Gospel
Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Homily
We are all accustomed to election campaigns in which various candidates declare; “I am the One who can save you from the mess in which the previous administration has left you” or “I am the One who can save you from the disaster into which the policies of the present administration are leading” Then there are those who because of genuine belief or because of the benefits they might receive from a winning candidate endorse one or the other. This of course confuses many who look for a sign or for some convincing piece of evidence to make a decision about whom they should support.
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The same dynamic is at play in the Gospel reading for this feast of the baptism of our Lord. The Jews of that era were going through a very hard time. They had been colonized by the Romans. They had lost their freedom. They awaited a Messiah who would liberate them from the yoke of the hated Romans. Many false messiahs had arisen who had all been destroyed. John, like one of the prophets of old, then comes onto the scene preaching a baptism of repentance. The People begin to ask themselves; “Is this the Christ”? Is this the One to usher in the new Era of freedom, Peace and Justice? John however is aware of his own vocation. He has no intention of taking on a task which is not his so he tells the people who are wondering if he is the long awaited messiah; “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John in fact tells the people two things. First of all he tells them that he is not the One and then he tells them that the One to come will empower and embolden them to work for the liberation which they seek. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
I know of no country in the world where things could not be better, some more so than others but the response of so many is the same. We enter into the blame game or we become complainers. Then as now many wanted liberation but they wanted it to come almost by magical means. They refused to do the hard work that bringing about liberation entails. So John called the people to a change of life which would prepare them for baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire.
As baptized and confirmed Christians we have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
We cannot therefore, we must not sit back and complain and wait for others to do something. There comes a time when we must take our responsibility to be protagonists in the search for a better world seriously. This has been done in many countries. Who can forget the pictures of religious women in the Philippines leading marches against the excesses of the Marcos regime? Who can forget similar marches in Nicaragua? The problem of course lies in the fact that very often we take too long to act and we allow things to become so bad that the only way to achieve liberation is taking to the streets. We have been baptized however with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We have been given a Spirit of boldness, the same Spirit who emboldened the then Cardinal Wojtyła and future Pope John Paul II in his struggle with communism in Poland. It is the same Spirit who emboldened Mons. Romero in El Salvador. It is the same Spirit who emboldened Mother Teresa in Calcutta and Martin Luther King and Archbishop Tutu. It is that same Spirit who has been given to us.
As Christians, baptized and confirmed we have been capacitated to make a difference; we have been capacitated because of the gift of the Spirit in our lives to continue the work of liberation begun by Jesus during his life here on earth.
May all of us, You and I, conscious of the Spirit of boldness in our lives and supported by the prayers of those who have gone before us begin to make a difference.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, John the Baptist pointed out your Son Jesus as the One to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Vivify in our lives that baptism which we your people have all received so that we may work with boldness to bring about change in our countries and in the world so that the civilization of love may begin to take shape. We ask this through the intercession of Mary, our Mother and your Son Jesus. Amen
