Non Clamor Sed Amor: Homily for the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
a bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;

My dear brothers and sisters, these words from the Prophet Isaiah chosen for the first reading on the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord offer us an image of a reformer unlike anything we are accustomed to. Isaiah assures us that the Messiah who will come will bring forth justice and be successful in doing so, but he will not do so by the methods that we are familiar with. No shouting in the street, no violence, no roughing up, or the smashing of heads.

This method must seem very strange for us, born after the French revolution, after the revolutions that have come since then, and who are used to the rousing anti-colonial nationalisms of the early twentieth century. It must seem strange to us who are used to the slogans of Inquilab zindabad (long live the revolution) and who are used to overturning, and killing, kings and setting others on the throne and seats of power.

And why will the Messiah not do this? In 1984, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith issued an instruction on Liberation theology a paragraph of which caught my eye, which I offer you in its entirety:

Nor can one localize evil principally or uniquely in bad social, political, or economic "structures" as though all other evils came from them so that the creation of the "new man" would depend on the establishment of different economic and socio-political structures. To be sure, there are structures which are evil and which cause evil and which we must have the courage to change. [However,] Structures, whether they are good or bad, are the result of man's actions and so are consequences more than causes. The root of evil, then, lies in free and responsible persons who have to be converted by the grace of Jesus Christ in order to live and act as new creatures in the love of neighbor and in the effective search for justice, self-control, and the exercise of virtue. To demand first of all a radical revolution in social relations and then to criticize the search for personal perfection is to set out on a road which leads to the denial of the meaning of the person and his transcendence, and to destroy ethics and its foundation which is the absolute character of the distinction between good and evil. Moreover, since charity is the principle of authentic perfection, that perfection cannot be conceived without an openness to others and a spirit of service.

There we have have it! It is, “the spirit of service;” which is the spirit of one who will not crush a reed, nor quench a wick. One could well call it caritas or love. Our Lord knows that setting up new kings, and beheading old ones, throwing away old systems in favour of new ones is not the solution. Rather, if we are to establish justice, it is the transformation of the heart that is called for. And what needs to be rooted out of the heart is nothing other than sin.

He went about doing good 
and healing all those oppressed by the devil, 
for God was with him.

These words from the Acts of the Apostles, offered for our second reading today, teaches us that we need to realise who the enemy is, and then choose our weapons accordingly. The enemy is not the various persons whose actions are definitely a part of the problem. Rather, the enemy is the devil, and it is with him that we must be ready to do battle. It is with the devil that Our Lord came to do battle, and he understood that the way to do this is to break with sin and introduce grace into the world.

This grace is available for us through the seven sacraments that have been instituted for us by Our Lord. Today we celebrate the institution of the sacrament of baptism – the first of the sacraments that lead us into the way of love, and provide us with the grace necessary to do battle with the devil.

Through baptism we are washed clean of original sin, made sons of God and fused into the mystical body of Christ, so that He may assist us to do battle with the devil against whom we will not succeed without the gift of grace. Grace abounds in the sacraments, and it is to this fountain – especially the sacrament of reconciliation – that we must rush toward if we wish to assist Our Lord in establishing justice on the face of the earth.

Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
    give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
    adore the LORD in holy attire.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria on 10 Jan 2026.)

(Image reference: Triptych of the Mystic Bath, Jean Bellegambe, first third of the 16^th cent., Palais des Beaux Arts de Lille.)