10 January 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”” Mark 1:11
The Christmas season closes at the river Jordan. Mark tells it with few words and great force. John proclaims: “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me… I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Then Jesus comes from Nazareth and is baptised. As he comes up out of the water, “he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” The Father speaks: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Isaiah had described this Servant: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him.” He will not shout or break a bruised reed; he will bring justice and be “a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind.” In Acts, Peter tells the household of Cornelius how “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” The anointing at the Jordan is the beginning of the Christ's public mission, and Peter's sermon shows it reaching the Gentiles.
Jesus had no sin to wash away. He went down into the water in solidarity with sinners and to sanctify the waters for our Baptism (CCC 536, 1224). What the Father said to Jesus, he says to each of us in Baptism: you are my beloved child. The torn heavens are not closed again; through Christ, heaven is open to us. Today is a good day to renew our baptismal promises and to live as people anointed by the Spirit for doing good.
Theme: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
The Servant anointed at the Jordan, and our Baptism.
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” Isaiah 42:1
“He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” Mark 1:7
Apply: Be gentle this week with someone who is fragile.
“The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters.” Psalm 29:3
“And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” Mark 1:10
Apply: Pray to the Holy Spirit each morning this week.
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1
“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Acts 10:38
Apply: Do one deliberate act of kindness each day this week.
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” Ezekiel 36:25
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 3:27
Apply: Find your baptismal date and celebrate it this year.
The heavens opened at the Jordan and have not closed.
Live as the Father's beloved, anointed to do good.
Take-home resolution: Renew your baptismal promises today and bless yourself with holy water each day.
Dear brothers and sisters, today the Christmas season ends at the river Jordan. Mark tells the story in a few lines. John the Baptist says: the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:7–8).
Then Jesus comes from Nazareth and is baptised. As he comes up out of the water, he sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice from heaven says: you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased (Mark 1:10–11). Father, Son and Holy Spirit are revealed together.
Isaiah described this Servant long before: here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him (Isaiah 42:1). He will not break a bruised reed. He will be a light to the nations and open the eyes of the blind.
In the second reading Peter sums up Jesus' whole life in one sentence: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38). That anointing began at the Jordan. And Peter says this to a Roman family: the grace of the Jordan is for every nation.
Why was the sinless Jesus baptised? To stand with sinners and to make the waters holy for us. In our Baptism the heavens opened over us too, and the Father said: you are my beloved child.
So today let us renew our baptismal promises with all our heart. Let us find out the date of our Baptism. And let us go about doing good this week, as people anointed by the Spirit. Amen.
Isaiah prayed: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” At the Jordan the prayer is answered.
📖 Isaiah 64:1
📖 Mark 1:10
Apply: Thank God for coming close to you.
📖 Isaiah 42:1
📖 Matthew 3:16–17
Apply: Make the sign of the cross slowly and with faith today.
📖 Ezekiel 36:25–26
📖 Titus 3:5–7
Apply: Bless yourself with holy water when you enter church.
At the Jordan heaven opens and the Trinity is revealed.
In Baptism heaven opened for us too.
Take-home resolution: I will make the sign of the cross with faith, remembering that heaven opened at my Baptism.
Dear friends, long ago Isaiah cried out: O that you would tear open the heavens and come down (Isaiah 64:1). Israel longed for God to come close. At the Jordan the prayer is answered: as Jesus came up from the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him (Mark 1:10).
This is the great manifestation of the Trinity. The Son stands in the water, the Spirit descends, and the Father's voice says: this is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). Every time we make the sign of the cross, we confess what was revealed at the Jordan.
Jesus did not need to be cleansed. The Fathers said: he went into the water not to be made holy by it, but to make the waters holy for us. From that day, water became the doorway into God's life.
Paul says: he saved us through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). What happened at the Jordan happened to us at the font. Heaven opened over us; the Father called us his children.
Today let us thank God for our Baptism, make the sign of the cross with faith, and come to the Mass as children of an open heaven. Amen.
Most of us were baptised as infants and remember nothing. Today the Church asks us to remember what God did.
📖 Ezekiel 47:9
📖 Romans 6:3–4
Apply: Find out the date of your Baptism and celebrate it.
📖 Isaiah 61:10
📖 Galatians 3:26–27
Apply: Live one day this week as if wearing your baptismal garment.
📖 Psalm 27:1
📖 Ephesians 5:8
Apply: Renew your baptismal promises tonight: I reject sin; I believe.
Baptism is not only a past event but a present identity.
We live as children of God, clothed with Christ, walking in the light.
Take-home resolution: This week I will find my Baptism date, thank my godparents, and renew my baptismal promises.
Dear brothers and sisters, most of us were baptised as infants. We do not remember the water, the oil or the candle. Today, as we celebrate the Lord's own baptism, the Church invites us to remember what God did to us.
Paul asks: do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were buried with him by baptism, so that we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–4). The font is both a tomb and a womb.
He also says: as many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:27). That is why we received a white garment. We are called to wear Christ every day, at home, at work, in our words.
At Baptism a candle was lit for us, and our godparents spoke promises on our behalf: to reject sin and to believe. Now that we are grown, those promises are ours to keep. Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light (Ephesians 5:8).
So let us find the date of our Baptism, thank our godparents, and tonight renew our promises: I reject sin; I believe in God. Then come to the Mass as children of the light. Amen.
Children, today Jesus was baptised in the river. The Holy Spirit came like a dove and God said: you are my beloved Son!
When you were baptised, God said: you are my beloved child. Ask your parents to show you your Baptism photos!
Almighty ever-living God, who, when Christ had been baptised in the River Jordan and as the Holy Spirit descended upon him, solemnly declared him your beloved Son, grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
With this feast the Christmas season ends and the public life of Jesus begins. The child adored in Bethlehem is now a grown man standing in a line at the Jordan, and heaven speaks over him. The readings tell us who he is. Isaiah gives the portrait of a Servant on whom God has put his spirit and who will not break a bruised reed. The psalm hears “the voice of the Lord” over the waters. Peter, in the house of a Roman officer, tells how “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power”. Mark, read in this Year B, gives the event itself in five verses.
One line runs through all four: the Father's voice, the Spirit's coming and the Son's mission. What Isaiah announces in the words “my servant” and “in whom my soul delights”, the voice from heaven applies to Jesus. The key words are servant, anointed and beloved.
Setting.
Chapters 40–55 of Isaiah speak to the Jews exiled in Babylon, in the years before Cyrus let them return (538 BC). Scattered through these chapters are four poems usually called the Servant Songs (42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–9; 52:13–53:12). Today's reading gives the first of them, and then part of the words that follow it, addressed to the Servant himself.
Who is the Servant? In the verses just before (41:8–9) Israel is called God's servant, and many Jewish and Christian readers have seen the people in this figure; others have thought of a prophet or a coming leader. The New Testament sees the song fulfilled in Jesus: Matthew quotes vv. 1–4 of him (Matthew 12:18–21). The Lectionary leaves out v. 5, a short hymn to God the Creator.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him;” (42:1)
God's own voice introduces him. These are the words echoed by the voice at the Jordan: “with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).
“a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;” (42:3)
A reed already bent and a lamp nearly out are the cheapest things in the house. Anyone else would throw them away. His power is shown by what he refuses to destroy. Those who feel nearly finished can take heart from this verse.
“I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind,” (42:6–7)
The mission goes far beyond one nation. Peter's speech in the second reading shows it beginning to come true in the house of a Gentile.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Jesus' baptism is, on his part, the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's suffering Servant (CCC 536). The Church therefore reads this song today as the programme of his public life. She reads all four songs in Holy Week, because the gentleness of this first song leads to the Cross. The Servant's opening of blind eyes and release of prisoners is what Jesus actually does in the Gospels.
Setting.
Psalm 29 is a hymn to God's majesty in a great storm. The thunder comes in from the Mediterranean, rolls over Lebanon and dies away in the wilderness. Many scholars think it took up the language of older Canaanite hymns and gave all the glory to the Lord alone. The Lectionary uses only the verses at the beginning and end, with the verses on the waters, and the refrain comes from the last verse: the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The voice of the Lord is over the waters;” (29:3)
On this feast the verse makes us think of the Jordan: there too the waters are the place where God's voice is heard.
“The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” (29:4)
“and in his temple all say, “Glory!”” (29:9)
The storm is frightening outside, but inside the temple the worshippers have only one word. The same voice that shakes the wilderness now gathers a people in praise.
How the Church reads it.
Christian readers have heard in this psalm the voice of the Father at the Jordan. Thunder becomes a word, and the word is “Beloved”. The refrain turns the psalm's power into a gift: the God whose voice breaks cedars blesses his people with peace, and at Christmas the angels sang of the same peace.
Setting.
This is the turning point of Acts. Cornelius, a Roman centurion at Caesarea who fears God, has been told in a vision to send for Peter. Peter, in his own vision, has been told that he must not call unclean what God has made clean. Now, a Jew in a Gentile's house, he begins to speak. The reading gives the opening of his speech, a short summary of the gospel, with the baptism of Jesus as its starting point.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““I truly understand that God shows no partiality,” (10:34)
It is one of the most moving moments in Acts: after years with the Lord, Peter is still learning. His understanding grows, and it grows because he goes where the Spirit sends him.
“but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (10:35)
The Second Vatican Council opens its teaching on the People of God with this verse (Lumen Gentium 9). It does not make Christ unnecessary: Peter goes on at once to proclaim him.
“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (10:38)
A whole ministry in one sentence. The anointing is for action: it leads directly to doing good.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism explains the title “Christ” with this verse: Jesus is the Christ, for “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” (CCC 453). Baptized Christians share in this anointing: their very name means that they are anointed by the Holy Spirit (CCC 1241).
Setting.
Mark has no story of the birth of Jesus. His Gospel begins with “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1), moves at once to John in the wilderness, and within nine verses Jesus is in the Jordan. Mark tells the scene very briefly, and as something Jesus himself sees and hears: the voice speaks to him directly.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” (1:7)
Untying sandals was the work of a slave. The greatest prophet of his time says he is unworthy even of that.
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” (1:9)
Nazareth was a village nobody expected anything from. He comes without a title and without any ceremony. Mark does not even explain why he came; he simply goes down into the water.
“And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” (1:10)
The Catechism sets this dove beside the one Noah sent out at the end of the Flood, the sign that the earth could be lived on again (CCC 701). Heaven, closed for so long, is open.
“And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”” (1:11)
Jesus has as yet done nothing in public. Before any miracle or sermon, the Father's love is simply declared. This is the ground on which every Christian life stands as well.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism sees the whole mystery here. Jesus' baptism is the acceptance of his mission as suffering Servant; he allows himself to be numbered among sinners; the Spirit whom he has possessed in fullness from his conception comes to rest on him, and he will become its source for all humanity; and the heavens that Adam's sin had closed are opened (CCC 536). Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who anticipates his death and Resurrection in his own baptism (CCC 537).
St Ignatius of Antioch wrote that Christ was baptized so that by his suffering he might purify the water (in substance). The Catechism quotes St Gregory of Nazianzus: “Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him” (CCC 537), and also St Hilary of Poitiers, for whom what happened to Christ shows what happens to us: the water, the Spirit coming down, and the Father's voice adopting us as sons (in substance).
If Jesus had no sin, why was he baptized?
He did not need it for himself. The Catechism says that he submitted to it voluntarily, though it was intended for sinners, in order to “fulfill all righteousness” (CCC 1224, quoting Matthew 3:15), and that it was a manifestation of his self-emptying. He stands with those he came to save, and in the same act begins the road that leads to the Cross.
Did Jesus become God's Son at his baptism?
No. Some in the early centuries thought so, but the Church rejected the idea. Mark has already called him “the Son of God” in his first verse (the words are in most manuscripts), and the voice declares what is already true. It does not say “you are now” but “you are”. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, as we say in the Creed. What begins at the Jordan is his public mission.
Is John's baptism the same as Christian Baptism?
No. John himself draws the difference: “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8). John's rite was a sign of repentance. Christian Baptism is a sacrament that truly joins a person to the death and Resurrection of Christ, gives the Holy Spirit and makes the baptized a child of God (CCC 1213, 1265).
In the Roman calendar this feast closes Christmas Time, and Ordinary Time begins tomorrow. The Roman liturgy joins the baptism in the Jordan to the mystery of the Epiphany, along with the coming of the Magi and the wedding at Cana (CCC 528): all three show who this child is. Today's Mass prays that those reborn of water and the Holy Spirit may be well pleasing to the Father (in substance). It is a fitting Sunday to bring your family to the baptismal font of your parish, to find out the date of your own Baptism, and to remember that at your Baptism you were anointed with chrism, as a sharer in the anointing of Christ, priest, prophet and king (CCC 1241).