On Jan. 10, the first Sunday after Epiphany, the Catholic Church celebrates Jesus’ baptism. But why would the son of God choose to be baptized?
Father Tom Margevicius
“It’s a beautiful thing,” said Father Tom Margevicius during a 9 p.m., Jan. 8 interview on Practicing Catholic — formerly called The Rediscover: Hour — on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. “The Church has reflected on this all the way since the beginning.”
Father Margevicius is director of worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and associate pastor of Latino ministry at Risen Savior in Burnsville.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke mention Jesus’ baptism, he said, and each has a different emphasis. “It’s even in Matthew’s Gospel where, before they go into the water, John the Baptist … protests — ‘I should be baptized by you, yet you come to me,’ and Jesus, in response, (says) ‘This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness,” Father Margevicius said.
When people think of baptism, they inevitably interpret the term through the lens of what we understand it to be today, which is the washing away of our sins, Father Margevicius said. “We stumble because we know Christ never sinned,” he said. “Why would he do baptism? That’s not the only way to understand what is going on in the sacrament. It’s a fuller immersion into a life of God itself. And Jesus, in his humanness, wanted to be fully immersed in that way as well.”
When asked by the show’s host, Patrick Conley, if there is a particular reason for celebrating Christmas up until the Lord’s baptism, Father Margevicius said the liturgy is not so much the repeating of historical events, as much as it is an immersion into the mystery of Christ.
It’s not like anniversary dates on a calendar, he said. “It’s more like, what does this mean for the people of faith and how can we best appropriate that? And insofar as the riches of Jesus Christ are beyond any of our capacity to receive in their fullness, the Church spreads out reflections on the mysteries of Christ over several weeks, several different liturgical events so that we don’t get overwhelmed with the grandeur to which we’re all invited.”
Father Margevicius noted that Church Fathers, including St. Ignatius of Antioch, said that it’s not so much that Jesus goes in the water for himself to be sanctified, but to sanctify the water so that it can become the source of holiness for us. “In his humanness, he … immersed himself in the fullness of our experience in every way except sin.”
During the conversation, Father Margevicius also discussed full immersion during baptism and other topics related to the sacrament. The interview also airs Jan. 9 at 1 p.m. and Jan. 10 at 2 p.m., and can be heard on Spotify and SoundCloud. Or visit the show’s archives page to listen on demand at PracticingCatholicShow.com.
Other guest interviews on the Jan. 8 Practicing Catholic show are Ryan O’Hara, who discusses the upcoming Ascend Conference, and Dominican Father Bonaventure Chapman, who discusses living a saintly life. Practicing Catholic is produced in partnership between Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
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