Gospel for Jan 9, Feast: The Baptism of the Lord

From: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

The Preaching of John the Baptist (Continuation)

[15] As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, [16] John answered them all, "I baptize you with water; but He who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Jesus Is Baptized

[21] Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, [22] and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from Heaven, "Thou art My beloved Son; with Thee I am well pleased."
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Commentary:

15-17. Using excessive imagery, John announces Christian Baptism, proclaiming that he is not the Messiah; He, who is on His way, will come with the authority of supreme Judge that belongs to God, and with the dignity of the Messiah, who has no human equal.

21-22. In its liturgy the Church remembers the first three solemn manifestations of Christ's divinity--the adoration of the Magi (Mt 2:11), the baptism of Jesus (Lk 3:21-22; Mt 3:13-17; Mk 1:9-11) and the first miracle of our Lord worked, at the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:11). In the adoration of the Magi God revealed the divinity of Jesus by means of the star. At His baptism the voice of God the Father, coming "from heaven", reveals to John the Baptist and to the Jewish people--and thereby to all men--this profound mystery of Christ's divinity. At the wedding at Cana, Jesus "manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him" (Jn 2:11). "When He attained to the perfect age," St Thomas Aquinas comments, "when the time came for Him to teach, to work miracles and to draw men to himself, then was it fitting for His Godhead to be attested to from on high by the Father's testimony, so that His teaching might be the more credible: 'The Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me' (Jn 5:37)" ("Summa Theologiae", III, q. 39, a. 8 ad 3).

21. In Christ's baptism we can find a reflection of the way the sacrament of Baptism affects a person. Christ's baptism was the examplar of our own. In it the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, and the faithful, on receiving Baptism are consecrated by the invocation of and by the power of the Blessed Trinity. Similarly, Heaven opening signifies that the power, the effectiveness, of this sacrament comes from above, from God, and that the baptized have the road to Heaven opened up for them, a road which Original Sin closed had closed. Jesus' prayer after His baptism teaches us that "after Baptism man needs to pray continually in order to enter Heaven; for though sins are remitted through Baptism, there still remains the inclination to sin which assails us from within, and also the flesh and the devil which assails us from without" (St Thomas, "ibid.", III, q. 39, a. 5).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.