be the servants of the world by offering our lives in the mission of the Church. We are to offer our lives, and Jesus did on Calvary for all. We are a prophetic sign of the mission of Jesus in a world which needs to hear His message.

This is the meaning of what it means to be the “gathering of the People of God”: the quhol, the ecclesia, the Church. We are baptized into the gathering of the people. The purpose of our gathering is to praise God and to remember our mission. We are His People no matter where we are. Our baptism is not a private affair. Jesus’s was not. He was baptized in the midst of the people gathered at the Jordan that day. Our baptism frees us from the pride of Adam and Eve and to live for God alone. It is not magic; it is a responsibility. In the early infants were baptized because the whole family was. Parents chose Christ and lived for Christ. We need to recapture that. When someone is baptized, whether infant or adult, it is into a relationship with Jesus, the Beloved Son of the Father. We need to reinforce this more and more.

As a tri-parish community, we must reclaim the dignity and responsibilities of our own baptisms. A reflection for each of us this week is: do I live as a baptized Roman Catholic? Do I know Christ? How can I ask you into the life of Jesus and His people, if I do not know him? If my life does not reflect the Gospel, how can I preach it?

So, as we end the celebration of Christmas, our life of faith does not end. Our task is to help those who filled our churches on Christmas Eve and will fill our Churches on Easter to come to that awareness. Once we preach the Jesus we know to them, only then will our church building be filled, we will not have shortage in any ministries, especially the ordained priesthood and the mission of Jesus will be the reason we are here. Let us be who we are; those baptized into Christ, the Beloved Son. May we hear his voice.