RBWords

     It is a common thing to hear an Emcee at a banquet say, "Our speaker needs no introduction...." and then goes on to introduce him or her or else call on someone "to introduce the speaker"!  The role of John the Baptist in today's celebration is pretty much like that.  He serves as a way of introducing Jesus to the public.  In the case of Jesus, the real introduction comes from his Father who identifies Jesus as the "beloved Son."  [We'll hear this again at the Transfiguration.]The Holy Spirit is clearly involved as well.  All of this took place at the time of the annunciation to Mary, earlier in the Gospel According to Luke, but that was a private event, supposedly thirty years before!  This is a public announcement of something already accomplished.

     The "baptism" administered by John the Baptist was not what we experience in our sacramental practice.  That sacrament would come after the death and resurrection of Jesus and continues to this day.  It wouldn't take long for it to develop as we see it mentioned so prominently by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles and by St. Paul in his letters.  It amounted to a "rebirth" of the person, as the Gospel According to John also notes in Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus. [John 3]  During the time of St. Augustine, baptism became identified with taking away original sin, but the Second Vatican Council re-emphasized the fundamental meaning of rebirth in Christ and becoming a member of his Body, the Church.  We are God's beloved children.  The meaning of this is developed liturgically in the scriptures on the Sundays and weekdays of "Ordinary Time," which begins tomorrow.  AMEN