"Merry Christmas!"
I think it's appropriate to start this post by using that traditional greeting, as we finish the liturgical season of Christmas. Before taking down all the decorations and enter into Ordinary Time, we celebrate another Manifestation of God in Jesus, this time at His baptism. After having first encountered John the Baptist during Advent, we encounter him again at the end of the Christmas season.
The readings allude to God upending our preconceived notions about how He is supposed to work in the world. St. Peter makes himself unclean according to Jewish law by enters the home of Cornelius--gasp--a Gentile, belonging to the despised Roman establishment, working for their army as a centurion. John the Baptist, who declared Christ as more worthy than Him, is taken aback when Jesus comes to him, requesting that he baptize Him.
But Peter states to all those in Cornelius's house his realization that God has come to save all people--all people. (It's interesting to think of "dirty" Gentiles on an occasion commemorating Jesus's baptism, using water to wash someone clean.) And God has come through Jesus Christ, who submitted Himself in obedience to be righteous before God His Father--so that God is pleased to declare Jesus as His Son. And in this declaration, Jesus is given a mission to heal the sick and serve the poor, those things declared by God to the Servant in the reading from Isaiah. As people of faith baptized in Christ, we are now joined to this same mission.
Similar to the Easter season, the Christmas season progresses from a great celebration of Christ to start and then ends on a note that brings it back to us. We started this season by celebrating the birth of Christ, God Incarnate, come to Earth in the Flesh. Throughout this Christmas season, we have celebrated the manifestations of God in Christ. Now we truly realize that as people of faith, the presence of God is manifested in us. And we go forth to carry His presence before all the world.
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