The Baptism of the Lord

Ludovico Carracci 1555 - 1619

The Baptism of Jesus

Oil on canvas

140 cm x 211 cm

Musée des beaux-arts, Lyon

The Baptism of the Lord is the first Sunday after the Epiphany. It ends the Christmas season

The Catechism says of the event which the Feast celebrates:

"1224 Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for sinners, in order to "fulfill all righteousness."19 Jesus' gesture is a manifestation of his self-emptying.20 The Spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation, and the Father revealed Jesus as his "beloved Son."21

Footnotes:

17 Cf. Mt 3:13.

18 Mt 28:19-20; cf. Mk 16:15-16.

19 Mt 3:15.

20 Cf. Phil 2:7.

21 Mt 3:16-17."

It is the beginning of Christ`s public ministry. It was a revelation: a revelation of the Christ being the Son of God; and a revelation of the Trinity.

The  booklet for today`s Papal Mass in the Sistine Chapel is available as a .pdf file here.