A couple days ago I wrongly reflected that "I'm not sure that I ever realized that Christmas falling on a Sunday gives us the longest possible Christmas season in addition to the longest possible Advent season. Every calendar besides this one trades one against the other."
I forgot that the Baptism of the Lord is not observed on a Sunday in such a year. Rather, we observe this feast
that closes the Christmas season today!
Until a few years ago, I confused this feast with the Presentation in the Temple. I think this was because of our practice of infant baptism. It just took me some time to grow accustomed to thinking instead of the baptism of Jesus as an adult by John at the Jordan. So at first glance, this feast doesn't even appear to be related to the Christmas season at all, which seems to be all about Jesus' incarnation and nativity. Even Epiphany is about an event in the infancy of Jesus.
Yet if we look beyond the surface, we see that today's feast is indeed all about the Christmas season, and is closely tied to yesterday's Epiphany celebration. As important as is Jesus' incarnation, it would be useless to most of us were Jesus not the savior of the whole world (as Epiphany celebrates) as well as the long awaited Messiah of Israel. And in his baptism at the Jordan, Jesus is further revealed as God's beloved Son. So Christmas is all about increasing degrees of revelations of Jesus: as an infant, as Savior of his people and of the world, and as the Only-Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, who by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the virgin Mary.
And again we see how the salvation Jesus brings is not an isolated event, but the woven totality of his entire life!
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