Tomorrow is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. St Luke in Chapter 3 talks about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus while he was at prayer immediately after he had been baptised. "And a voice came from heaven: `You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.' " (Luke 3:22) John the Baptist is considered the greatest of prophets because he points to Jesus and announces him as the greatest. John the Baptist leads us to Christ. It might well sound odd to many, the idea that Christ is baptised. What's the need to add anything to the Son of God? The Sacrament of Baptism is about introducing us into the life of the Church and like all the sacraments it is linking grace with nature. In baptism the God Man is connected in real terms with the community he has come to save. Most of us are baptised shortly after our birth. There are those who argue it should be left for the individual to decided whether he or she wishes to receive the sacrament. Today many go that road. But children are baptised in the name of their parents. They are depending on their parents to decide whether or not they will become part of the Christian community. And there is a sense to that. It also emphasises our dependence on one another. Modern society is forever preaching the importance of the individual and the rights of the individual person. The notion of community and our responsibility to one another seems to give way at times to our concern for the individual. In a society where people are suddenly beginning to earn large sums of money and where technology gives us access to a world undreamed of some few years ago there is the great temptation to think that we can survive, indeed, conquer the world on our own. Is it as simple as that or is that the story at all? If you think about it, the more technological we become and the more opulent we are, the more we depend on one another at every turn. The person who sits down at the computer is relying on electric power, the software engineers, the telephone companies. Everything we do is wound in an extraordinary web of connections and dependencies. A hundred years ago, when there was a greater sense of community, people were far less dependent on each other. The farmer grew his own food, travel did not depend on US or German engineering. In today's world, where there is a total dependency, we are inclined to think we are self-sufficient and each of us inhabits a world where we are our own masters. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Christian message stresses our importance to one another. Christianity is forever talking about a community which is on pilgrimage, working and enabling one another to become better people. The pilgrimage ultimately leads to God in the beatific vision but that too will be a communitarian experience. Christianity is about people living and working in community. Pure individualism and Christianity don't mix. The Feast of the Baptism of Christ is a great reminder to us on how we depend on one another and how our dependence on one another gives real meaning to the idealism of Christianity.
In a world gone mad with the ideology of private enterprise and individual success the Christian message of community might well have a most prophetic role to play. That prophetic role begins for us all in our baptism when we are admitted to the community of God on earth. The baptism of the Son of God should be a spur for us to realise the importance of being part of the living community of the Church.