baptism

My niece, Emma Elaine was born this past February 22nd. Babies have a way of bringing people together. Indeed, birth is something that everyone can relate to -- not because we remember our birth but because we experience being born many times. Indeed we experience birth and death many times in life, both often coming with tears. This too is the genius of baptism. As we die with Christ we become born anew in Christ.

I am thinking now of John the Baptist. I imagine his feelings when Jesus wanted him to baptize him -- a grain of sand standing in front of the vast infinity of God. God, that divine and infinite being who IS without a past or a future, took on finitude and mortality. He got bloody, bruised and beaten. He lost. He died.

John as fetus leapt in Elizabeth's womb as a sign of recognition of Jesus. It is that same recognition that caused John to take pause when Jesus wanted John to baptize him in the Jordan. However, by baptizing Jesus John took part in the relationship of the Trinity. It is that participation in the Trinity that helps us to understand relationship. It helps us to grasp the concept of love. It also helps us to see why God allowed himself to die -- love. However, it also because of that love that all creation could become anew. His resurrection conquered sin, just as baptism conquers that original sin.

And I think of all of this in that instant before the baby enters the world and cries.