12 January 2025

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (C)

Collect prayer: Almighty ever-living God, who, when Christ had been baptised in the River Jordan and as the Holy Spirit descended upon him, solemnly declared him your beloved Son, grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to you. Through…

Readings
Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11
Psalm 104
Titus 2:11-14;3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 3:15-16,21-22

• 13 Mo St. Hilary or Poitiers, bishop and doctor of the Church.
• 17 Fri St. Anthony the Abbot.

Let us allow ourselves to be invaded by God’s love

Today’s page from the Gospel emphasises that, when Jesus had received baptism from John in the River Jordan, “the heavens were opened” to him (Mt 3:16). This fulfils the prophecies. In fact, there is an invocation which the liturgy has us repeat during the Season of Advent: “O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down” (Is 64:1). If the heavens remain closed, our horizon in this earthly life is dark and without hope. Instead, in celebrating Christmas, once again faith has given us the certainty that the heavens have been rent with the coming of Christ.

And on the day of the baptism of Christ we continue to contemplate the heavens opened. The manifestation of the Son of God on earth marks the beginning of the great time of mercy, after sin had closed the heavens, raising itself as a barrier between the human being and his Creator.

With the birth of Jesus the heavens open! God gives us in Christ the guarantee of an indestructible love. From the moment the Word became flesh it is therefore possible to see the open heavens. It was possible for the shepherds of Bethlehem, for the Magi of the East, for the Baptist, for Jesus’ Apostles, and for St Stephen, the first martyr, who exclaimed: “Behold, I see the heavens opened!” (Acts 7:56). And it is possible for each one of us, if we allow ourselves to be suffused with God’s love, which is given to us for the first time in Baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. Let us allow ourselves to be invaded by God’s love! This is the great time of mercy! Do not forget it: this is the great time of Mercy!

When Jesus received the baptism of repentance from John the Baptism, showing solidarity with the repentant people — He without sin and with no need for conversion — God the Father made his voice heard from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (v. 17). Jesus receives approval from the heavenly Father, who sent him precisely that he might accept to share our condition, our poverty.

Sharing is the true way to love. Jesus does not dissociate himself from us, he considers us brothers and sisters and he shares with us. And so he makes us sons and daughters, together with him, of God the Father. This is the revelation and source of true love. And this is the great time of mercy!”
Cf. Pope Francis, Angelus 12/01/2014

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-c. 367)

St. Hilary was a native of Poitiers in Aquitaine, Southwestern France. He was raised and educated as a pagan. In middle age, he embraced Christianity: moved thereto by God presented in the Holy Scriptures. He soon converted his wife and daughter and detached himself from anti-Christian company.

At the beginning of his conversion, St. Hilary refused to eat with and acknowledge Jews and heretics. He relaxed his severity later on and became a fisher of men (Mk. 1:14-20, Mt. 4:18-22). He received Holy Orders; and in 350, was consecrated bishop of Poitiers.

The Arian heresy, under the protection of Emperor Constantine, was then at its peak. St. Hilary supported the orthodox cause in several Gallic councils where Arians formed an overwhelming majority. As a consequence, he was banished to Phrygia in Anatolia. He spent four years in exile composing his great Treatise on the Trinity, and many others works.

In 359, he attended the Council of Seleucia in Constantinople. He went there with the council’s deputies and contended with Arians and other heretics. He confounded the reasoning of their leaders so that they asked the emperor to send him back to Gaul.

Bp. Hilary traversed Gaul, Italy and Illyria. He disproved heresies by illuminating the mood and inconsistency from which they stem. Chesterton wrote, “Heresy sets the mood against the mind.” After seven or eight years of missionary travel, St. Hilary returned to Poitiers. He passed away peacefully in 368.