We are at the end of the Christmas season, and what better way to do that than by celebrating the Baptism of Jesus. I remember an incident I went through that parallels today’s Gospel scene when Jesus gets baptized. I was newly ordained and in my first parish assignment Being around 26, I wanted to get involved in the ministry to the teens in the parish. I wanted them to feel comfortable with me, that I wa.s one of them. So, when they played basketball in the parish gymnasium, I put on my regular workout clothing and played with them. One of the parents questioned me about doing that. He thought that teenagers would disrespect me if I tried to be “one of the guys.” I answered that parent respectfully by explaining to him that I wasn’t trying to be one of the guys, but to show that a priest could be human. He understood my motive better and later changed his opinion. In Today’s Gospel we see something similar happen. John the Baptist is a bit put off when Jesus asked John to baptize Him. John immediately said: “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Like the parent who was initially put off with me when I played basketball with the teens, so too John the Baptist was concerned that respect for Jesus would decline when people saw Him being baptized, just like everybody else. Jesus gives John an answer that at first is hard to understand: “It is righteous that I do this.” In other words, it was part of God’s plan for humanity. For at the end of the Gospel, the sky opened and the voice of the Father was clear: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was fulfilling His Father’s Will which was to mirror to us humans that there is a Divine Image living in each of us that we rarely notice or feel or believe. We come from Jesus’ divinity and Jesus came to be part of our humanity. Like the parent of the teen who was put off by my being human by playing ball, we find it hard to believe that we can be Christ-like to others by being our truest selves. This is why the Sacrament of Baptism is so important to us in our lives. It reveals to us how God really sees us and wants us to accept ourselves as humans made in the image and likeness of God! Wow, what a world this could be if only… if only, we could really see who we are to God and see that same God in our neighbor!       ~ Fr. John