Christmas time always ends with a feast in honor of the baptism of the Lord. This feast proclaims a theophany, a revelation or a manifestation of the divine Sonship of Jesus by his anointing and appointment to his messianic office. It is the feast that proclaims the Baptism that elevates believers to the status of sons and daughters of God.
Like John the Baptist, we might wonder why Jesus would need to be baptized. Jesus is sinless; so why receive John’s baptism of repentance? Jesus answers, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”. In other words, Jesus is baptized because this is God’s plan for him – and for us. Jesus is baptized because we need Baptism. He opens the way for us, sanctifying the water, to wash away our sins.
As outlined in the stages of the Christian initiation process, our identity as baptized Catholics simply does not end at Baptism. Baptism alone does not completely satisfy the appetite of our being — to seek Christ in a more intimate way. It opens the door to seek a genuine and meaningful relationship with Christ that can only be accomplished by taking the first step toward Christ in Baptism. Our post-baptismal journey requires us to continually seek and live out a more mature response to God’s love for us. The faith required for baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning that is called to develop (CCC 1253).
The maturation the Catechism refers to, is our willingness to grow in faith with Christ especially through sacramental life, i.e. frequent reception of the sacrament of confession and our active participation in receiving Christ in the Holy Eucharist at Mass. Reborn as children of God, we the baptized, must profess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church and participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the People of God (CCC 1270). Thus, we renew our baptismal promises:
to openly and directly reject the temptation of sin,
the devil himself and his empty promises.
to publicly and openly profess our faith in the Blessed Trinity.
to publicly profess Jesus Christ the second person of the Blessed Trinity.
to affirm the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
to grow in sanctity in order to hear our Lord more clearly.
to be Christ-like to others.
to prepare for our final resting place with God.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus beautifully and succinctly summarizes the gift of renewing our baptismal promises in the following way: “Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift.”
God bless,