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Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 13 January 2013


The Baptism of the Lord

I don’t suppose any of us take water for granted, if we do then we must have lived an extremely sheltered life in recent months, rain and floods following on from shortage and restrictions has been the pattern which many of us are all too familiar with and it’s miserable for many living near rivers or on flood plains. Those two extremes, too much or too little characterise so much of our world.

I’ve just been on a visit to Grand Cayman, that, I’m sure conjures up beautiful visions of a tropical island, sun sea and relaxation. The reality is more complex, this Island has no natural water, everything has to be imported or taken from the ocean by desalination plants. With the heat comes hidden dangers such as tropical storms and hurricanes, whilst insects like mosquitoes add to the irritation. It is a fragile balance between human needs and nature, between over exploitation and conservation.

Balancing extremes is really at the heart of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. John talks about the baptism of water, refreshing and cleansing but, as our analogies suggest symbolic of life and death. Then we hear the proclamation of that important insight that Jesus will baptise by Spirit and fire,wet and dry, chaos and order, death and life, somehow the images suggest a completeness, God connecting with everything not only spiritually but physically and in Jesus being totally part of creation. Our own baptism is a real death and rebirth, it is intensely physical, unclothing, being held in the waters to rise and live in the promise of immortal life, clothing again, touching and signing, anointing, being given light, we literally put on Christ, and in confirmation, the completion of our initiation sacraments, were anointed and receive the Spirit. Thinking of that anointing and the great presence of the Spirit who was with Jesus the Christ all through his life, we can see how the gifts of that Spirit are to do with healing, forgiving, reconciling bringing out of death to life for us.

The scripture readings for today stress that there is no partiality with God, but that the kindness and mercy ( a word which has its roots in anointing) of God pours out on us through the Spirit. We are anointed ones, called to be presences of Christ for others in the world, the continuing, living presences of that Lord.

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.

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