- Feb 5, 2002
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In the Jordan, Jesus begins his public ministry and his first act is in solidarity with all of us.
It’s funny the things you don’t remember. It had been at least a decade since I had read the first volume of Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth series. (Or perhaps I should say, Joseph Ratzinger’s, since the pope made clear that this writing was not issued as papal magisterium, but private theology.) So when I plucked it off the shelf and started reading it again, I was amazed at the gems I had underlined and starred at the time—because I’m the sort of Philistine who writes in his books—that I had no recollection of. It was like reading them for the first time. And, by chance or Providence, I ran into a marvelous insight just in time for today’s feast.
Benedict begins his first volume of his examination of Jesus’ life not with the infancy, but with the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry: His baptism in the Jordan.
Benedict discusses the background context for the scene—the practice of ritual washings in Judaism, their connection to forgiveness of sin, and the unique nature of John the Baptist’s ministry—and takes up the common question, “Why would Jesus need to be baptized if He is sinless?”
In answering that, he draws out a connection I had never considered before.
Continued below.
aleteia.org
It’s funny the things you don’t remember. It had been at least a decade since I had read the first volume of Pope Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth series. (Or perhaps I should say, Joseph Ratzinger’s, since the pope made clear that this writing was not issued as papal magisterium, but private theology.) So when I plucked it off the shelf and started reading it again, I was amazed at the gems I had underlined and starred at the time—because I’m the sort of Philistine who writes in his books—that I had no recollection of. It was like reading them for the first time. And, by chance or Providence, I ran into a marvelous insight just in time for today’s feast.
Benedict begins his first volume of his examination of Jesus’ life not with the infancy, but with the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry: His baptism in the Jordan.
Benedict discusses the background context for the scene—the practice of ritual washings in Judaism, their connection to forgiveness of sin, and the unique nature of John the Baptist’s ministry—and takes up the common question, “Why would Jesus need to be baptized if He is sinless?”
In answering that, he draws out a connection I had never considered before.
Continued below.
Benedict XVI’s insight into the Baptism of Jesus
In the Jordan, Jesus begins his public ministry and his first act is in solidarity with all of us.
aleteia.org
