Last weekend at Mass, during the Preface for the Epiphany, I said, in my mind, “Wait a minute, this sounds just like the Collect for the Baptism of the Lord.” In the Preface at Epiphany, we prayed, “and when he appeared in our mortal nature, you made us new by the glory of his immortal nature.”
This is what we pray in the Alternate Collect for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord:
O God, whose Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh, grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
We celebrate the Epiphany with the magi because through them, God revealed Himself to all nations, including the gentiles. The Baptism of Jesus is another epiphany. God, again, revealed Himself through Jesus.
We find a pair of opposites in the prayer this week: inwardly and outwardly. They echo the immortal and mortal natures in last week’s Preface.
Jesus’ mortal nature in last week’s prayer is found in this week’s prayer as, we pray that we are transformed by the One whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves. Jesus, the Only Begotten Son, appeared in our very flesh.
Pondering the mortal nature of an immortal God can be mind boggling, so let’s put a definition on the word “begotten.”
We hear about the Begotten Son in the Creed. Jesus was born from the Father before all ages. He is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made.
When you beget something, you create a duplicate, something that is the same kind as yourself. When you make something, you create something different than yourself. God begets God, and God created man. So if Jesus is God from God, with no sin, why was He baptized?
There are many explanations as to why Jesus went to John to be baptized, and I must admit that I usually want to know the why’s. However, this time I found myself not even trying to figure out the why. Instead I realized that the “why” didn’t matter as much as that Jesus “did.”
At His Baptism, when Jesus came out of the water and as He was praying, the heavens opened up, and the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son, was so great, that it was seen in the form of a dove. The voice of the Father was heard, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This is why our mortal nature must be inwardly transformed.
God did not take on our very flesh so we could be a better version of ourselves. He became man so that our mortal and our immortal nature could be transformed.
Our transformation begins at our Baptism. At our Baptism, we receive a new identity. God proclaims over us the same thing He proclaimed over Jesus, “You are my beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
This week as we pray that God would grant that we would be inwardly transformed through Jesus, may we also ask God for the grace to corporate with His desire and to say, “May it be done to me.”
Thanks for praying with me,
Julie