This is shared from Coram Fratribus, the blog of Bishop Erik Varden, the Catholic Bishop of Trondheim in Norway; click for the full homily.
To grasp what Jesus’ baptism represents, we must approach it poetically. We must consider every aspect of the Gospel — each word, each syllable — in the light of a meaningful, complex context. If we do, a wide perspective opens.
When Jesus descends into the water, he touches creation as such. Modern environmental politics proclaim the same message as the beginning of the book of Genesis: No water, no life. He, the Holy One, hallows creation and claims it for himself. From this moment on, creation is a means to our hallowing. We ascertain this in the way we use water, oil, bread, and wine. Thus Jesus’s baptism stands for a horizontal axis, affirming his communion with the things of earth. This horizontal picture is rent by a vertical axis intruding in the form of the descending Dove, a herold of the Father’s voice proclaiming: ‘My Son, the Beloved!’ Love is revealed by the fact that the Son stands undressed and vulnerable as the axes’ point of intersection. The Baptism indicates a cruciform pattern that will be revealed definitively on Calvary. Let us be mindful of that when we recall that we have been baptised ‘into Christ’s death’ (Rm 6:3) in order to rise to new life in him.
The Spirit hovering over the water makes us think of the first day of creation. Something entirely new is about to begin. This new thing holds out the key to our life’s enigma. The baggage the old Adam has lugged around for so long is taken by the current; while the new Adam rises, upright and free, to be showered with divine love. Christ, the Firstborn, shows us what we, God’s adopted children, are called to become.
This image — or, if you like, this poem — gives meaning to everything else.
https://coramfratribus.com/words-on-the-word/baptism-of-the-lord/
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