So today we get to celebrate the baptism of the Lord.
And we know that in Catholicism,
Baptism is the first of the sacraments that we receive as Christians.
It is an act of marking our spirits for the way of the Christian,
For the way of Christ.
We say that baptism,
Confirmation and holy orders are grouped together to give us the three sacraments of initiation.
Now that's a very interesting thing because one wouldn't think that baptism would fall under initiation,
But it's the first step.
It puts a mark,
A seal into your spirit,
Into your body,
Into your aura.
Some might then think,
Gosh,
We do it to children.
Don't they have a say?
You always have a say in how you express your spirituality.
Now so much has been said about John the Baptist.
So much has been said about Jesus,
Of course,
And so much has been said about this whole story about the baptism of Christ.
We see here that the heavens open after Jesus was baptized against John's will initially.
John says to Jesus,
How can I,
A mere human,
Want to baptize you?
But we see that other people started seeing John as the Christ,
As the anointed,
As the savior.
Now if we do a bit of homework and we read that Jesus and John were part of a specific sect,
If you want to call it that,
In Judaism,
The Essenes.
And they lived very specific,
Strict lives.
John was almost the poster boy for them.
John was living the spirituality.
He was doing what was foretold by the prophets that he would do.
And he was living this perfect life.
And then comes his cousin Jesus,
Breaking all the rules of the Essenes even.
But John,
Seen as possibly the Christ,
Recognizes that his cousin Jesus is not just another cousin.
He's not somebody that he would play with,
But Jesus is the Christ.
In our first reading,
Something hit me.
God does not have favorites.
Sorry,
That's the second reading.
God does not have favorites.
If you live a good life,
If you do the will of God,
I'm going to get this.
Anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Anybody who fears God,
Now fear,
Love God.
Fear not in the sense of,
Oh gosh,
If I'm going to do something wrong,
I'm going to go to hell.
I fear God because I'm so scared of doing anything that will disappoint God.
Anything that will take me out of communion with the way that I experience the Lord.
And the way that I experience the Lord need not be yours.
You can call God Krishna,
You can call God whatever you want.
As long as you do what is good,
As long as you love God and do what is right.
And what is right?
Love God and love each other.
Love all beings.
God does not have favorites.
And yes,
We see people like John the Baptist,
We see people like Elijah,
We see people like the prophets,
Like the apostles.
They're all there,
Yes.
But the thing with them is that they each have a role to play,
As do you,
As do I.
We don't have to all shine on stage.
We don't all have to wear robes to do the will of God.
We see here in this beautiful gospel reading that the Holy Spirit came down into Christ in the form of a dove.
God said,
This is my beloved son.
I'm proud of him.
Isn't that all we want to hear every day is our Father saying,
I am proud of you,
My son.
Fathers tell your children,
Mothers tell your children that you are proud of them.
But we see that the Holy Spirit came down.
We see also later the Holy Spirit coming down again after the ministry of Christ finishes.
After Christ is crucified.
After Christ is raised from the dead with the help of some beautiful,
Beautiful ladies who never,
Never left his side.
And after that,
Jesus went back up to heaven.
And when the apostles were gathered together,
The Holy Spirit came down again.
This time looking like flames.
And it entered every single person there.
And we believe as Christians that the Spirit resides in all of us.
We all have spirit.
We all have divinity in us.
God doesn't have favorites.
And if I have the Spirit inside of me and you have the Spirit inside of you,
It means that we are connected.
And it means that the whole journey of Christ wasn't in vain because in his death,
He broke down.
He tore the curtain of separation of illusion apart so that we can recognize the Spirit in each other.
And when we recognize the Spirit in each other,
We can't not,
But recognize that there is divinity in each other.
God doesn't have favorites.
It is us as human beings who then come and say that,
You look at God funny.
You call God something different than I do.
You are going to hell.
How conceited is that of us as human beings to think that we have the right to decide where somebody goes after they die?
We see that Jesus at some stage tells the apostles that you have the power to forgive sin.
According to St.
Peter,
He says,
Whatever you lock,
You have the keys to heaven.
It is not a physical place.
We don't have a set of keys tucked away when we become clergy.
We have the opportunity and the responsibility to help other people see that they are part of the family of God.
They are part of this beautiful,
Beautiful union and communion of God.
It doesn't matter if they are Christian or Catholic or not.
They're all beings.
We are all beings.
With the fact that a priest can forgive sins,
It is there so that we can help people face their karma,
Face the things and the times that they had stepped out of union with God,
Out of union with their purpose,
With their beautiful vibration that is unique.
That vibration that is part of something so much bigger,
Something that we cannot understand.
And so today we see,
We go back to the fact that Christ was baptized.
We celebrate that.
And we celebrate the Holy Spirit that descended upon Christ that is also reside in each one of us.
And my prayer and I hope that as we go into this week,
We will recognize that God is an all and there's no separation.
And God does not have favorites.
Amen.
