Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, January 11th, 2026

When I was a kid, I thought that nuns, priests, bishops and, naturally, the pope, were sinless. They did not need to go to confession. 

Of course, now, as a priest ordained 53 years ago, I can assure you that we are as beset by miseries and sins as you are. We priests are not an elitist group when it comes to slavery to sin and all the devastation that even minor sins create. 

There is, indeed, “sin solidarity.” We can pick the holiest person we can find and state with certainty: “there goes a sinner.” And be correct in our judgment. 

We can admire the holiness of very fine people, but in the eyes of God they, too, are in that undeniable “sin solidarity” that excludes only the Blessed Mother. 

…Jews and Greeks alike … are all under the domination of sin, Romans 3:9. …all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 

What we celebrate today is a fact which is nothing short of mind-blowing as this sin solidarity has been embraced by Christ Jesus himself! 

For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 

We could assess Jesus’ love for us sinners by looking at our reaction whenever our miseries and flaws are exposed. 

Whenever someone, out of anger and spite or because it is their duty to correct us, points out our flaws or dwells on them for any length of time, our reaction could be subdued on the outside, but inside we can be hurting, brooding and fuming for a long time. 

We could even have some nasty outbursts which would reveal our true not-so-nice self. 

Why? Well, it is because we know, at least partially, what our flaws and weaknesses are, and we are upset that someone else now knows what, with a large expenditure of energy and time, we have tried to hide.  

It is the same reason, in reverse, why we love truly humble people and seek their company. With self-effacing people, who candidly reveal their weaknesses and flaws, we feel that we can be ourselves without risking being judged harshly and condemned. 

Well, here comes the good news: the humblest and meekest person is Jesus himself! 

Although totally, eternally sinless, he exercises full solidarity with those true sinners who lined up to receive John’s baptism of repentance. 

There are several lessons we can learn from today’s celebration of Jesus’ Baptism at the Jordan River. 

The first one might be this: our own Baptism must never be considered merely a date of a Sacrament we received, most likely, a very long time ago.  

Baptism places us in a different type of solidarity to be renewed every single day of our life on earth. 

We should picture most merciful Jesus drawing close to us in our sins, daily, to draw us, slowly yet surely, into the solidarity of divine Life in him. 

Ultimately, we should live our Baptism, daily, as a joyful journey with Jesus at our side. 

It must be real joy also here on earth, despite anything ugly or scary that could happen along the way, so that it can, eventually, turn into eternal, heavenly joy. 

And, there is even a “shortcut to joy” which Jesus keeps showing us from the moment that he, our God, was conceived in the womb of Mary; was confined in there for nine months; grew like any other child; lived in obscurity for some 30 years in the insignificant hamlet of Nazareth and died naked, covered with spittle, blood and indignities on a cross. 

This shortcut to joy is humility. Humility starts us out from the solid, undeniable ground of our sins and flaws. 

It frees us from the need to cover up, to deny, to hide, to pretend. 

It frees us from all those empty efforts we devise to protect and preserve an attractive image of ourselves. 

Finally, humility frees us to love in a truly Christ-like way, by adopting his attitude of considering others as more important than ourselves and of placing their wellbeing ahead of our own. 

However, what this feast proposes is not easy to implement. We are too intent on satisfying our personal needs, on preserving a certain image of ourselves, on avoiding the risk of embarrassment to take this shortcut. 

Thus, may Jesus who is meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like his so that soon, we may be on our way to experiencing genuine, lasting joy.