BAPTISED IN THE SPIRIT

FEAST OF JESUS’ BAPTISM - Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7

The encounter with John the Baptist is always an occasion for a good surprise. He was a very uncommon man, who challenged everybody not only by his words and deeds but also by his own presence. Everybody saw on him someone very special and great, in such a way that “a feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ.” (Lk 3:15) However John never allowed himself to be carried away by the feelings and the whims of the populace. He never pretended to be what he was not, and he was not ready to accept and much less to encourage false impressions about him. Being outspoken, he went straight to the point: there is “someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals”. Such was his greatness compared with John’s littleness. And to put it clear, John compared his baptism with the baptism bestowed on us by Jesus:

“I baptise you with water”, but “he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Lk 3:16).

Maybe these words are an answer to the question about the difference between Jesus and John and their baptisms. We know that there was a group of John’s followers in Ephesus. Apollos, for instance, “knew only the baptism of John”, until he was taught more accurately about the Way by Priscilla and Aquila (Act 18:25-26). When Paul passed in Ephesus, he discovered a group of disciples, who were followers of John, and they did not know the Holy Spirit. They had only been baptised with the baptism of John, a baptism in water as a sign of repentance.

We were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus, with his baptism, which is a baptism in the Spirit, and the Spirit is the one transforms us, creating us anew.

Jesus baptises us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Fire and water are symbols of the Spirit. Indeed the Holy Spirit is the living water, given to us by Jesus so that we may have eternal life. Receiving the Spirit, we are enkindled by his fire - the fire of love, which is God’s love that burns continuously without ever being extinguished.

The words pronounced by the Father at Jesus’ baptism were repeated over us at our own baptism: 

“You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.” (Lk 3:22).

In the baptism, we were adopted as God’s children, making of us one with his beloved Son.

In the baptism, the water is no more than an symbol and an instrument of the Holy Spirit, and his power is not diminished or enhanced by the amount of water used in the baptism. He is the one who grafts us in Jesus Christ, making us one body with Him.

In his letter to Titus, Paul explains what happens in the Baptism.

“But when the kindness and love of God our saviour for mankind were revealed, it was not because he was concerned with any righteous actions we might have done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own compassion that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and by renewing us with the Holy Spirit which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our saviour.” (Tit 3:4-7).

Our salvation is a result of God’s compassion and love. It is not obtained by our own righteousness, because we have never deserved it and much less can we claim a right to it. And in the baptism, God’s compassion and love are revealed to us and act upon us, so that being cleansed we are reborn as God’s children, endowed with the Spirit, which was poured over us, and which carves in the image of Jesus, the beloved Son.