Today we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, whose baptism foreshadows our own. The Festival of the Baptism of Our Lord remembers Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan by John the Baptist. In submitting Himself humbly to baptism by Saint John the Baptist, Christ provided the example for the rest of us. If even He who was without sin should be baptized though He had no need of it, how much more should the rest of us be thankful for this sacrament, which frees us from the darkness of sin and incorporates us into the Church, the life of Christ on earth! Thus, our Lord’s Baptism was necessary, not for Him, but for us.

It is the great commission of our Lord Jesus that we would, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Through water and the Word of God in baptism, we are liberated from sin and death by being joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus (Matt 28:19).  God uses baptism to bring about faith.  In baptism, we are “born again of the Spirit” (Rom 6:3-4) to begin a new life freed in Christ to love God and serve others (John 3:5).