This Sunday our celebration of the Christmas Season ends with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. As Tony explains, the Baptism of Jesus simultaneously manifests the mission of the Incarnate Son, and provides a glimpse of the interior life of the Triune God. Both reveal to us a God of solidarity, Whose life we are called to imitate as creatures created in imago Dei.
Mass Readings:
Reading 1: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7, or Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10, or Psalm 104:1b-2, 3-4, 24-25, 27-28, 29-30
Reading 2: Acts 10:34-38, or Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7
Gospel: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Works cited:
Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration.
Joseph Ratzinger, “Truth and Freedom,” in Communio 23, Spring 1996.
St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America, 52.
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.