Helps for Catechists◆ More about Today’s Scriptures◆ Reflection◆ The Scriptures and the Catechism◆ The World of the Bible: Baptizing
with Water and the Spirit
Enrichment◆ Welcome the Good News◆ Singing Together◆ Music and Art (blue paint, brushes)◆ Bible Skills for Third Graders◆ Info: Children and the Gospel◆ Info: Sosa’s “El Cielo Canta”◆ Info: Where You’ll Find Everything
Else
Core Session◆ Getting Started (dish pan,
waterproof doll)◆ Gospel Story: John Baptizes
Jesus◆ Roleplay (long strip of butcher
paper)◆ Praying Together
We explore God’s call to Jesus and us in baptism.◆ Today’s gospel tells the story of Jesus’ baptism, marked by God’s voice naming him
beloved child. ◆ As for Jesus, the most powerful message of the gospel for children is that God looks at
each one of them and calls them, “Beloved children.” ◆ In today’s core session, we enact the words and gestures of Baptism, exploring both the
Baptism of Jesus and the sacrament of Baptism today.
The Baptism of Jesus
ScriptureLuke 3:15-16, 21-22
1Living the Good News | Primary | Baptism of the Lord – C
Bap t i sm o f t h e L o r d – C
Question of the WeekWhat might we do to celebrate Jesus’ joyous presence with us?
Getting Started (10-15 minutes)Gather children around a dish pan with several inches of water and a waterproof doll. Ask children to recall Baptisms they have seen in church. Invite children to use the doll and water to show what happens at a Baptism. What do people do? What do people say?
Explain that the word baptize means to dip. Ask, “Why do we call what we do in church Baptism?” Explain that sometimes people are baptized by being dipped right into the water. Usually people are baptized when water is dipped into a shell or cup and poured over their heads.
When we are baptized, God’s Holy Spirit pours over us just like water. Invite children to hear today’s story of the Holy Spirit pouring over Jesus.
Gospel Story (5-10 minutes)John Baptizes Jesus
People came from far and wide to listen to John as he preached by the Jordan river.
“You will see God’s salvation,” John preached to the people. “Turn away from doing wrong and live a new life for God.”
John baptized these people; he dipped the people into the water and prayed that they would live new and better lives.
One day John heard a person say, “Maybe he’s the Messiah.”
“Yes,” said several others. “Maybe he’s the one God has sent to save us all.”
John walked quickly to the people. “No,” he said. “I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is so great that he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. When I baptize you, the water of this river washes over you. But when the Messiah comes, the Holy Spirit, God’s own power, will wash over you. God will give you power to live truly new lives.”
Then one day Jesus—the true Messiah—came to the river. After all the people were baptized, Jesus waded into the water and walked to John. “Will you baptize me?” Jesus asked.
So John dipped Jesus into the water of the river.
As Jesus came up from the water, the Holy Spirit of God came down upon Jesus like a dove. And as John and Jesus prayed together, they heard God say, “Jesus, you are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”
Roleplay (10-15 minutes)Cut and tape a long strip of butcher paper to the floor. Invite the children to use blue felt markers to make waves of “water” on the paper. This strip represents the river Jordan.
Ask one child to play the role of John and another to play the role of Jesus. Ask the other children to play the roles of people being baptized.
John asks each child:◆ What do you want?
When the child asks for Baptism, John asks:◆ Why do you want to be baptized?
Each child, whether playing the part of Jesus or a bystander, gives his or her own reason for being baptized.
At the completion of each dialogue, John dips the child requesting Baptism into the paper river. You can repeat the game with other volunteers taking the parts of John and Jesus.
Praying Together (5 minutes)Gather the children in a circle. Turn to the child on your left and say:◆ You are God’s own child. God loves you.
Help this child pass the message along to the next child.
Continue until all the children have heard themselves affirmed as God’s children.
Conclude with this prayer:◆ God, thank you for giving us your love and your Holy
Spirit when we were baptized. Help us give your love to others. Amen.
Note: If you use At Home with the Good News, either distribute this week’s papers to the children before they leave or e-mail the papers to their families.
Living the Good News | Primary | Baptism of the Lord – C
Welcome the Good News (10-15 minutes)In today’s Welcome the Good News you’ll find a Baptism Stories activity that reviews both today’s gospel and the sacrament of Baptism.
In Welcome God’s Word, children look up a scripture verse and solve a scripture puzzle. Children will also find an activity called With Your Family that they can lead at home.
Singing Together (5-15 minutes)From Singing the Good News you and the children can sing together:◆ “Jesus Went to be Baptized” (p. 32 of the songbook)
Note: To access both the songbook and its attached MP3 files, open your Winter-C Seasonal Resources folder, then click on Singing the Good News.
Music and Art (5-15 minutes)Sosa’s “El Cielo Canta”Read aloud for children these words from today’s gospel: “Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him...And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my own dear Son.’”
Invite children to imagine they are gathered at the river where Jesus is baptized, when the heavens open. Play for them the song “El Cielo Canta,” the lyrics of which mean, “Heaven is singing with joy.” (Open your Winter-C Seasonal Resources folder, then click on Companion Music for options on obtaining this music.) Then invite children to use water to make pictures of the moment when Jesus is baptized.
Distribute crayons and paper. Ask the children to draw pictures of Jesus’ Baptism, using the brightest colors they can find. Tell the children to press very hard with their crayons while drawing.
Then ask the children to spread blue paint thinned with water over the surfaces of their pictures. The crayon-col-ored areas will resist the thinned paint.
As an alternative art activity, you can invite children to make a Dove Poster with messages of God’s love attached to this document.
Bible Skills for Third Graders (10-15 minutes)Ask third graders to make a wordsearch puzzle for the parish. Use a ruler to draw a 10- by 10-cell grid on a sheet of newsprint. Make each cell of the grid a 1" square. Leave space beneath the grid.
Help the children use the Table of Contents, chapter and verse numbers to find Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 in their Bibles. Ask the children to follow along as you read the passage aloud.
Then ask the children to pick out important words in these verses. They might choose such words as baptized, Jesus, Holy Spirit and dove. Ask each child to write one important word on the newsprint, underneath the grid.
Help the children create a wordsearch puzzle on the newsprint. Ask each child to write his or her important word in the grid, using one box in the grid for each letter in the word. Children may write their words either from left to right, or from top to bottom.
When all the words have been written in the grid, help the children fill in the remaining boxes of the grid with random letters. Hang the puzzle in a public part of your parish’s building. Post a sign inviting people to find words in the puzzle from today’s gospel story.
Living the Good News | Primary | Baptism of the Lord – C
Children and the GospelAfter the celebration of the infant Jesus Christ in earlier sessions, we now encounter the adult Christ as he faces another moment of beginning: his baptism in the river Jordan.
In today’s session we explore with children the sacrament of baptism. The Church’s sacraments function as signs of God’s acts, in history and in human life today. In baptism, we encounter a powerful sign of new life shared among God’s people.
For young children, the first step in exploring the sacraments is simple observation. Have they seen a baptism? What happens in baptism? What happens at the font? What happens with water?
Encourage children to share their stories of what they have seen and heard, knowing that they will want to enter more fully into the meaning of the sacrament in the years to come.
Sosa’s El Cielo CantaSince 1975, Pablo Sosa, an ordained Methodist minister, has served as Professor of Choral Conducting at the Carlos Lopez Buchardo National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His passion for sacred music that reflects Latin American culture has greatly influenced the nature of church music in both South and North America.
Sosa wrote “El Cielo Canta Alegria” in 1958 for a picnic of theological students. It celebrates the joy of community found in the Body of Christ. The lyrics in both Spanish and English invite us to joyful meditation. We share the first verse here.
El cielo canta alegría,¡Aleluya!porque en tu vida y la míabrilla la gloria de Dios.¡Aleluya! ¡Aleluya!¡Aleluya! ¡Aleluya!
Heaven is singing for joy,Alleluia!for in your life and in mineis shining the glory of God.Alleluia! Alleluia!Alleluia! Alleluia!
◆ Attached to this Session Plan you will find:— Backgrounds and reflections for today’s readings,
titled More about Today’s Scriptures.— A Dove Poster activity you can use in today’s
session to explore with children the Church’s use of a beloved baptismal symbol.
— A Dove Pattern to use in the Dove Poster activity above.
— A copy of today’s Gospel Story to hand out to children or e-mail to their families.
— This week’s At Home with the Good News to hand out to children or e-mail to their families.
◆ Open your Winter-C Seasonal Resources folder, then click on Seasonal Articles to find:— Information on Winter-C’s Models of the Faith.— An article for catechists and/or families exploring
Jesus’ role as The Messiah.— An article for catechists and/or families exploring
The Creed in the Christian Tradition.— The Introduction for Primary for Living the Good
News.
Living the Good News | Primary | Baptism of the Lord – C
More about Today’s ScripturesToday’s readings invite us to respond to God’s call in baptism. Isaiah suggests that God chooses and gathers us to bring compassion and justice to a suffering world. Peter and John spread the good news of Jesus beyond their comfortable social and ethnic borders. In today’s gospel, Jesus is baptized, and we are invited to acknowledge him as God’s “Son, the Beloved.”
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7Today’s reading is the first of four “servant songs” in Isaiah (the others are 49:1-6, 50:4-11 and 52:13–53:12). It is not clear whom the author intended the servant to represent. The servant could stand for a collective identity: the people of Israel as the historical nation, as a faithful remnant or as an idealized body.
Others believe that the servant represents an individual such as the king, a prophet or a future ideal figure, such as a messianic ruler. Christians have always identified the servant as Jesus.The song in today’s reading is a recognized formula for the king’s designation of a court official. The servant is presented, his power is attested, his mission and manner of accomplishing it are defined. He will “bring forth justice to the nations” (v. 1) by bringing all people, par-ticularly the oppressed, into the covenantal relationship with God and one another.
The depiction of the servant forms an important element in the Church’s understanding of Jesus’ mission, especially as presented in accounts of his baptism.
Acts 10:34-38Today’s reading is a selection from Peter’s speech to the pagan centurion Cornelius and his household. Cornelius was a “God-fearer,” a Gentile who worshiped God but had not adopted all of the Jewish religious practices. Peter’s sermon is an example of the basic preaching of the early Church.
Including Gentiles into the Christian community was a divisive issue in the early church. Some rejected and feared the possible inclusion of Gentiles, but the passage makes it clear that Peter’s willingness to consider including the Gentiles is not something he came to simply on his own. Peter acted under the direction of the Holy Spirit (1:8).
Cornelius’s conversion marks an important turning point in the outreach of the early Church. But even more it marks a distinctively Christian insight into the inclusive attitude of God. Through his dream Peter learns that creating human barriers that hinder persons from relating to God is not the way God acts. Because God is inclusive, so must we be!
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22Like Mark and Matthew, Luke records John’s denial of his own importance. It is the mightier one who is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus is baptized along with “all the people,” identifying himself with sinful humanity.
As Jesus was praying (in Luke, often a prelude to major events), the Holy Spirit descends upon him. With the title formerly applied to the nation, to the king and later to the Messiah, Jesus is now openly identified as the Son of God, dramatizing and confirming what was implicit in his conception (1:35). Thus Jesus is anointed for his mission.
Living the Good News | Primary | Baptism of the Lord – C
ReflectionThe gospel gets off to a rolling start, describing “a people filled with expectation.” We know that feeling of standing on tiptoe when we await a special holiday, or yearn for the arrival of someone we love but haven’t seen in a long time.
In the spiritual life, we must also wait expectantly, knowing that we cannot go it alone, that we desperately need a redeemer. Do we long for God—or can we be easily satisfied with a new car, a restaurant meal? In the sixteenth century, St. Ignatius of Loyola asked each seeker the same question: “what is your deep desire?” It’s not a bad question to ask ourselves, and it can’t be answered quickly or superficially.
Jesus models how to wait: praying and together. He enters the waters with the rest of the community, not setting himself apart. The outpouring of the Spirit which he then receives awaits us too: the voice affirming us as beloved child, God’s delight. From his baptism flow all the other graces of his life.
What remains for him—and for us—is then to live out of that blessing. It takes him forty days in the desert to internalize the message, which fires all his subsequent ministry. What is the foundational experience, the fundamental grace in our lives?
The Scriptures and the CatechismThe feast of the Baptism of the Lord reminds us that our response to Christ’s call to follow the way of discipleship is formalized in our baptism (CCC, #1213–45). Jesus’ baptism included both the confirmation of his identity as God’s Son (the voice from heaven) and his empowerment for the ministry that will now begin (the Spirit descending like a dove). So likewise our baptism seals our identity as Christians and empowers us to continue the saving work begun with Jesus (CCC, #830–56). Baptism transforms us into “Christs” for our world.
The World of the BibleBaptizing with Water and the SpiritFor the early Christians, there were two great signs of God’s saving activity that would bring a new life: the resurrection of Jesus from death to new life and the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on the community. John likens his purifying washing with the equally cleansing action of the Holy Spirit and fire.
The outpouring of God’s Spirit (the power of life associated with breathing) in a baptismal washing not only purifies the person but signifies one’s desire to change one’s ways and be more closely united with God’s saving activity. Once empowered by the indwelling of God’s holy presence, the baptized will be able to carry on the mission and ministry of God in our world.
Living the Good News | Primary | Baptism of the Lord – C
In this activity, children use dove shapes to make a poster about God’s love. Before the session write messages on slips of paper that tell about God’s love for us. Examples:◆ God is with us.◆ God loves us.◆ We are God’s dear children.◆ God helps us love others.◆ God gives us the Holy Spirit.
In the context of today’s session, water and doves are symbols. For primary children, symbols may not be understood at all, except as concrete objects. Thus many primaries run the risk of hearing today that the Holy Spirit is a dove. Be careful in your word choice. Emphasize that the Holy Spirit came down like a dove. Reiterate this whenever you talk about doves today. As you review the story, ask: What was like a dove?
Creative movement can often help primary children understand metaphor far more easily than words. Invite the children to move like doves. Ask: ◆ Do doves move slowly or quickly? ◆ Do doves make hard or gentle movements?
Then ask the children to move like the Holy Spirit, reminding them that the Holy Spirit came down like a dove.
Discuss the meaning of the dove in today’s story, remembering to emphasize in your own
statements that the Holy Spirit came like a dove. Ask:◆ Do you remember how the Holy Spirit
came to Jesus in today’s story?◆ When the Holy Spirit came to Jesus, Jesus
heard God say: You are my own dear Son.◆ God has messages for each of us, too. ◆ Today we will make a poster with some of
these messages.
Place the prepared slips of paper in a basket and ask each child to draw one slip of paper to read aloud. Be prepared to help younger primaries read their messages.
Then invite each child to cut a dove from poster board. (Children can use their own pattern or the pattern provided online.) Children use felt pens to write messages on their dove shapes. (Younger primaries could glue or tape their messages to the dove instead.)
Encourage the children to add collage decorations to their doves, and drawings to decorate the poster.
People came from far and wide to listen to John as he preached by the Jordan river.
“You will see God’s salvation,” John preached to the people. “Turn away from doing wrong and live a new life for God.”
John baptized these people; he dipped the people into the water and prayed that they would live new and better lives.
One day John heard a person say, “Maybe he’s the Messiah.”
“Yes,” said several others. “Maybe he’s the one God has sent to save us all.”
John walked quickly to the people. “No,” he said. “I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is so great that he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. When I baptize you, the water of this river washes over you. But when the Messiah comes, the Holy Spirit, God’s own power, will wash over you. God will give you power to live truly new lives.”
Then one day Jesus—the true Messiah—came to the river. After all the people were baptized, Jesus waded into the water and walked to John.
“Will you baptize me?” Jesus asked.
So John dipped Jesus into the water of the river.
As Jesus came up from the water, the Holy Spirit of God came down upon Jesus like a dove. And as John and Jesus prayed together, they heard God say, “Jesus, you are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”
Today’s readings invite us to respond to God’s call in baptism. Isaiah suggests that God chooses and gathers us to bring compassion and justice to a suffering world. Peter and John spread the good news of Jesus beyond their comfortable social and ethnic borders. In today’s gospel, Jesus is baptized, and we are invited to acknowledge him as God’s “Son, the Beloved.”
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Today’s reading is the first of four “servant songs” in Isaiah (the others are 49:1-6, 50:4-11 and 52:13–53:12). It is not clear whom the author intended the servant to represent. The servant could stand for a collective identity: the people of Israel as the historical nation, as a faithful remnant or as an idealized body.
Others believe that the servant represents an individual such as the king, a prophet or a future ideal figure, such as a messianic ruler. Christians have always identified the servant as Jesus.
The song in today’s reading is a recognized formula for the king’s designation of a court official. The servant is presented, his power is attested, his mission and manner of accomplish-ing it are defined. He will “bring forth justice to the nations” (v. 1) by bringing all people, particularly the oppressed, into the covenantal relationship with God and one another.
The depiction of the servant forms an important element in the Church’s understanding of Jesus’ mission, especially as presented in accounts of his baptism.
Acts 10:34-38
Today’s reading is a selection from Peter’s speech to the pagan centurion Cornelius and
his household. Cornelius was a “God-fearer,” a Gentile who worshiped God but had not adopted all of the Jewish religious practices. Peter’s sermon is an example of the basic preaching of the early Church.
Including Gentiles into the Christian community was a divisive issue in the early church. Some rejected and feared the possible inclusion of Gentiles, but the passage makes it clear that Peter’s willingness to consider including the Gentiles is not something he came to simply on his own. Peter acted under the direction of the Holy Spirit (1:8).
Cornelius’s conversion marks an important turning point in the outreach of the early Church. But even more it marks a distinctively Christian insight into the inclusive attitude of God. Through his dream Peter learns that creating human barriers that hinder persons from relating to God is not the way God acts. Because God is inclusive, so must we be!
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Like Mark and Matthew, Luke records John’s denial of his own importance. It is the mightier one who is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus is baptized along with “all the people,” identifying himself with sinful humanity.
As Jesus was praying (in Luke often a prelude to major events), the Holy Spirit descends upon him. With the title formerly applied to the nation, to the king and later to the Messiah, Jesus is now openly identified as the Son of God, dramatizing and confirming what was implicit in his conception (1:35). Thus Jesus is anointed for his mission.
ReflectionThe gospel gets off to a rolling start, describing “a people filled with expectation.” We know that feeling of standing on tiptoe when we await a special holiday, or yearn for the arrival of someone we love but haven’t seen in a long time.
In the spiritual life, we must also wait expectantly, knowing that we cannot go it alone, that we desperately need a redeemer. Do we long for God—or can we be easily satisfied with a new car, a restaurant meal? In the 16th century, St. Ignatius of Loyola asked each seeker the same question: “what is your deep desire?” It’s not a bad question to ask ourselves, and it can’t be answered quickly or superficially.
Jesus models how to wait: praying and together. He enters the waters with the rest of the community, not setting himself apart. The outpouring of the Spirit which he then receives awaits us too: the voice affirming us as beloved child, God’s delight. From his baptism flow all the other graces of his life.
What remains for him—and for us—is then to live out of that blessing. It takes him 40 days in the desert to internalize the message, which fires all his subsequent ministry. What is the founda-tional experience, the fundamental grace in our lives?
Com
mon
sense an
d the experts agree: faith
form
ation m
ust occu
r in th
e hom
e. Th
e chu
rch’s edu
cational program
s have a m
uch
better ch
ance of su
ccess if these efforts are expan
ded an
d enrich
ed by the fam
ilies wh
ere children
spen
d a hu
ge proportion of th
eir time.
Th
is resource is design
ed to help fam
ilies an
d chu
rches m
eet that n
eed. Often
parents
wan
t to participate in th
eir children’s religiou
s edu
cations, bu
t aren’t sure h
ow to do it. T
hese
pages give families m
any w
ays to bring th
e Su
nday readin
gs into th
e hom
e. At H
ome w
ith the G
ood New
s is designed for th
e parents of
children
aged preschool th
rough
grade six.
Each
reproducible page con
tains:
•B
ibleBackgroun
d
Th
is section lists th
e readings for each
Su
nday an
d briefly explain
s how
they relate
to each oth
er or to a comm
on th
eme.
•W
hatYourChildD
idThisW
eek
Th
is section su
mm
arizes wh
at Presch
ool/ K
indergarten
, Prim
ary and In
termediate
groups did in
their session
s. It gives parents
a specific startin
g point for a con
versation
about w
hat th
eir children
learned or
accomplish
ed. For parents w
ho are n
ew to
an experien
tial, lectionary-based approach
, it serves as an
introdu
ction th
at will
increase th
eir familiarity.
•P
rayerStarter
Th
ese can be u
sed at hom
e, after a meal,
at bedtime or w
hen
ever a family gath
ers to pray togeth
er. On
e person can
serve as th
e leader, reading alou
d the w
ords of the
prayer or the prom
pt that in
vites others to
participate.
•Parentin
gTip
Health
y parentin
g is a skill learned over
time. T
hese su
ggestions give paren
ts con
crete ideas for cherish
ing th
eir children
an
d makin
g the C
hristian
message th
eir w
ay of life at hom
e.
How
to U
se This R
esource
Brin
gin
g th
e Sunday R
eadin
gs to
Your Fa
mily
•FamilyD
iscussionQ
uestion
In th
is section appears a qu
estion based on
th
e gospel. Since m
ost families don’t h
ave lon
g, un
interru
pted time for discu
ssion,
this qu
estion can
come u
p in th
e car after ch
urch
, durin
g the w
ait at the drive-in
ban
k or fast food restauran
t, or at bedtime.
Paren
ts can adapt it to th
e ages and
interests of th
eir children
.
•GospelR
eflection
T
his m
editation on
the gospel lin
ks Jesus’
story and ou
r daily lives. People w
ho pray
over the gospels regu
larly can begin
to m
ake them
the tem
plate for the w
ay they
live. Th
us, th
ey can tran
sform th
e message
from w
ords proclaimed in
chu
rch to valu
es en
shrin
ed in th
e heart.
Wh
ile some fam
ilies may h
ave time for
extended refl
ection on
the readin
gs and
utilize all th
e sections of th
e page, others m
ay h
ave time for on
ly a quick Fam
ily Discu
ssion
Qu
estion or P
arentin
g Tip. A
ll parents w
ill wan
t to see w
hat th
eir children
did in th
eir session so
they can
discuss it w
ith th
em afterw
ards.
Reprodu
ce the pages an
d arrange a system
of distribu
tion so th
at they can
be sent h
ome w
ith
the oldest or you
ngest ch
ild in a fam
ily, the
chu
rch n
ewsletter or an
y regular bu
lletin.
WheretoU
seThisR
esourceT
his resou
rce may be h
elpful in
a variety of settin
gs, and especially for:
• C
hristian
Edu
cation settin
gs wh
ere parent
involvem
ent is cru
cial•
Intergen
erational edu
cational settin
gs•
Schools w
ith den
omin
ational spon
sorship
wh
o wan
t to involve fam
ilies more
Brin
gin
g th
e Sunday R
eadin
gs to
Your Fa
mily
Today’s scriptures focus on the nature of Jesus’ person and ministry, as revealed in his baptism. Isaiah42:1-4,6-7 describes a servant called by God, who will persist until he establishes justice. In Acts10:34-38, Peter
preaches about Jesus of Nazareth, anointed by God and the Holy Spirit. In Luke3:15-16,21-22, Jesus receives the anointing of God’s Spirit and hears the voice of God’s affirming love.
The Preschool/Kindergarten session included
activities that explored not only the long-ago story
of Jesus’ baptism but also God’s gift of grace to
us in this sacrament. They used baptismal mate-
rials at a learning center, played a musical game
based on the story and drew pictures of God’s
children.
Primary(Grades1-3) children began with skits or
free play at learning centers designed to explore
their ideas about water. After hearing today’s gos-
pel, the children made pipe-cleaner story figures
and used them to tell stories about baptism. They
then made a class book about baptism.
Intermediate(Grades4-6) participants also
focused on Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of his
mission to all nations. They talked about coun-
tries they would like to visit, read Isaiah and
illustrated a scripture verse with paper cutouts of
This is a good time to get out mementos of your children’s baptisms: photos, video recordings, candles, Baptismal garments. Tell stories about the event. Talk about how tiny they were (if baptized as infants), how big they’ve grown, and how Jesus lives in them through the grace of Baptism.
It’s easy to understand John’s protest when Jesus lines up with all the thieves, cheats, liars, unfaithful and unfragrant people who clearly need this rite of purification. Joining them for cleansing isn’t the best way to start a career. We want Jesus to act like God (“C’mon—throw in a little thunder!”) but he casts his lot with humans.
When we let go of our rigid expectations of how God ought to act, when we “give in” as John did, then we see the sky open and the
Spirit descend. To John’s objection, Jesus offers a simple explanation: it is fitting for them to participate in God’s plan. The saving activity is God’s; human justice is our effort to respond, to be true to all we have been given.
What is true for Jesus is true for us: we are baptized, anointed, supported by God’s power and made God’s children. Do we respond to these gifts as Jesus did, by healing and doing good?
Repeat God’s words at Jesus’ baptism to each family member:
• “You are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased.”
Baptism means that you were chosen by God, affirmed as “beloved,”
and sent forth to change the world. Find ways to communicate that empowering
message to your children and explain why baptism is so important to you.
Were our baptisms any different from Jesus’? So what great plans must God have for us?
