Gospel Reflection for The 2nd day of January in the year of Our Lord, 2025
Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church
John 1:19-28
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to him, to ask him: Who art thou? 20 And he confessed, and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ.
21 And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No. 22 They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? 23 He said: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. 24 And they that were sent, were of the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?
26 John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. 27 The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. 28 These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
I think that many Christians are confused about the baptism of Saint John the Baptist. Baptism predates Christianity. It was practiced by the Jews, as a symbolic ritual. Water washes away dirt and filth. The pre-Christian baptism was a symbolic washing away of sin. As we are also born in amniotic fluid, it was also symbolic of being re-born. Many cultures and other religions had similar rituals with similar meanings.
I think it is important to understand this because many Protestants and non-Christians condemn such Catholic traditions as Christmas trees and Easter eggs as pagan, simply because pagan peoples had similar traditions. In truth, the Catholic Church openly states that not only did God place the seed of religion in the heart of each man and woman whom He created, but also signs in the natural world pointing toward the true religion. The Church also readily admits to have co-opted several such traditions from other religions to make it easier for pagans to embrace Christianity. Just as Saint Paul, when preaching to the Greeks, pointed to an altar that was labeled, “to an unknown God,” saying that He represented the God that they perceived but did not know, the Church said that if an egg was symbolic to some as a symbol of new life, we would use it to symbolize the Resurrection... if an evergreen tree was symbolic of eternal life, we would use it to symbolize just that in a Christian context.
But, in Baptism, we have not only a similar tradition but a sacrament. Unlike the baptism of Saint John, the Sacrament of Christian Baptism is not merely symbolic. Through Baptism we are truly forgiven of both Original Sin that we inherited from our first parents and the actual sins we have committed in our lives. We are made members of the Body of Christ and truly born again. We receive a measure of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of which is received in the Sacrament of Confirmation. Baptism prevents us from being unwillingly possessed by demons. It is powerful and real, not just a ceremony.
This is why the Catholic Church insists on infant Baptism and why such Protestant denominations as the ironically named Baptists reject it. We know that an infant should receive the grace and protection of the sacrament at the earliest possible age so as to become a Christian and receive the Holy Spirit. The Baptist, believing Baptism to be merely symbolic, still practices a baptism like that of Saint John the Baptist. They demand repentance, and as an infant has neither the capacity to understand and repent of sin, nor any sins of which to repent, they forbid infant Baptism. That is a true shame, and we can only pray that their children do not die before receiving a valid Baptism, “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
It is very important that Catholics come to a better understanding of Baptism so that we can explain its importance to our Protestant Brothers and sisters. John the Baptist was not the Messiah, and his ministry came to an end when Jesus began His ministry. Only the Catholic Church continues the fullness of the ministry of Christ, because only to the Catholic Church did He give the Holy Sacraments and the fullness of the Truth through His Holy Apostles.
Judson Carroll is the author of several books, including his newest, A Daily Catholic Devotional, Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings January-June, 2025 It is Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK3M1WDZ
and
Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith. It is also Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNK
His new podcast is The Uncensored Catholic https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-uncensored-catholic
That is a great art piece. Do you know who did that?