(Please read the above Scriptural passage before the homily.)
Today we celebrate the mystery of the baptism of the Lord. St Peter was preaching two things in today’s second Reading: (1) that God has no favorites; (2) God anointed Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit.
The context of this passage from the Acts of the Apostles is that Peter was proclaiming the wonderful workings of God to the Roman centurion Cornelius. Peter had learned that God had no favorites and so he was ready to baptize Cornelius.
The baptism of Christ in the Jordan River was the anointing of Christ with the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove and anointed him. The voice from heaven declared Jesus to be the beloved Son of God.
After his baptism, Jesus went about doing good and curing all those oppressed by the devil because God was with him.
The action of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father announced the presence of the Christ of God among us. This is one part of the mystery off the Epiphany of the Lord.
The other part of the mystery of the Epiphany is that God has no favorites. God has called us to the waters of baptism. God has called us his Son, his beloved and has anointed us with the Holy Spirit. As God sent Christ, so also God has sent us to go about doing good and healing the afflicted.
God sent his Son into the world to save sinners and those afflicted by their sins and ailments. If we have received the gift of the Spirit, it is because has forgiven our sins and anointed us with the Spirit. God wants to send us, since God has forgiven and anointed us, to the rest of the sinners and afflicted people so that God can cure them and make them his Son through baptism.
The mystery of the baptism of the Lord is that God wants to bring together all peoples through the waters of baptism and make them into the likeness of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God wants to call everyone because God has no favorites, and God wants to anoint them all with his Spirit.
I am no better than you, and we are no better than the rest of the world. God wants all the people in the world to be God’s Son in Christ. Christ is the anointed one with the Spirit of God; we with Christ are anointed with the same Spirit; and all the rest of the world God wants to be anointed with Christ as children of God. God has no favorites, but wants all to be saved.
I salute you today, because you are children of God through baptism into Christ.