Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Thank you for joining us. This Advent season, it's January 12th, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
[00:00:27] For more than 40 years, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Pope has baptized infants underneath Michelangelo's beautiful frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
[00:00:39] Pope John Paul II started the tradition of baptizing infants in the Sistine Chapel, in part because of the unparalleled beauty of the Renaissance masterpiece. In fact, during his tenure, he commissioned a restoration of the chapel to remove soot and grime from the frescoes.
[00:01:00] The chapel, also the setting for papal elections, draws nearly 5 million visitors a year.
[00:01:10] Originally reserved for children of the Swiss Guard, babies who received the sacrament of baptism from the Pope, also now include children of employees of the Holy See and Roman Curia.
[00:01:27] Last year, Pope Francis baptized 16 babies in the Sistine Chapel on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
[00:01:36] The annual baptisms help keep the Sistine Chapel in regular use, as it first was intended a sacred space to worship God and meditate on the various events of salvation. History through art.
[00:01:51] Today's Feast of the Baptism of the Lord marks the end of the Christmas season.
[00:01:57] It also marks the beginning of Jesus's ministry, highlighting his true identity as the Son of God. It's a good time to reflect on our own baptism and identity as sons and daughters of God.
[00:02:29] The baptism of Jesus was a dramatic turning point in his life.
[00:02:33] Jesus was about 30 years old and had spent his whole life in the obscurity of a small hill town up north called Nazareth.
[00:02:43] He worked as a carpenter, and in the eyes of the townspeople, he. He was just like everybody else.
[00:02:51] Then the time came when he was drawn to fulfill his destiny. He left Nazareth and went southward to where John was baptizing.
[00:03:01] He apparently spent some time there, weeks, months, listening to John, watching people come forward for baptism.
[00:03:11] We can picture him in the middle of the crowd, sensing that soon he must no longer be part of the crowd, but the one the crowd came to hear.
[00:03:26] One day he took a deep breath, summoned his courage and stepped forward.
[00:03:33] The heavens opened and the Spirit came upon him. And a voice from the heavens said, you are my beloved son.
[00:03:43] His life would never be the same.
[00:03:48] He would now be center stage, loved by some and disliked by others.
[00:03:54] He would preach, teach, heal.
[00:03:58] He would show us a new way to live.
[00:04:01] He would show us a new way to die. With trust in God.
[00:04:08] Right after his baptism, he faced the temptation to take a different path.
[00:04:13] But he fought it off and fulfilled the mission he was meant to fulfill.
[00:04:19] As we close the Christmas season and open the door to the rest of the year.
[00:04:25] It is this Jesus who says to us, come, follow me.
[00:04:40] Tomorrow marks our emergence into a brief stretch of ordinary time until lent starts on March 5th.
[00:04:48] The reason the Church has a liturgical year is to mark the sanctification of time.
[00:04:55] Many ancient cultures saw time as cyclical, for example, a never ending cycle of repetition, going nowhere.
[00:05:04] The Christian view of time is linear, for example, moving constantly ahead on a line, moving towards that ultimate day when Jesus Christ will come again.
[00:05:18] The liturgical seasons and feasts recur year after year, but they are like a spiral staircase going upward, not around in the same circle.
[00:05:30] At times in our lives, we may feel like we're trapped in a cycle. For example, we make resolutions, break resolutions, make resolutions. But it doesn't have to be that way.
[00:05:46] We may not be able to break out of it on our own, but the Lord helps us do what we can't do on our own.
[00:05:54] It's called God's grace.
[00:06:00] For the past 43 days we've experienced regular prayer. There's no reason why we can't continue doing this.
[00:06:10] Consider taking your Bible and beginning with Luke, chapter 4, verse 14, just after the baptism and temptation of Jesus, spending time mulling over a few verses each day.
[00:06:26] They are inspired words, and the Lord speaks to us personally through them.
[00:06:33] As we emerge from the Christmas season to the rest of the year of grace. 2025 May we stay close to the Lord, asking Him to lead us on the path he calls us to walk.
