The Baptism of the Lord
As a youngster, I was a big fan of Farmer Boy—
the
book by Laura Ingalls Wilder
about
the childhood of her husband, Almanzo,
just
down the road a piece from here.
Being
a North Country “farmer boy” myself,
I
was fascinated by how things were done in bygone days.
There’s
a chapter in Farmer Boy called,
“Saturday Night.”
Young
Almanzo loved Saturday because it was baking day,
and
that often meant fresh doughnuts, still hot from the kettle.
But
he rather hated Saturday night.
Why? Because Saturday night was bath night.
At
this time of year, after supper,
Almanzo
and his brother would head out to the rain barrel,
break
through the ice that had formed over the top,
and
bring in buckets of clear, cold water
to
be heated atop the woodstove.
A
big washtub was brought in from the woodshed
and,
one-by-one, the members of the Wilder family
would
be left alone in the kitchen
to
scrub away the grime from the week.
Almanzo
often thought it would be enough
to
just change into some clean underwear and his nightshirt,
but
he was sure his mother would figure him out
before
he crawled into bed.
That
chapter came to mind
as
I was preparing for this Sunday’s Mass,
so
I made sure to read it again—
it
had been quite a few years, after all.
And
I was glad to see that,
as
each Wilder came to bath time on Saturday night,
the
old water was dumped out of the washtub
and
new, warm water poured in.
I
was glad to read that because, in my memory,
all
the members of the family had used the same tub of water—
which
wasn’t so warm, and wasn’t so fresh,
by the
time the last person got to it!
This
Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.
As
we recalled back in Advent,
the
word of God came to a man named John,
who
went about in the desert, along the banks of the Jordan River,
proclaiming
a baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
Baptism
is bath time—a ritual washing of the body
that
points to the deeper cleansing of the soul.
Today
we’re confronted with the mystery
that
Jesus, too, went out to John to be baptized.
To
this, all four of the gospels attest.
But
why would Jesus, who—the scriptures tell us—
is
like us in all things but sin (Heb 4:15),
ever
ask to be baptized?
As
Almanzo would be quick to point out:
one
doesn’t really need to bathe if one isn’t really dirty!
Jesus
is baptized in the Jordan,
not
to be purified himself, but in order to purify baptism.
The
divine sinlessness of Jesus
gives
this Sacrament its amazing power
to
wash all of our sins away.
Our
older brother climbs into the washtub ahead of us,
but
his bath doesn’t muddy the water;
instead,
it makes it fresh and clean for you and for me.
Most
of us Catholics don’t remember the day of our baptism,
since
it so often takes place while we’re still infants.
I’ve
only ever seen one photo of my young parents
holding
little me over the font.
And
yet the day of our baptism is the most important of our entire life!
It’s
the day the Holy Spirit was first richly poured out upon us,
when
we were welcomed as members of Christ’s Body, the Church,
and
remade by grace as one of God’s own—
an
heir in hope of eternal life.
We
should be so grateful
that
our parents took this step on our behalf—
that
they were moved by their faith
to
immerse us in this mystery just as soon as they could!
But
now it falls to each one of us
to
live out of this great grace everyday
and
to be renewed in it as often as we can.
John
the Baptist had been sent
to
prepare the way, to make straight a highway,
for
the coming of the Lord—
the
appearing of our great God in our mortal flesh;
it
fell to him to make earth ready
to
welcome One from heaven.
Jesus,
on the other hand, goes before us
that
we—like him and with him—might live forever:
opening
heaven to receive us who dwell on earth.
And
so this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
is
a most fitting end
to
the Church’s Advent and Christmas season—
these
festive days when we’ve celebrated
the
coming of the Only Begotten, of God’s beloved Son.
He
became man that we might become children of God.
God
was born that we might be born again.
May
those of us who have rejoiced so heartily
over
the birth of the Baby
never
forget the incredible grace
of taking a plunge in his bathwater!
No comments:
Post a Comment