Baptism in the Spirit [Mark 1:108]

Mark's Gospel has a remarkably simple introduction.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Imagine introducing a guest speaker at a dinner party with words like that! He goes on to quote Isaiah, chapter 40, in connection with the mission of John the Baptist.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

He then tells us how John the Baptist fulfilled the mission described in Isaiah.

John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

This brief introduction to the mission of John reminds us of our need to be washed clean in the sight of God, and that repentance for our sins is a prerequisite qualification for that washing. God always wants to forgive us and to lift us up. The problem is that we often do not see the need for our cleansing, and sometimes we absolutely refuse to see it. When that happens, God, who respects the free will he gave us, backs off, as if to say, "O.k., suit yourself." He then leaves us for a time to stew in our own juices.

The final part of this passage from Mark speaks of John's spiritual credentials, his prerequisite qualifications for speaking in God's name. John practiced a deep asceticism, one that was such a part of him that he developed a deep appreciation for his utter dependence on God. Even the food he ate and the clothes he wore were received from God's largesse.

John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.

In living a life of utter dependence on God, a life that can be described as consciousness of poverty of spirit, John developed a deep humility. In his humility, and in the magnitude of his mission, we can sense the deep awe he must have felt at the realization that he was the one chosen by God to announce the arrival of the Messiah.

And this is what he proclaimed: "One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals."

Finally, John summarizes for us the contrast between his mission as the herald of God, and the mission of the Messiah.

"I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

This is only a hint, but it is a hint of something beyond our imagination to grasp. Baptizing with the Holy Spirit is a way of telling us that God's own Spirit will dwell within us, completely changing our way of relating to the world and to each other and to God.

But what spiritual credentials are necessary for us to receive such an awesome gift? Simply this, that we will cooperate with the Spirit. The Spirit of God is not simply a passive guest. To receive the Spirit as a guest within our souls, we must cooperate with the Spirit. To do so, we must recognize the giver for who he is, Jesus, the Son of God, not merely human, but very God, himself, and we must recognize the divinity of the Spirit who is the gift.

God looks for total cooperation on our part to allow him to do something to us and within us that is utterly impossible without that total cooperation, our divinization. God wishes to share with us his very self, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our total cooperation can be described as submitting to complete cleansing, and doing so with the humble recognition that it is God doing the cleansing.

All of this is pretty abstract to us, and nearly impossible to nail down in practice. Fortunately for us, God provides us with examples of this total cooperation, beginning with the life of John the Baptist, and fulfilled totally in the life of Jesus,

Who, though he was in the form of God, 
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; 
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him 
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, 
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
[Phil 2:6-12]

In a few simple words, St. Paul describes the very divinization of the human nature of Christ, a divinization that fulfills the plan of God for the union of humanity with God, a union that is both prefigured and fulfilled in the hypostatic union between the divine Word of God and the now divinized human nature of Jesus. This is a divinization, however, that begins with humility and flows through submission to the will of God.

John the Baptist provides us with a clue. Jesus provides us with the real thing.