My dear parishioners,
Peace! The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the “prayer of the rosary” as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours in the Western Church (§ 2678). In praying the rosary we “meditate on the mysteries of Christ” engaging our “thought, imagination, emotion, and desire” leading not only to “knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus” but “union with Him” (§ 2708). In fact the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an “epitome of the whole Gospel” and is also an expression of “devotion to the Virgin Mary” (§ 971). Saint John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (16 October, 2002) proposed that we join to the classic fifteen mysteries contemplating the infancy, passion and resurrection of Christ the Lord, Mysteries of Light which highlight His public life on Earth (RVM, 21). Here we consider the first of the Luminous Mysteries, the Baptism Lord Jesus in the Jordan River.
In the Sacred Liturgy for nearly sixty years now Mother Church has celebrated the Baptism of the Lord as the conclusion of the Christmas season following the Epiphany (traditionally 6 January). With the birthday of the Lord commemorated each year on 25 December and the baptism of the Lord commemorated by the second week of January, some twenty days, we can see how the holy childhood of the Lord and His hidden life in Nazareth of some thirty-three years are all condensed.
In Sacred Scripture we read about the Baptism of the Lord in Matthew 3:13-17. Here we are taught that it was at the Jordan River that the Lord Jesus was baptized by Saint John the Baptist with the voice of the eternal Father bearing witness to Jesus’ divine filiation. That a dove descended upon the Lord is recorded in both Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; and John 1:30-32. The baptism administered by Saint John the Baptist was not done in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but merely unto repentance.
While the classic fifteen mysteries of the Rosary have “traditional” fruits or blessings associated with them, the “newness” of the Luminous Mysteries give us even more to consider. In light of the “voice of the Father” we should consider Jesus’ Divine filiation and our own divine adoption in Baptism (RVM, 19). In light of the Baptism of the Lord we should give thanks for the saving waters which have been poured over us. In light of the Baptism of the Lord, we should be zealous to bring others to the same saving waters. In light of the Baptism of the Lord we should ask for the required graces to live out faithfully our baptismal promises where we renounced Satan, all his empty promises and the lure of evil. In light of the Baptism of the Lord we should redouble our efforts, with God’s grace to be saints, to be holy and pleasing in the sight of the Lord all our days.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr