Today at Mass we today hear readings about baptism. The lesson from Genesis talks of the moving of the Spirit upon the waters, the lesson from St. Paul's discussion with the Ephesian Church what sort of baptism they received, and the Gospel is St. Mark's rendition of the Baptism of our Lord.
St. Paul was curious about why the Ephesian Christians were operating at half strength, only to find they had received the baptism of repentance preached by St. John the Baptist. This was the baptism our Lord received after all, why would it not suffice?
Here is where we get into the question of intent and result. The Gospel record, borne out by the record in the Acts of the Apostles, states that the baptism offered by the Forerunner was for washing away sins in an act of repentance. Only one that we know of received the seal of the Holy Spirit and the approval of the Father and that was the baptism of our Lord, undertaken to "fulfill all righteousness," meaning that while Incarnate, God the Word humbled Himself to be under the requirements of a holy life as a human, but because He was indeed the Word, the presence of the Father and the Spirit with Whom He shared being gave it a seal beyond all comprehension.
When St. Peter in his letters, or St. Paul in other of his own letters, talk of baptism, the baptism offered by the Church, this was no mere baptism of repentance. Yes, repentance is part of it. Yes, the washing away of sins is part of it. But more importantly this baptism is into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a seal, a sacrament whereby we ontologically unite ourselves to Jesus, dying with Him to our old corrupt natures and rising in this life to take on Him as our new incorruptible nature. It is both symbol and promise, an overlay of old with new, a foretaste of what is to come, an overlap in this world of what was and what will be. In it, we too unite ourselves to Jesus' death, resurrection, and seal of the Holy Spirit. It is this baptism, once offered, fully charged the Ephesians as St. Paul knew they should be.
We have died to the old and taken on the new. In these days of uncertainty, political instability, the apparent rampant spread of anarchy and lawlessness, of death by still unchecked disease and violence, we need not just a baptism of repentance, although we do seriously need to repent, but a baptism of renewal, of taking on new life, of uniting ourselves to God and aligning with His Kingdom.
Come, Lord Jesus.
