Readings (Year C):
Isaiah 42:1–4, 6–7
Psalm 29:1–4, 9–10
Acts 10:34–38
Luke 3:15–16, 21–22
Reflection: Share in the work of God
On Holy Saturday, adults wearing white clothes wait with unlit candles in hand. They will be lit during the Christian ritual of initiation of adults, when adults are readied for full initiation into the church through baptism, confirmation, and first communion. Families, friends, and the assembly of God’s people bear witness to the faith they are about to profess as they join the church community.
Those gathered hear the words of the ritual deep in their hearts, encouraging reflection on their own baptisms in Christ. Indeed, becoming like Christ is the ultimate effect of baptismal initiation as we, just like Christ, attain the identity of God’s children.
We hear in the gospel that Christ showed up like everyone else to be baptized by John the Baptist at the Jordan River. In the presence of all, therefore, Christ’s sonship was publicly proclaimed by a heavenly voice: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). The fondness of Christ’s relationship with God is revealed as pleasing and delightful just as that of believers (Rom. 1:7, 1 John 4:10).
The reception of the Holy Spirit and divine anointing prepare Jesus for the ministry of justice (Luke 4:18). He dedicates his life to serving humanity, restoring the poor to a place of honor and dignity, rehabilitating those on the fringes of social life and relationship, and freedom for those whose experience of self-flourishing is controlled or denied in a social system that is designed to keep them out. Jesus reveals to us what happens to a believer who is anointed at baptism and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Just as Christ acknowledges that he must get on with doing the work of God (John 9:4), likewise our baptism prepares us to get involved and to share in the work of God for the salvation of the world. We are called for the ministry of justice in the world as the prophet Isaiah said in the first reading (Isa. 42:3). Through our baptism in Christ and our relationship with God we become people of justice. Our experience of the reception of the Spirit of God prepares us for service in the saving plan of God for the world.
In Gaudete et Exsultate (On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World), Pope Francis reminds us that our union with Christ “entails reproducing in our own lives various aspects of Jesus’ earthly life: his life in community, his closeness to the outcast, his poverty and other ways in which he showed his self-sacrificing love.” Our lives of baptismal initiation in Christ invite us to uphold the dignity of every child of God, to express goodwill toward everyone—especially the poor and vulnerable—and to consciously care for creation.
To each one of us and to those whose baptismal initiation we witness, Pope Francis reminds us that our “identification with Christ and [the will of Christ] involves a commitment to build with him that kingdom of love, justice, and universal peace.”
Our baptism in Christ, therefore, invites us to uphold the life of each one in a dignified world.
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