John was surprised, shocked. He had been preaching repentance, preparing his people for the coming of the Messiah. As a sign of their willingness to leave their old life-style and embrace the new, people were invited to go into the water of the Jordan. Water cleanses and purifies. Through that rite people were professing their willingness to start anew, coming out of that water clean. It was a baptism of repentance, a sign. So far, there was no real forgiveness. - that was to come later with the coming of the expected One. Still, it was important for the people. Signs are powerful and important, irrespective of whether they seem to achieve anything concretely or not.

Then, the unexpected happens. Maybe unexpected is not the right word, because John had been preparing for his coming all the way. What John did not expect was seeing Jesus go down into the water with the rest of the crowd. John being John, he wanted to prevent it. In his logic, this did not make sense. Here is the One without sin, the One who needed no repentance. Would he be giving the wrong signal to the people had John allowed Jesus to just join the crowd? Indeed, it should be the other way round! “I need to be baptized by you”, John tells Jesus, and not vice-versa!

Yet, Jesus was adamant. “Let it be”, he tells him. Trust! And then he speaks about righteousness. John knew what righteousness was. The axe is ready at the root of the tree, he had just told the people. Evil will be rooted out and burned with unquenchable fire. Yet, when Jesus begins his ministry, he shows us that even the idea of righteousness needed conversion. It’s not a matter of destruction as John had thought, but conversion - a deep change of heart.

Jesus’ going into the water was a prophetic sign which set the tone for his life’s mission. He is the One who took on himself the sins of the world. In him and through him we are all set free from the slavery of sin. Years later Paul would tell his community in Corinth, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”.

The God of Jesus Christ approves of what the Son does. The voice is loud and clear, for everybody to hear: “You are my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. At the baptism of Jesus God speaks, the heavens are opened. There are no more barriers between God and man. Distance between heaven and earth disappears. The God who spoke to Adam in the beginning as a friend, speaks again, with love. Reconciliation is indeed happening. God’s Spirit descends like a dove - silently, gently, as a sign of peace.

​It is this same dynamics that are lived in our own baptism. It is in the God who is present in the Jordan - Father, Son and Spirit - that we are all baptized. The one-ness which had been destroyed by sin is now made whole again. As St Athanasius would bravely put it, "the Son of God became man so that we might become God”. And, together with Jesus, we too hear that wonderful voice: You are my son, my daughter, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased. If this is not enough reason for rejoicing, I don’t know what is! 

We all know the story of the three wise men who came to worship Jesus, sometimes referred to as the Three Kings.

Well, kings they were not. The gospel tells us that they were “wise” men, and that is enough. The obvious question is why are they referred to as Wise? What’s so special about them? When I reflect on this story, I think that their wisdom comes from the fact that they are searching. It’s not so much the fact that they knew how to read the stars, or they spoke different languages. They were people on the move. They could have been rich, and probably they were. But they knew that they lacked something. And they set out on a journey. They followed the star - a beautiful symbol of light in the skies. When they lost sight of this guide, they were not afraid to ask. They needed help, and they knew, in their wisdom, that they do not have all the answers. They were open to learn, to take new paths, to walk in places they had never knew. As they journey, they learn and they continue to grow in their wisdom. In the meantime, they get constantly closer to what they are looking for.

Sometimes, they asked the wrong person. Herod, who due to his badness and corruption was frightened that this might be his end, told them to go and find him, and return through the same way, so that he, too, “may go and pay homage to him.” No wonder that Jesus has very harsh words in John’s gospel for those who are guided by evil in their lives:

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

The wise men do not know it all. The wise men are always searching for the truth. God knows and acknowledges this, and he intervenes not to let them return to Herod.

A beautiful reaction is the one these men had when they finally arrived at their destination: They were overwhelmed with joy. God often gives us joy or happiness in unexpected ways. They were searching for a king, and yet they only found a baby with his mother. Nothing special. Yet, they believed, and they were touched in their innermost being.

Perhaps a question I can ask myself today is what am I looking for in life? Where do I seek to attain happiness? And what do I use to guide me to get there?

​The wise men allowed themselves to by guided by God’s own light. They allowed themselves to be surprised by God, and they did not regret it. 

Let’s face it. The family entrusted to Joseph’s care was no normal family. The baby was Son of God whose birth happened under very special circumstances. And yet, ins spite of that, they lived and went through exactly the same experiences that each of our families goes through in one way or another. The author of the letter to the Hebrews was right when he told us that Jesus was in everything like us, had the same temptations, experienced the same difficulties, except he was able not to sin.

From the very beginning the family of Nazareth experienced crisis. It was, in fact, on the verge of dying in its conception. We remember that when Joseph knew that Mary was pregnant, he had already decided to let her go. But that was not God’s plan for him, and one sure thing that we know about Joseph is that he was very attuned to God’s word in his life. Often God spoke to Joseph in his dreams, in the middle of the night, when there were no distractions and he could hear clearly.

In today’s gospel we have another difficult moment for this young family. The child was in danger. The corrupt Herod wanted to get rid of him, because he was afraid (needless to say, unnecessarily so) that this child would eventually threaten his kingdom. The angel of God tells Joseph to get up and grab the child and his mother and leave for Egypt. The gospel tells us that Joseph just got up and left, no questions asked. That was Joseph in a nutshell. Very much like his father Abraham when God told him to get up and leave for another land, Abraham just got up and left. Once Joseph understood what was that God wanted, he just did it. We can say that Joseph completely lived for God and for his family. His interests, his ideas, his way of thinking came always last.

The gospels give us other instances when the family of Nazareth experienced “normal” difficulties or moments of tension. Imagine the day when Jesus was lost in the temple. Just imagine the tension between husband and wife when both say that they believed that the other was looking after the child! And then try to imagine what went through the parents’ mind when, still stressed from the whole situation, they hear their son trying to justify himself rather than quietly shut up and say sorry.

Yes, in spite of the fact that the Holy Family was not your normal family, yet they went through exactly the same experiences that our own families go through. By putting God first, they kept going, and helped the child grow to become what God intended him to become, which is, after all, the vocation of every parent.

By their actions, Joseph and Mary give us a great message for our lives. In the second reading of today’s liturgy St Paul gives us more down-to-earth advice about family life. Paul knows quite well that there is no “perfect family”. Even the best of families has its moments of trouble, disagreements, and crises. In his recipe Paul puts in ingredients such as compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. How difficult it is to stay humble when an argument arises. We all want to be proved right! And how impatient we become when things do not go our way! And what about compassion: trying to see things through the eyes of the other person, before we start judging and complaining? And then, as the icing on his cake, Paul throws in forgiveness and love. Notice that Paul does not tell us not to have arguments, not to hurt each other. He knows quite well that, in a human world, this would be impossible. But he does tell us to forgive, not to hold grudges - a very favorite theme of St Paul if we read all his letters. Paul knows that if any relationship is to survive and grow, forgiveness has to be an essential part of its life. A marriage-relationship is no exception. And then, above all, Paul tells us to clothe ourselves with love. We know what Paul understands by love (just read his hymn to love in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, ch. 13). It is a love that expects nothing in return, that seeks the good of the other rather than one’s own.

​Let us make sure to put God in our families, like St Joseph did, and let us ask God to help us to put love as He understands it as the basis of all our relationships.