The Baptism of the Lord

January 11, 2026

Matthew 3: 13-17

Jesus’ Baptism is truly a very significant moment in his earthly life, more than we might think at first glance.  You could say that it is his first public moment.  John the Baptist tries to tell Jesus that Jesus should not be baptized by John, but that it should be the other way around:  Jesus should be baptizing John.  But no.  Jesus refuses this by saying:  “Allow it for now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

And why was it “fulfilling all righteousness?”  In being baptized, Jesus embraces our humanity.  Jesus is identifying with our brokenness, our sinfulness.  In this moment of baptism, he takes on our sins and takes a further step toward his cross.  By this act of being baptized with water, Jesus is drowning the death of sin.  In the meeting of baptism and cross, Jesus offers each of us a path to divine life.

At this baptism, the Father holds out to Jesus proof of his love and shows that the Father owns and recognizes his only Son:  “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  If the human side of Jesus had any doubts, they are shown now to be groundless.  And in the same moment, we are assured there is more to us than our humanity.  If Jesus puts on our humanity, suffers, dies, and rises for us, he offers us to be part of his own existence and become part of himself.

And if baptism is such a turning point in Jesus’ earthly life, what about our own baptism?  Did you know that in the early church Christians celebrated the anniversary of their baptism, not the day of their birth.  In remembering our baptism, we remember whose we are and how we are to conduct ourselves.  When we do this, all that we do is in line with being part of Jesus very body.  When we do this, we are recognized as Jesus presence in our world.  We can then do what Luke has Jesus doing in the second reading:  going “about doing good.”

I read where a French writer recounts a conversation overheard in a trench full of wounded men during the First World War. One of the men, who knew he only had minutes to live says to one of the other man, “Listen, Dominic, you’ve led a very bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, take my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death.”  The Good News is that, through Jesus, God makes a similar offer. Something wonderful happens to us when we are baptized. When we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. We publicly declare our intention to strive to be like Jesus and follow the Father’s will for our lives. When we are baptized, our lives are changed. We see things  in a different way  than we did before. We see other people in a different way than we did before. Baptism enables and empowers us to do the things that Jesus wants us to do here and now. We are able to identify with Jesus because He was baptized. And we are able to love as He loved. Such identification is life-changing. That kind of identification shapes what we believe and claims us. So, yes, Jesus had to be baptized and so “fulfill all righteousness.”

Pope Francis recalled us to our main objective in life which is to allow Jesus to be seen, and so embody him.  He calls us to remember to act as if Jesus were here with us.  He asks, “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”  If we really live out our baptism, we cannot be satisfied with a situation like this.  If we change our direction, then we too can go “about doing good and healing all those oppressed by evil,” for God will be with us.  These moments will be our chance to go public.  They will be the beginning of our heavenly life.  Our baptism can be a turning point in our lives.  And we can make our baptism alive again even if its purpose fades for a time.

Fr. John Tran