This is My beloved Son: Isaiah 42, Acts 10, and the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3.

Hic est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi bene complacui.
Mt 3:17

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord closes the season of Christmas and opens Ordinary Time of Year A with three texts centered on the public manifestation of Jesus as the Son of God. Is 42:1-4, 6-7 presents the servant of the Lord in whom God delights, upon whom He has placed His spirit, and who will be a light for the nations. Acts 10:34-38 recounts Peter’s summary in the house of Cornelius: God shows no partiality, He anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good. Mt 3:13-17 recounts the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan: the Spirit descends like a dove upon Him and a voice from heaven says: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. The three texts describe the anointing of the Son: through prophecy, through apostolic testimony, and through the founding event.

I. The First Reading: Is 42:1-4, 6-7

The Lord presents His servant: “Behold My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one, in whom My soul delights. I have put My spirit upon him and he will make justice shine forth for the nations” (Is 42:1). The servant will not cry out nor lift up his voice in the streets (v.2), he will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoldering wick (v.3), until he establishes justice on the earth (v.4). And the mission: “I have set you as a covenant of the people and a light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the captive out of prison and out of the dungeon those who dwell in darkness” (vv.6-7). The first Song of the Servant of Yahweh is the most precise prophecy of the baptism of Jesus: the Spirit who descends upon Him in the Jordan is the same whom Is 42 announces. The mission of the Servant begins with the anointing and is directed toward the most fragile: the blind, the captives, those who are in darkness.

II. The Second Reading: Acts 10:34-38

Peter, in the house of the centurion Cornelius at Caesarea, sums up the Gospel: “God shows no partiality, but in every nation the one who fears Him and practices righteousness is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34-35). He recalls the good news that was proclaimed to the children of Israel: Jesus Christ is the Lord of all (v.36). The summary of the ministry: “You know what took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism preached by John: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about everywhere doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, for God was with Him” (vv.37-38). Peter identifies the baptism of John as the starting point of the ministry of Jesus. The anointing with the Holy Spirit that the baptism manifests is the power with which Jesus does good. Cornelius, a Gentile, receives the Gospel: the light of the nations of Is 42 reaches the first official Gentile of the narrative of Acts.

III. Evangelium: Mt 3:13-17

Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John (Mt 3:13). John tries to prevent Him: “I am the one who needs to be baptized by You, and You come to me?” (v.14). Jesus answers: “Let it be so for now, for it is fitting that we should thus fulfill all righteousness” (v.15). The “fulfillment of all righteousness” is a Matthean expression that signifies Jesus’ fidelity to the plan of God: He who has no sin has no need of a penitential baptism, but takes the place of sinners as the first act of His mission. As He came out of the water, the heavens opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him (v.16). And a voice from the heavens: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (v.17). The scene articulates the three Persons: the Son in the Jordan, the Spirit descending, the voice of the Father. It is the first Trinitarian theophany of the New Testament. It is an inauguration: what begins here, with the anointing of the Spirit, is the ministry that Is 42 prophesied and that Acts 10 summed up.

IV. Mary and the Beloved Son

The voice of the Father at the baptism, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”, is the public revelation of what Mary knew at the Annunciation: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the one who is to be born will be holy and will be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). The baptism in the Jordan is the Epiphany of what happened at Nazareth at the moment of the Incarnation: the Spirit who descended upon Mary at the Annunciation is the same who descends upon Jesus in the Jordan. Mary was the first to know that Jesus was the beloved Son of the Father. Thirty years before the voice at the baptism, the voice of the angel had already told her so. Isaiah 42 describes the servant anointed with the Spirit who will set free the blind and the captives: Jesus learned this mission at Nazareth, in the family of Mary, who kept and pondered (Lk 2:19). Acts 10 says that Jesus “went about everywhere doing good”: Mary was the first recipient of the good that He did, the first to receive the grace of His presence, even before He was born. The baptism reveals to the world what Mary already knew: this is the Son of God, anointed by the Spirit, sent for the mission.