"Two Beginnings: the Baptism of Jesus and our Baptism."

Where are we now—right now—at this moment in history?

Are we in the 20^th century, or the 21^st? Are we in the second millennium or the third? Is 2,000 the last year of the second thousand years of Christianity, or the first year of the third thousand?

Well, I hate to disappoint anyone, but technically speaking we are still in the twentieth century! The year 2,000 is actually the last year of the second millennium, not the first year of the third! And for all the confusion, we can blame a monk named Dionysius—who probably wouldn’t mind because he’s been dead for about 1400 years! It seems that way back in the 6^th century he made an attempt to calculate the date of Jesus’ birth, and he proposed the idea that all dates should be expressed as years before or after that decisive moment of history. By the 8^th century, his system was embraced by most of the western world. But there was one big problem with it (at least from our perspective): he didn’t include a year 0. He designated the year of our Lord’s birth as 1 AD, which was preceded by the year 1 BC. What does that mean? Very simply, it means that the first century began in 1 AD but didn’t end until the final day of 100 AD. It also means that the first millennium didn’t end until the final day of the year 1000, and that the second millennium won’t be completed until the final day of this year. And yet, as we all know, most of the world is acting as if we’ve already arrived! Almost everywhere you hear people saying that we’ve entered the 21^st century and the third millennium. I must admit that even I was doing this until recently. Of course, the Holy Father has been clear on the matter all along. That’s why he’s proclaimed the year 2,000 the Jubilee Year. According to the pope, this is a year of special grace in which we are to prepare to enter the third millennium of Christian history. It’s not to be a celebration of the fact that we’ve already done it.

Now it’s probably not ‘the end of the world’ (pardon the expression) if people think that the new millennium has already started—although those who do so might miss out on some special Jubilee graces. But unfortunately this is not the only instance of people believing that they’ve already arrived at something when they haven’t. How many Catholics, for example, are casual about their faith, precisely because they think they’ve already secured their ticket to heaven? They’ve become lackadaisical about their spiritual lives, because in a certain sense they think they’ve already arrived at their goal. They say, "I’ve been baptized; I’ve been born again; I’m a member of the Church; I’ve even gone to Mass and followed the rules of the Church up to this point in my life, so why should I be concerned?" Deacon John Sistare put it well in his homily last week: that is spiritual pride, and it can very easily lead to a big fall from grace. It’s like the fighter who decides to coast in the 15^th round because he’s far ahead on points, or the football team that decides to take it easy in the last few seconds of the game because it just kicked a field goal to take the lead. (Hear that, Buffalo Bills’ fans!) With those attitudes, both the fighter and the football team are very likely to lose, as the Bills did yesterday. And that’s the way it is in the spiritual life. Consequently we must always be vigilant; we’ve got to stand guard over the sanctifying grace given to us at baptism, or we’ll be likely to lose it by falling into mortal sin. This is why St. Peter tells us in his first letter, "Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith!" So for us Catholics, baptism is not the end, it’s the beginning; it doesn’t mean we’ve arrived, although it does set us on the right road. But every day we’ve got to work at staying on that right road. And if we ever do take a detour, we’ve got to get to Confession as soon as possible to get back on track.

This all came to mind because today we celebrate the feast of the baptism of the Lord. As our baptism was a beginning for us, so too Jesus’ baptism was a beginning for him: it was the moment that marked the beginning of his earthly ministry. Jesus, of course, did not come into this world with original sin and he never committed a personal sin. So his baptism was different from ours on that level. He did not need to be baptized either with John’s baptism or even with Christian baptism. He possessed the fullness of grace from the start. So why did he do it? Simply put, he humbly submitted to the baptism of John to demonstrate his love for us and his solidarity with the human race. And in the process, he began three years of teaching, preaching and healing, which would culminate with the redemption of the world during the first Holy Week.

Now can you imagine what would have happened if Jesus had looked at his baptism in the same way that many Catholics look at theirs? Why, his ministry would have been over before it even got started! There would have been no Sermon on the Mount, no raising of Lazarus from the dead, no Eucharist, no Cross, no redemption—and no salvation! If he had made the mistake of thinking he had already arrived at the end of his mission on the day John baptized him in the Jordan, we would still be in our sins!