Newsletter The Baptism of the Lord (Year A) Sunday 11th January 2026

Newsletter The Baptism of the Lord (Yer A) Sunday 11th January 2026.pdf

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Gospel Reflection: by Fr Doug Harris

Today’s homily is a little catechism on Baptism.  Why is there the Sacrament of Baptism?  The first reason is that Jesus Himself was baptised.  Jesus did not need to be baptised.  He is without sin.  One reason why Our Lord was baptised was to sanctify all baptisms.  In the Bible, Jesus Himself commanded us to baptize.  In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus said to His disciples: “Make disciples of all the nations and baptise them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Baptism was taught by Our Lord.  In the bible there are many examples of baptisms.  In the Book of Acts, chapter 8, the disciple Philip baptised a eunuch.  In Acts, chapter 9, when Paul received his conversion, the bible says, “he got up and was baptised.”  In Acts, chapter 16, a woman named Lydia who was dealer in purple cloth, was converted and “she and her entire household were baptised.”  There are other examples as well.  Why is baptism necessary?  Jesus answered this question when He said to Nicodemus in John Chapter 3: “I tell you very solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit.”  Therefore, baptism is necessary for salvation.  What are the fruits of baptism?  In the Bible, St Peter gives us the answer.  On Pentecost day St Peter began to preach to a large crowd of people.  He said: “Repent and be BAPTISED so that our sins will be forgiven, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.”  There are two major reasons:  Firstly, “so that your sins will be forgiven;” and secondly, so that we will receive the Holy Spirit.  The first fruit of baptism is that your sins are forgiven.  All sins are forgiven, including the ORIGINAL SIN (the sin of THE FALL, the sin of ADAM AND EVE).  Also, in Baptism the punishment due to sin doesn’t have to be paid for.  In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, sin is forgiven but the effects of that sin, or the damage caused by that sin, still needs to be paid for.  Whenever we sin, every sin causes damage to creation.  Every sin adversely or negatively affects creation, like the Original Sin did. Therefore, that damage has to be paid for. If the damage done by our sins is not sufficiently paid for in this life, we may have to pay for it in the next – in purgatory. If we break someone’s window, for example:  The owner might forgive us, but the damage still has to be paid for.  In the Sacrament of Baptism, God waivers that payment or punishment.  An example is Hans Frank.  In WWII he was the Nazi Officer responsible for the Nazi occupation of Poland.  He oversaw the murder of about 2 million Poles and Jews.  His crimes compare with the greatest criminals of history.  But after the war, a Priest visited him regularly in prison and he was converted and baptised.  The Church teaches that all of Frank’s sins were forgiven and the punishment due to sin was forgiven.  As he died not long after he was baptised, he almost certainly would have gone straight to heaven, even by-passing purgatory.  Think about that very hard.  The mercy of God might shock us, it may even offend you.  The second fruit of Baptism is that we receive the Holy Spirit.  This is God Himself.  This is why St Paul describes Christians as ‘Temples of the Holy Spirit’ or ‘Temples of the Living God.’  At Baptism the union that takes place between the human soul and the Holy Spirit is among the deepest unions that exist between two things.  Like when two individual flames are joined together, the two flames become one.  Like a drop of water placed in a glass of water, the drop becomes completely one with the water in the glass.  No longer two, but one.  For those of us who have received the Grace of Baptism obviously we need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  We do this by doing all that God has commanded us.  The more we cooperate with the Grace that is given to us at Baptism, the more we overcome the flesh, the world and the evil one and the more we become of the Spirit.  The ideal is Our Blessed Mother whom the Bible says is: “full of Grace,” or full of the Holy Spirit, or full of God.  God’s plan is that we all become One with Him, as much as Our Blessed Mother did.  Our Lord appeared and said to St Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament that His plan is for us to become ‘living hosts’ or ‘other Christs’.   There is no limit to what God, who is Infinite Love, wants to do in us.