The Power of the Spirit
Sunday, January 11, Feast of the Baptism of Jesus
Dear brothers and sisters, the Baptism of Jesus, by revealing Jesus' true identity, also reveals our true identity... Indeed, through Christian Baptism, we are called to become "adoptive children of God in the Only Begotten Son."
Indeed, the opening of Heaven, the Holy Spirit descending upon the Only-Begotten Son in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father expressing his delight in Him, have an extraordinary meaning for us too, God's adoptive children.
First of all, for the man Jesus, as united to the divine nature through the hypostatic union in the person of the Word of God, "Heaven opens," that is, the mystery of God is no longer, so to speak, "a sealed book, but an open one." No one, Jesus says, knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him, that is, to us Christians, who through baptism are united to Him as branches to the Vine. (See Matthew 11:27; John 15:1-8)
Jesus' life unfolds immersed in the Holy Spirit, who guides Him to fulfill God's will, namely, the complete liberation from sin and death of those who believe in Him through faith and holy baptism.
The Father delights in Jesus because the Son always does what pleases the Father, always accomplishes the Father's works, that is, "exploding" life with the greatest power of love. A divine, "explosive" love, capable of revolutionizing the world, poured into the hearts of us Baptized through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us...