Our own christening is a challenging life-programme. It is a call to ‘be’ for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

At Christ’s baptism, which is celebrated liturgically today, as Jesus came up for the baptism of penance for sins, John the Baptist exclaimed: “it is I who need baptism from you, yet you come to me”! Jesus insisted, implying that God’s will for him then was that he should accept humiliation as if he too were a sinner. Therefore John acquiesced (Matt 3:13-15).

As Jesus came out of the water, the Spirit of God descended on him, and the voice of the Father from heaven declared Jesus “my Son, my Beloved, my favour rests on Him” (Mt 3:16-17), a combination of biblical references that, in gist, state that Jesus is at once king, divine and the one who will suffer.

In this brief but extremely rich gospel passage, the Trinity already here reveals itself, while water is sanctified to become the matter of the sacrament of baptism.

Our attention lingers on the humility of Jesus. He who was completely untarnished by any blemish of sin voluntarily queued up with sinners to receive a baptism of penance for sins. One needs to stress that by being baptised, Jesus identifies as fully as possible with sinful humanity.

As Pope Francis keeps reminding us, we are all sinners – and Jesus the humble one, is close to us, although he is sinless. There is a call here for us to divest ourselves of attitudes of superiority towards others, of our arrogance, of our judgemental attitudes… and to instead walk humbly with our frail fellow human beings.

Today we also reflect on our own baptism. Christian baptism has far more profound effects than the baptism of penance that John administered. Christian baptism employs water as a sign, and is administered in the name of the Holy Trinity – two aspects present at Jesus’s own baptism.

The effects of Christian baptism are wondrous.

A christened human being is freed of sin and sanctified; he or she becomes a child of God and a temple of the Holy Spirit; the person is grafted onto Christ and so becomes a new creation; the Christian’s human nature is made holy at the very roots; the person becomes a member of the People of God, His Church.

Being a Christian involves living in a holy manner, that is reflected in sound ethical choices inspired by faith and reason

Beyond this, however, our own christening is not merely an important moment in our life that can remain isolated. In fact, it involves a challenging life-programme. It is a call to ‘be’ for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

This means to pray frequently to the Father “Thy kingdom come”, as Jesus taught us. To be a Christian is to be a person who prays.

Being a Christian also means growing in the Christian life all the time, constantly nurturing one’s Christian faith, hope and love. It involves living in a holy manner, that is then reflected in sound ethical choices inspired by Christian faith and by reason.

Being for the coming of the Kingdom also implies struggling against sin within us and around us. This is an ongoing struggle. All sin is personal, but the collective effect of the sins of many is a large network of evil that is referred to as ‘structures of sin’ (Pope John-Paul II). It is like a cobweb that darkens our earth and that Christians (like all men of good will) cannot accept.

Structures of sin arise whenever there is the destruction of life or lack or respect for it, injustice, corruption, exploitation, hatred, racial prejudice, hard-heartedness, and so on. Being for the coming of the Kingdom involves taking the ongoing struggle against sin very seriously.

On the positive side, being for the coming of God’s Kingdom is a call to work hard to build up what is good – in the family, in society and in the Church. All efforts that improve life around us can contribute to the coming of His Kingdom.

Christ’s baptism throws light on our baptism. In turn, our christening empowers us so that our very existence can contribute to the coming of God’s Kingdom.

Fr Robert Soler is a member of the Society of Jesus.