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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Christmas Weekday: January 6th
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Gospel text (Mk 1:7-11): ... It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

He began his public life taking the sinners’ place

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, while all Judea and Jerusalem went to John to be baptized, something new occurs: Jesus Christ is among a gray crowd of sinners waiting on the banks of the Jordan. But what did Jesus do? From the cross and the resurrection it was clear for Christians what had happened.

Jesus assumed the guilt of all mankind; with it, He came to the Jordan. He began His public life taking the sinners’ place. He began with the anticipation of the cross. The baptism is the acceptance of death for the sins of mankind; the voice from heaven (“Thou art my beloved Son”) is an early reference to the resurrection. The baptism of Jesus is understood as a compendium of the whole history, which takes up the past and anticipates the future.

—I would like, Lord, to go to the place of your baptism and thus, with your interpretation with men, receive my interpretation with you to please the Father.