Scripture Scribbles: January 12, 2025 - The Baptism of the Lord
the Gospel
Luke 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.”
the scribble
The Baptism of the Lord.
The “official” end of the Christmas season. As we enter into Ordinary Time, I want to linger here. Maybe because I haven’t quite finished celebrating Christmas with my family yet. This year was the first in 17 Christmases that all six of our kids haven't been under the same roof for Christmas morning. Maybe I want to linger here because we started pulling out our Christmas decorations a lot closer to Christmas Eve than usual and I'm not ready to pack it all up.
I want to continue to feast!! Feast on the joy, the warmth, family, the feelings you get celebrating inside a full house, even with all the extra loads of laundry and the piles of dishes in the sink.
Despite trying to be truly present and drink in every moment, I still felt that hurried bustle of being swept up by the wave, the wave of busyness. I definitely enjoyed all of it! ALL. OF. IT! Yet I still want to linger here. Our oldest son will join us in a few days and we will get to stretch this season out, with all the warm cozy feelings of gift giving and closeness for just a bit longer! I’m happy about that.
Let's talk about today's Gospel. I've been sitting with this reading and I keep reading over that last line. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus is beloved by the Father. He was baptised and was praying. Praying. Jesus, our Lord, praying to the Father. It’s easy to picture this scene the way it is written, but it doesn’t “look” like the scene I recall of my children's baptisms. So much of that day felt like, is the gown clean, and pressed? What is everyone else wearing? Are we forgetting anything?
Yet there we were with our BELOVED child. This baby that we love so much more than we could have ever imagined. Standing in the church, presenting them in their beautiful Irish linen and lace gown to receive the sacrament of baptism.
To receive the Holy Spirit.
I must confess, I did not realize that part! I did not know of this gift! I'm not sure how I missed it, but I did! I think I thought, “Isn’t this a beautiful tradition that us Catholics do”…. Won’t our grandparents be so proud?!
When I finally had my own epiphany and realized this fact, that at our baptism we received the gift of the Holy Spirit, it was a game changer! It answered some of those questions about these strong desires I was having to know God, to pray, to understand our faith. I feel like that fire was getting stoked. The flame was being stirred, and I was grateful, I am grateful. Grateful that even though we didn't have the full understanding of the sacraments and why we receive them, we knew it was important for our beloved babies to all be baptized. And I pray that God was looking at this scene in our small town in our ancestral Church, and saying, “with you I am well pleased!”
You are his BELOVED!
I pray we can all let ourselves head into this Ordinary Time and let ourselves Be Loved by Him.
Today’s devotion was written by Beth Brennan
