Meditation for Monday, January 17, 2025: Baptism Unites us with Jesus
Excerpt from the book Meditations for all the Days of the Year by Father Bronchain
Baptism Unites us with Jesus
I. Baptism Clothes us with Jesus
Preparation
After having meditated on the baptism of the Savior, let us consider the effects of the one we have received: 1. It clothes us with Jesus like a garment. 2. It obliges us to imitate His virtues. — Let us examine whether these are our sincere desires to resemble the God-Man, through a life of humility, mortification, resignation, entirely in conformity with His teaching and His examples. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)
Baptism Clothes us with Christ
Sin had stripped us of the garment of grace as well as the virtues and supernatural gifts that adorned it. But through baptism, this grace has been restored to us, along with the life, inclinations, and dispositions of the Savior. Thus, the Apostle could say: “All of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Jesus Christ.”
These words teach us that, through the merits of the Redeemer, baptism has provided us with the most precious treasures:
It has instilled in us a horror of evil and love for good.
It has endowed us with faith, hope, charity, and other supernatural virtues that unite us and make us similar to Jesus.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which the Savior has the fullness, have been conferred upon us.
The very sonship of the only Son of God has been communicated to us, to the extent that we share in His spirit, and, by resemblance, in His divine nature itself.
O truly ineffable mystery that should make us tremble with awe!
“As a drop of water mixed with wine loses itself in the latter, taking on its flavor and color; as iron, when heated, loses its original form and takes on the properties of fire; as the air, radiant with the sun's rays, is completely penetrated by them and transmits them with a brilliance similar to that of the day-star;” so, says Saint Cyprian, “souls united to Jesus by the grace of baptism, are clothed with Him, vivified by Him, and made in some way other selves of Him.” O sublimity! The creature clothed with its Creator, ignorance enlightened by Uncreated Wisdom, weakness and nothingness participating in the infinite power and being of the Incarnate Word! Oh! How much such greatness and privileges should oblige us to love Jesus!
Examination
Examine if you are always united with Him and if you never grieve Him with your faults, your negligence, your lukewarmness, and your infidelities. Beware that distraction, thoughtlessness, and a lack of a prayerful spirit do not lead you to act out of nature, out of taste, out of inclination and whim, instead of being guided by the principles of faith, by the attractions of grace, and by the laws of holiness.
O Jesus! Make die in me everything that comes from the demon and from immortalized passions, so that my inner-self, clothing itself with the sentiments that animate You, I may, according to the promises of my baptism, hate what You hate and love what You love. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
II. Baptism Obliges us to Imitate Jesus
It is not enough for us to have received at baptism the free gifts that clothe us inwardly with Jesus; we must also work to pass His life into our conduct. “Christian!” exclaims Saint Ambrose, “recognize your greatness. Christianity is the imitation of the God-Man. As a Christian, you must imitate Christ.”
But is it possible for our human nature to reflect divine virtues? Yes; because Jesus, by lowering Himself to us, has made His perfections accessible to us. By humbling Himself like the lowest of mortals, He has made it easy for us, worms of the earth, to humble ourselves with Him. The eternal and all-powerful King has subjected Himself to His own creatures; would it then be difficult for us, vile nothings, to submit to Him, in the person of those who represent Him to us? He prayed, worked, suffered; He mortified Himself for our love; how then could we hesitate to follow in His footsteps? He is not one of those masters who say and do not do: what He teaches, He practiced first.
“Therefore,” writes Saint Bonaventure, “represent to yourself the conduct and the whole life of Our Lord, whether you are walking, eating, speaking, or keeping silent; in a word, alone or in company, always keep your eyes on Jesus, as your Model. These frequent glances at your Savior will inflame your love, animate your confidence, attract grace upon you, and make you perfect in all sorts of virtues. Let it be your attraction to always have in your mind the thought of some of the mysteries of Jesus, to excite you to love and imitate Him.”
Concluding Prayer
O my divine Master! I renew the vows of my baptism and renounce, to please You, the three concupiscences of the world. I want often to remind myself that, by grace, having entered into Your family and belonging in some way to Your race, I must live by Your spirit, be animated by Your sentiments, and make my heart beat in unison with Yours by conforming to all Your wills. Through the intercession of Mary, make me similar to You, especially in obedience to Your commandments, against the pride of my spirit; in the mortification of the senses, against the lusts of the flesh; in perfect detachment, against the love of transient goods. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
From the book Meditations for all the Days of the Year by Father Bronchain (H & L Casterman, 1892, pages 41-43).