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The dialogue between the Baptist and Jesus in Matthew, at the time of Baptism of the Lord, is more developed compared to the one in Luke.

If John's baptism was a penitential ritual for the forgiveness of sins, we then ask ourselves about the reason for Jesus, who never sinned, being baptized ... Sin goes against God's plan; the Lord would be a contradiction to his mission if he had sinned. There seems to be no sense in the gesture of Jesus ... But let’s look a bit further ...

Baptism is part of the dynamic of kenosis, the complete lowering of himself, for love by the Son of God. He who had no sin shared our sin, as St. Paul teaches (cf., 2 Cor 5:21). He became completely like us. Therefore, he asks to be baptized, and allowed himself to be numbered among sinners (CIC 536). Furthermore, with his gesture, he prefigured his complete surrender in his Passion and Resurrection. Baptism is a birth to a new life; it is a dying in order to rise with Christ.

Christ, who becomes completely one of us except for sin, invites us, not from the outside but more from within, to the new life of the Gospel. Each day it is good to remember that the Baptism which we have received is the gateway to a new life of faith and an invisible reality which profoundly changes our whole life. It is the "sacrament of faith."

Lord, Your Son Jesus Christ fully shared our human nature. May your Spirit of love recall for us, every day, the dignity of the children of God, which we received at our baptism, when we were made like your beloved Son, our Savior, to be preachers of the Kingdom. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ, who is God with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The text of the Baptism of the Lord is inserted in the second section of the text of the Gospel according to Matthew. Scholars call these texts (3:1 – 4:25) the preparation of Jesus' ministry in Galilee with the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry in 4:12-25. The text is preceded by the famous texts of the "Infancy Gospel" (chapters 1 and 2), which we have read and celebrated in the last days of Advent and in the Christmas season.

We know that Luke makes between the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus. At the time, when Luke and Matthew wrote the text, the followers of John the Baptist were still around; it is important for the author to affirm the Christ, and to show the place of the Baptist in the mystery of salvation history. For Luke, the birth of the Baptist is special, it has also been announced by the angel (Gabriel), but he who was born of a virgin and is the "Holy one, who will be called the Son of God" (Lk 1: 35), is Jesus. For Matthew there is a dialogue between Jesus and John the Baptist. Righteousness in the Gospel of Matthew means being obedient to the will of God. It is part of God’s plan of salvation for all which Jesus is fulfilling by asking for baptism. Also, John the evangelist, in his Prologue, takes care to point out that the Baptist was not the light, but came to give witness to the Light, sent by God (cf. Jn 1: 6-8).

Let’s pay attention, also, to an important fact: the beautiful manifestation of the Trinity at the time of baptism.

With all the solemnity of today, we close the season of Christmas.