Today, we fix our gaze on Jesus, who was baptized at the age of about 30 by John in the Jordan River. It was a baptism of penance that used the symbol of water to express the purification of the heart and of life. John, known as the “Baptist”, that is, the “Baptizer”, preached this baptism to Israel in preparation for the imminent coming of the Messiah; and John the Baptist told everyone that someone else would come after him, greater than he, who would not baptize with water but with the Holy Spirit.

And so it was when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit came down and settled upon him like a dove, and John the Baptist recognized that he was Christ, the “Lamb of God” who had come to take away the sins of the world. Therefore, the Baptism in the Jordan is also an “epiphany”, a manifestation of the Lord’s Messianic identity and of his redeeming work, which will culminate in another “baptism”, that of his death and Resurrection, for which the whole world will be purified in the fire of divine mercy.

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Pope Francis

Angelus, January 6, 2006

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