The second reading for today, the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord presents us with a dilemma. In his letter to Titus, St. Paul teaches:
Beloved:
The grace of God has appeared, saving all
and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires
and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age,
as we await the blessed hope,
the appearance of the glory of our great God
and saviour Jesus Christ,
St. Paul explains that it is the grace of God that is necessary, and makes possible, to live a life that rejects godless ways and worldly desires. It is God’s grace that enables us to live temperately, justly and devoutly. Now so many of you will have encountered people who have said, “Going for mass does not make you a good person!” or perhaps, that one does not have to be a Christian, or Catholic, that is, one does not need to be baptised, to be a good person. Conversely, there are others who believe that the role of religion is so that we can be good persons.
And it is a fact that it is possible to be a good, and virtuous person even, without going to Mass, or being baptised. After all, as even Biblical history will testify, there were lots of virtuous people who lived prior to the Incarnation, the birth of Our Lord.
And yet, dear brothers and sisters, we must remember, that good deeds alone cannot get us to heaven. And this is what the Christian life is all about, getting to heaven, that is, living life eternal in our glorified bodies in the presence of God, and His Mother and saints. We must also remember that Holy Mother Church teaches that the virtuous who died before Our Lord did not go to heaven; rather they waited for the Resurrection of Our Lord, for Him to open the doors to heaven. This is why we assert in the Creed “He descended into Hell.” As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (§633) teaches us, “Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.” Heaven was impossible prior to the death and resurrection of Our Lord.
And so it is, dear brothers and sisters that baptism is necessary for us to get to heaven. For what is it that baptism does but remove from our souls the stain of original sin! Prior to Fall, our first parents lived in a rightly ordered relationship with God, they walked with Him in the Garden of Eden. Their Fall resulted in an impossibility to have a relationship with God which is why the Son incarnated to return us to the embrace of the Father, to make us right with God.
Brothers and Sisters, St. Paul’s letter to Titus makes the limits of our righteousness very clear:
the kindness and generous love
of God our saviour appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
The last verse of the psalm this Sunday sings to God and affirms that:
If you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
My dear brothers and sisters, it was the mercy of our God that restored to us the possibility of living in our bodies for life eternal. Were it not for this mercy, we would have been like those who perish and return to the dust, unable to live in the presence of God. It was His mercy that brought to human existence a quality of goodness that is undeniable. When we are pointed to non-Christians who are good and virtuous, we should also look for the Christian institutions and lives of Christian holiness that make this non-Christian virtue possible! This is to say, when He sent for His spirit, He renewed the face of the earth. Virtue was no longer what it had been!
Bishop Saint Maximus of Turin (c. 380 AD – c. 465 AD) identifies the correct relationship between virtue and holiness when he teaches:
When the Lord is Baptized, then, Righteousness does not justify Christ, but Righteousness is itself made Holy by Christ, and unfulfilled virtue is Fulfilled by Him in Whom is the Fullness of Virtues.
In other words, in submitting Himself to Baptism, Our Lord was opening the way to us not just to virtuous living, but to holiness, and through this, opening the route to heaven and eternal communion with God.
My dear brothers and sisters, the life of the Christian is not meant to be merely the life of secular virtues, though of course this is encompassed in the Christian life. The Christian life is the life of holiness, a life that is not possible without the infusion of the grace of the Holy Spirit; a grace that is particularly promised to us through the sacrament of baptism, which is the gateway to all other sacraments and therefore the graces that they provide. As we leave the graced period of Christmastide behind, mark the commencement of Our Lord’s public life, and look forward to the penitential season of Lent, let us strive, to lead not just virtuous lives, but holy lives by rejecting godless ways and worldly desires, and living temperately, justly, and devoutly.
May St. Paul in his prayers aid us in this life. Amen.
(This homily was first preached to the faithful of the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Fatorda on 12 Jan 2025.
Image credit:'The Baptism of Christ,' Antoine Coypel, c.1690, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.)
