The Baptism of the Lord
January 13, 2008
Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass
of the
St. Thomas More Society
celebrated at
St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church ,
1013 Wood Street
Scranton, PA
Matthew 3:13-17
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
Years ago, I was talking to a man who was in his forties and was unmarried, yet he had many of the qualities that make a man a good husband. I told him that many women would appreciate the gifts he could bring to a marriage. He was loyal, long-suffering, compassionate, and kind. He had always found a way to get by, even though his formal education was limited. And he loved children. He had just begun dating a woman, so, I told him, “I think you should consider the possibility that you have a vocation to marriage. Perhaps God has sent to you the woman you are to marry.” His reply came as a shock to me. He said, “The sins of my youth are too great for me to marry. I do not wish to burden any woman with my past life. I am not worthy of this woman. I am not worthy of marriage.”
I realized immediately that this man I so admired possessed a character flaw that would make any marriage very difficult. In addition to – and far worse than – the sins of his youth, he was guilty of the sin of pride. His insistence that he could never marry implied that his sins were greater than God’s grace. His insistence that he could never marry implied that his guilt was greater than God’s forgiveness. I feared that this false piety had become an excuse for him not to do what God was calling him to do.
I thought of this man and his false piety, his doubt in God’s ability to transform lives, as I read today’s Gospel. St. Matthew tells us that John the Baptist resisted baptizing Jesus because he thought himself unworthy of the task. He told Jesus that our Lord ought to be baptizing him. But Jesus told John to do it “to fulfill all righteousness.” John consented, and so Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, the event that initiated his active earthly ministry and revealed him to be the Messiah, the Son of God.
Clearly, John was correct. He was unworthy of the task Jesus asked him to perform. John was merely a prophet; Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus possesses a Divine Nature; John is merely mortal, of dust and to dust he returned. I realized in my reflections that my friend had gotten this much right: he was unworthy of marriage, just as surely as I am unworthy of the priesthood, and all of you sitting here this morning are unworthy of receiving our Lord’s Body and Blood in Holy Communion. But John the Baptist knew what my friend did not: God makes us worthy. In the Blood of His Son, we are made worthy to fulfill the calling that the Lord lays upon each of our hearts. Our goodness will never match the greatness of Him who calls us, but this does not mean we cannot answer His call.
Therefore, today I want to look at John the Baptist as an example to us, an example of true humility, the man who is the answer to anyone full of false piety, the retort to all those who claim they are unworthy to pursue the vocation God has given them.
What John exhibits first is trust. John trusts that Jesus, the Son of God, knows better than he does. Rather than argue with Jesus, John simply states his unworthiness, thereby illustrating his genuine humility. He does not say, “I won’t,” but that Jesus is more suited to the task than he. In the same way, at the invitation to Holy Communion we do not say “We won’t”, but that we are “not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof”. When Jesus tells John that it is “to fulfill all righteousness”, John consents. Imagine this: a sinner must do something to fulfill all righteousness. John’s consent demonstrates his trust that Jesus is able to make him worthy, even if of his own merits, he is unworthy. John is an example to follow when we imagine our sins are too great: we must trust that we can do good for Jesus, through Jesus and in Jesus, despite our sins.
John is an example, secondly, because he does what Jesus commands. Obedience, we see, is the true measure of humility. We can talk all we want about our unworthiness to answer a vocation, but in the end, all we are doing is pointing at ourselves. The man who does not answer his calling to the priesthood because he believes himself unworthy points not to Jesus but himself. If we truly want to give Jesus the glory, then we must be obedient to what he says. We do not want to be like those who pat themselves on the back for how good they are. Neither can we accuse ourselves so consistently that our words have the same effect: we stand at the forefront to be noticed, while Jesus fades away in the background. Being truly humble and truly obedient has the opposite effect—our neighbors see the power of Jesus working through us as we do things for which we do not possess the natural talents.
The third way John serves as a witness to us is in how he fades into the background after Jesus’ baptism. Certainly, we hear about his arrest and execution, but John does not try to hog the limelight after he fulfills his mission. He looks for no credit and, in fact, tells others, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Unlike merchants who go on television to tell us how generous they are at Christmas time, bragging about how they have helped the needy with their largesse, John does what is right and then he gets out of the way. He does not baptize Jesus for the notoriety it will give him, but because it is what Jesus told him to do. Thus, we see in John a man whose motives are pure, one who does right for God’s sake, not his own. He does not congratulate himself for being humble or obedient, and as such he shows himself to be both humble and obedient.
We see, then, that excising from ourselves any false piety is important for the same reason the Baptism of Our Lord is important. At Jesus’ baptism the world got to see who Jesus was, the Son of God with whom our heavenly Father is well-pleased. This is the second Epiphany, Christ’s revelation to the world, just as last week we celebrated the Solemnity of the Epiphany, Christ’s revelation to the Gentiles. In the same way, when we trust, obey, and get out of the way, we show the world Jesus, not ourselves. We show that what we do we do not because we are worthy. We know we are not. But we know that Jesus is, and this is the truth we desire to share with the world. If we are willing to follow God’s call, Jesus will give us all we need to fulfill our vocation, and He will give us true piety, so that we will not only receive no credit, we will not even want it. John’s mantra will become our own: “He must increase but I must decrease”. And in this our constant devotion, Our Lord will transform the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen