The Epiphany of Baptism

At evening prayer on the Feast of Epiphany at the Mount, we prayed the following Magnificat antiphon:

Three mysteries mark this holy day:

today the star leads the Magi to the infant Christ;

today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast;

today Christ is baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation.

In the past, I had never linked these three events as all being epiphanies of who Jesus was—the Anointed One who came to show us God’s love and mercy. We humans, with our limited understanding and insight, have been given many signs to open our eyes to God’s presence in the world through the person of Jesus.

This realization led me to muse on the epiphanies of our own lives—how is who we are revealed to the world? Accordingly, I decided that my obituary in its entirety should read as follows:

           Jennifer Jane Halling, daughter of Luke and Dolores Halling, was born

on March 19, 1962, and baptized on April 1, 1962, at Sacred Heart

Church in Ottawa, Kansas.

For Christians, our baptism fundamentally reveals who we are—persons who believe that God is the Holy One, that Jesus is the Word made flesh and the model for how we can live our lives, and that the Holy Spirit is at work in our midst. Once that revelation of who we are occurs, the remaining details of our life are superfluous, for no matter what work we do, what vows we take, or who we enter into relationship with, the focus of our life is to be an instrument of God’s love, compassion, and mercy. Thus, the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus provides us with yet another epiphany: that the day of our own baptism is a cause for commemoration and celebration, along with our birthday and name day!