Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
Note: This homily was delivered on the weekend of January 12-13, 2013

(Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3:15-16; 21-22)

            The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is a feast of transitions. We are just finishing the joyous season of Christmas, and we are now beginning “Ordinary Time”. We are on the threshold of coming out of one time period and moving into another. This feast also marks the transition of Jesus from private life to public ministry. Jesus crosses the threshold in his Baptism from his life devoted to his family and his private expression of his faith to his public, outward expression of it.

            Over the next few weeks until we get into Lent, we will hear how Jesus celebrated a wedding with his friends; announced his mission to the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed; how he was run out of town for his preaching. But it starts with this – his public baptism and the approval of the Father for his mission. He has moved from private prayer to public proclamation. He has crossed the threshold into another life.

            This feast should remind us as well that in Baptism we too are called to leave our old life behind – that our baptism, like that of Jesus, calls us to a commitment to continue the mission and the ministry of our Lord. We are called to cross that same threshold from private prayer to public proclamation of our faith.

            Each time we approach any threshold, we have a moment of decision. These are called “liminal” moments in spirituality lingo, moments when we are not quite in one place or another, like the transition between Christmas time and Ordinary Time. Each of these “liminal” moments is a moment of decision – we decide who we will be and what we will do when we cross that threshold.

            We have these liminal moments all the time. Each time we cross the threshold of our bedroom in the morning, we can choose what kind of person we will be to the people that live with us. We can choose to be a person of love, care, concern, or we can be focused on ourselves and our own problems of the day. Each time we cross the threshold into our office building or school or store where we work, we have a liminal moment – a moment of decision when we can choose what kind of person we will be as we interact with coworkers and customers. Will we be people who live temperately, justly and devoutly as our second reading says?

            Think of the liminal moment that you have when you come into and leave the Church today. The holy water that we have at the doors of the Church helps me to use those moments when I cross those thresholds to remember why I am entering and what kind of person I want to be when I leave. As I enter the Church, and I cross the threshold, I bless myself with holy water and remember with great gratitude my parents who brought me into the life of faith by bringing me to Baptism as an infant. On my way out, as I cross the threshold, I bless myself with holy water to remind myself that my Baptism calls me to be a public witness to my faith – to live a life as a faithful Catholic Christian in everything that I say and do.

            Each week when we cross that threshold to come into this Church, we are making a decision to hear the Word of God and to celebrate this Eucharist with everyone else who believes as well. By coming over that threshold, we are using that liminal moment to make the decision to express our faith together, to strengthen each other for our own journeys as we leave.

            And when we leave today, when we cross the threshold out into the world outside of our worship space, we have a decision to make. Are we going to leave our faith and our belief here in this space? Or are we going to witness to the mission and ministry of Jesus? Our baptism calls us to mission – to not leave our faith here, but to be a presence in the world, as our first reading says, who makes a straight highway for God in the wastelands of our lives, someone who will be a voice in the wilderness of our culture, someone who will fill in the valleys of the pain we see around us, and who will make the hills of greed and the mountains of power into a level plain.

            Today as you leave the Church, you will come to the threshold – you will have your liminal moment of decision to live out the Christian calling of your Baptism, or leave your faith behind in the walls of this worship space. My prayer for you, as I will say again as you leave, is that you go in peace to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord.