Sunday Readings: Is 42: 1-7; Acts 10: 34-38; Mt 3: 13-17
Sometimes we feel that time is going too fast. We recently celebrated Christmas, and today we are already with an adult Jesus and ready to start his public ministry starting with his baptism.
John the Baptist demanded the conversion and purification of sins, through baptism in the Jordan. Why is Jesus baptized? It was a rite of purification, but Jesus had no sins to purify himself from. By participating in the baptism of purification, Jesus is performing in a symbolic way what will be the meaning and reality of his mission: he takes upon himself the sins of his people, the sins of the world, that is, “he takes upon himself the sin of the world".
In Jesus' baptism the heavens open, the Holy Spirit is seen and the Father's voice is heard. God removed the obstacle that prevented him from approaching man, immediately showing his face. The links between God and humanity are restored. The trinity God, the Father who loves (Holy Spirit) his Son, recognizes in Jesus man his own Son. In Jesus there has been the full reunion between God and man (Cf. J. Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, Madrid, 2007, p. 39)