The Baptism of Our Lord (2026)

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

We’re told in St. Matthew: “When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and a voice from heaven saying: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matt. 3:16-17).

In today’s feast, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus by John in the waters of the Jordan. Though He Himself had no stain to be washed away, He wished to submit Himself to this rite just as He submitted Himself to the other requirements of the Law. As a human being, He submitted Himself to the laws that ruled and governed the lives of the people of Israel who had been elected by God to prepare the way for the Redeemer.

John the Baptist carried out his mission energetically to prophesy and arouse a great movement towards repentance as an immediate preparation for the coming of the Messianic Kingdom.

St. Augustine says, “The Lord desired to be baptized so that he might freely proclaim through his humility what for us was to be a necessity” (Augustine, Sermon 51,33).

By His Baptism, Jesus left for us the sacrament of Christian Baptism, directly instituted by Christ with what would be a further progressive determination of its elements, and be imposed as a universal law from the day of His Ascension.

We are again told in St. Matthew, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:18-19).

In Baptism we receive faith and grace. The day we were baptized was the most important day of our lives.

St. Irenaeus says, “Just as the parched land does not yield its fruits if it does not get water, so also we who were like dried sticks can produce fruits of life only if we receive freely the gentle and abundant rainfall of grace from on high” (Irenaeus, Treatise against Heretics).

Before we received Baptism we were outside the locked gates of Paradise, unable to bring forth the slightest supernatural fruit.

Today our prayer enables us to thank God for this totally undeserved gift, and to rejoice in the countless good things He has so lavishly bestowed upon us.

There’s a story of a little boy who was being prepared for First Holy Communion, and the teacher was saying that when you receive Baptism and the other sacraments, we receive grace, and that grace lifts us up from a natural level to a supernatural level so that we can perform supernatural actions.

The fellow was very amazed by these words—that we’re not just here to lead a natural life, but a supernatural life. He thought this was one of the best things he’d ever heard in his whole life. He had seen movies of Superman and Superwoman and Batman and Batwoman and Spiderman and Spiderwoman, and now he is called to lead a supernatural life.

So he decides that the best thing he can do is to go home and baptize his pet dog Rufus. He goes home, and he brings Rufus to the washroom, and he fills a mug with water, and pours it over the head of Rufus and said, “Now Rufus, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Now Rufus, you should be able to perform a supernatural action. So talk to me, Rufus. Talk to me.”

The story ends with Rufus beginning to talk but saying, “You have to be patient with me while I learn to talk because I’m not used to this business.”

Well, for Rufus to talk would be an action above his nature. It helps us to see and understand what we are capable of doing when through grace we are lifted up onto a supernatural level.

One writer says, “Thanksgiving is the very first emotion that should be born in us in response to our baptism; the second is joy. Never should we think of our baptism without deep feelings of interior gladness” (Columba Marmion, Christ, The Life of the Soul).

We should rejoice in the cleansing of our souls from the stain of original sin, and of any other sin that we may have committed before our Baptism.

All men are members of the same human family which was originally damaged by the sin of our first parents. St. Paul VI says this “original sin is transmitted as an inextricable part of our fallen human nature, by generation, not by imitation, and is to be found individually in each one of us” (Paul VI, Apostolic Letter, Credo of the People of God, Point 16, June 30, 1968).

But Jesus gave us Baptism as a specific means of purifying our human nature and freeing it from the terrible affliction of this sin that we were born with. “The baptismal water operates in a real way signifying what the use of natural water signifies—the cleansing and purification from every blemish or stain” (cf. 1 Cor. 6:11 and John 3:3-6).

St. Leo the Great says, “Thanks to the sacrament of Baptism you have been turned into a temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t ever let it happen that you drive away so noble a guest by your evil deeds, or ever again submit to the power of the demon. The price with which you were bought is the blood of Christ” (Leo the Great, Christmas Homily).

The Opening Prayer of today’s Mass says, “Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling.”

Baptism initiates us into the Christian life. It’s a true birth into supernatural life. It’s the new life preached by the apostles and spoken of by Jesus to Nicodemus: “Truly I say to you,” we’re told in St. John, “that he who is not born again from on high cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6).

The result of this new life is a true divinization of man that gives him the power to bring forth supernatural fruit.

Often the dignity of the baptized person is veiled by the ordinary circumstances of their life. So, like the saints, we need to strive hard to live in accordance with that dignity at all costs.

Our highest dignity, that of being children of God, conferred on us by Baptism, is a consequence of our rebirth.

If human birth gives as its result ‘fatherhood’ and ‘sonship,’ in a similar way those engendered by God are really His children. “See what love of God the Father has for us,” we’re told in St. John, “that he has called us children of God. We really are! Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet known what we shall be” (1 John 3:1-2).

The miracle of a new birth is achieved at the moment of Baptism by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When the baptismal water is blessed on Easter night, in the prayers we ask: “Just as the Spirit came upon Mary and produced in her the birth of Christ, so may it descend on the Church and produce in her maternal womb the rebirth of the children of God.”

The profound reality corresponding to this graphic expression is that the newly baptized person is born again to a new life, the life of God, and thus is His son: “And so we are sons, and heirs too, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,” says St. Paul (Rom. 8:17).

Let us give thanks to Our Father God for bestowing such gifts, gifts beyond all measure upon us and upon each one of us. What great joy it is to think often about those realities.

In The Way, St. Josemaría says, “‘Father,’ said that big fellow, a good student at the university…, ‘I was thinking of what you said to me—that I’m a son of God!—and I found myself walking along the street, head up, chin out, and a [proud] feeling inside…a son of God!’ With sure [conscience] I advised him to encourage that ‘pride’” (Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, Point 274).

In the Church nobody is an isolated Christian. From the time of Baptism each person is part of a people, and the Church presents itself to the world as the true family of the children of God.

Lumen gentium of the Second Vatican Council said, “It was the will of God to sanctify and save mankind, not in isolation, separated from one another, or without forming a people that would acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness” (Vatican II, Lumen gentium, Point 9, November 21, 1964).

“Baptism is the door to which we enter the Church” (ibid., Point 14; Decree, Ad gentes, Point 7).

“And in the Church, precisely through baptism, we are all called to holiness” (ibid., Points 11 and 39), each one in his own state of life and condition, and to the exercise of the apostolate.

The call to holiness and the consequent need for personal sanctification is universal. Blessed Álvaro del Portillo says, “Everyone—priests and laity—are called to holiness; and we have all received in Baptism the first fruits of a spiritual life which by its very nature will tend to maturity” (Álvaro del Portillo, On Priesthood).

Another truth intimately connected to the condition of being a member of the Church is the sacramental character, “a sure and indelible spiritual sign imprinted on the soul” (Enchiridion symbolorum, Point 852).

It’s like Christ’s seal of possession [on] the soul of the baptized. Our Lord took possession of our soul at the moment we were baptized. He rescued us from sin by His Passion and Death.

The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says, “With these thoughts in mind, we appreciate the Church’s desire that children should receive these gifts of God early” (Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction, 1980).

It has always been urgent for parents for children to be baptized as soon as possible. It’s a practical demonstration of faith. Neglecting to do so is not caring for their freedom, just as if one were to cause them hurt in their natural life, to neglect to feed, or to clothe, or to clean, or care for them when they were unable to ask for those things for themselves.

On the contrary, they have a right to receive this grace. What a wonderful apostolate there is for us to exercise in the many cases—among friends, companions, and acquaintances.

Baptism brings into action something greater than any other good: grace and faith, perhaps even eternal salvation. It can only be ignorance and a distorted faith that many children are deprived, even by their own Christian parents, of the greatest gift of their lives.

Our prayer goes up to God this day asking that He may never allow this to happen. We have to thank our parents who brought us, perhaps just a few days after we were born, to receive this holy sacrament.

God’s love was truly poured into our hearts.

We’re told in St. John, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). Our Christian vocation then is a calling to friendship with Jesus.

During their long journey through the desert, the Chosen People would set up the Tent of Meeting outside of their camp. It was a holy site, away from the business of the world.

To visit the Lord one had to leave the camp. It was there that Moses went to plead for his people before the Lord. We’re told in Exodus, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11).

There are a number of occasions when Scripture reveals God to be a friend of man. Through the prophet Isaiah God speaks of “Abraham, my friend” (Isa. 41:8).

The Chosen People rely on this friendship to obtain pardon and divine protection. Even more, all of Revelation tends towards the formation of a people who are friends with God, bound to Him by an intimate Covenant which is continually renewed.

“Through this revelation,” says the Second Vatican Council, “the invisible God out of the abundance of his love speaks to men as friends and lives among them, so that he may invite and take them into fellowship with himself” (Vatican II, Dei verbum, Point 2, November 18, 1965).

This divine plan came to fruition in the fullness of time when God the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, became man.

St. Thomas says, “Friendship presupposes a certain equality and personal contact” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Part II-II, Question 23), but the distance between God and man is infinite.

God took on a human nature so that man could take a part in His divinity by means of sanctifying grace (ibid.).

Friendship requires mutual love. God reached out to us, and so we were able to correspond. St. John says, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Man corresponds by accepting God’s love, opening his soul to Him, allowing himself to be loved, and expressing his own love in deeds.

The essence of friendship between God and man is to be found in the nature of charity, which is a supernatural gift. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts” (cf. Rom. 5:5). This gift allows us to love God with the same love by which He loves us.

Our Lord said to us, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15:9).

St. John tells us that, “That the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).

The Christian’s joy is rooted in the sure knowledge that God loves him, because God said, “You are my friends” (John 15:14). And so, it’s a great joy to be able to call ourselves “friends of God.”

In the course of His earthly life Our Lord was always open to friendship with those who approached Him. On some occasions, it was He who took the initiative to bring people to Himself, as in the case of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) and the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-26).

He was a friend to His disciples, and they were quite aware of His concern. When they didn’t understand something, they would draw close to Him with confidence, as we see in the Gospel. They ask the Lord, “Explain the parable to us” (Matt. 13:36-43). Our Lord takes them apart and reveals the meaning of His teachings to them.

The disciples joined in Christ’s happiness and in His worries. Jesus encouraged them whenever necessary.

In a like manner, the Lord now offers His friendship to us from the tabernacle. From there, He consoles us, encourages us, forgives us. From the tabernacle, as in the Tent of Meeting, the Lord speaks with everyone “face to face as a man would speak to his friend” (Ex. 33:11).

Here there’s a great difference that our temples house the God made man, Jesus, the same who was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary; He who was to die for us on the Cross.

Jesus enjoyed speaking with everyone who came to Him, and with those He met along the road. He took advantage of those moments to enter into their souls and raise up hearts to a higher plane.

If the person concerned was well disposed, Jesus would give him or her the grace to be converted and make a commitment to His service. He also wants to speak with us in the time of prayer. For this to happen, we have to be willing to talk and be open to real friendship.

I ask you, Jesus, that I might live out my Baptism every day of my life, taking care of my spiritual life, growing to be a soul of true and authentic prayer.

“He himself has changed us from being his servants to being his friends: ‘You are my friends,’ he said, ‘if you do what I command you’ (John 15:14). He has given us a model which we should imitate. As a result, we have to give our willingness as a friend, telling him what we have in our soul and paying close attention to what he carries in his heart.

“Once we open up our soul, he will reveal his own. Our Lord said, ‘I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you’ (John 15:15). The true friend hides nothing from his friend. He reveals all of his spirit, just as Jesus poured into the hearts of the apostles the mysteries of the Father” (Ambrose, About The Work of Ministers).

Christians should be men and women with a great capacity for friendship, because close contact with Jesus prepares us to put aside our egoism, our excessive preoccupation with personal problems.

We can thus be open to all those who meet us along the way, even though they might be of different ages, interests, cultures, or positions.

Real friendship is not born of a mere occasional meeting or simply from mutual need of assistance. Not even camaraderie, a shared task, or the same roof will necessarily lead to friendship. People who cross our paths every day on the same escalator, or the same bus, or in the same office are not thought to be friends. Neither is mutual sympathy, in itself, a proof of genuine friendship.

St. Thomas Aquinas says not all love equals friendship, but only that love that involves benevolence (Thomas Aquinas, loc.cit.).

This is the attitude where we care for someone in such a way that we want that person’s good. There is a greater possibility of friendship when there is greater reason to share the good which one possesses.

One writer says, “True friends are those who have something to give and, at the same time, have sufficient humility to receive. This behavior is proper to virtuous men. When vice is shared it does not produce friendship, but complicity, which is not the same thing. Evil can never be legitimized by a fake friendship” (J. Abad, Faithfulness). Sin never joins people together in friendship or love.

We Christians should give our friends understanding, attention, encouragement, consolation, optimism, and joy, along with many acts of service.

But, above all, we should give them the greatest good we have, which is Christ Himself, the best friend of all. True friendship leads to apostolate. We share the wonderful goods of the faith.

We can ask Our Lady to help us to live out our baptismal vocation in doing a greater and more effective apostolate with each day that passes.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

MML