Friday’s feast of the Epiphany and today’s celebration of the Baptism of Jesus have much in common. Both are experiences of revelation. Both present Christ to the world. Both display the divinity of Christ as a ‘showing forth’ of the Word or Logos. Both express Christ as incarnated and made present amongst us. It is our response to this reality which marks us out as Christian. The challenge we have, as we begin this new year of the Lord 2023 is this: are we going to respond?
The Epiphany is the great feast of ‘lambent beauty’ as the hymn puts it. The light of Christ shines forth to illuminate and enlighten our minds. The magi came to find the Christ child and having found him, they offer him their gifts. In return they themselves are given something precious which is revealed to them, and the pathway of their lives is changed. Are we able to come to Christ in a similar way? Are we prepared to give to Christ the things we regard as most valuable so that he can in return change them and provide us with a new and more profound pathway of understanding, by showing us how to use them in a different way?
The Baptism of Jesus is a moment of radiance when John is illumined in mind and heart and sees and understands the awesome reality of what is happening. Jesus takes his place with us and alongside us as ‘Emmanuel’, God with us, emerging from the waters of the Jordan to take on the mantle of the Servant of the Lord. The one who will bring forth a new covenant, a light to the nations. Can we see ourselves as taking up this call to be servants to each other and if so in what capacity?
We have a new pathway to walk as our new parish emerges. It will be a pathway along which the treasures and gifts of renewal and recommitment will enrich and strengthen our understanding of how our Christian witness is to be received. Each one of us will have our part to play in this renewal and we must allow the Spirit to stir up in us the desire to make God’s presence known. We must bring our gifts and have them transformed. We must take up the calling which our baptism invokes and shed our reticence, realising that we are beloved by God and endowed with his grace and his truth to proclaim his gospel.
The message of these two great feasts of the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus must not pass us by. They must be revealed in us and through us and make each one of us arise and shine out, so that the light of Christ is to be seen, transforming pathways and encouraging us all to walk in the light of the Lord.
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