biblical meditation on the first mystery of the rosary of light (part 1)
Fr. Vojtěch Brož
Introduction
Jesus' coming to the Jordan, His humble descent into its waters, and His acceptance of baptism at the hands of John are among the most significant events of Jesus' life and, consequently, the history of salvation itself. The importance attributed to this moment by the earliest Gospel tradition is due to the fact that it is precisely at baptism that the Gospel and Jesus’ history are considered to begin (cf. Mk 1:1,9). It is not merely the commencement of Jesus' public ministry; it is much more. Jesus' baptism can be placed among the mysteries of our salvation, similar to His incarnation, birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit...
When we speak of “mystery,” we refer to a salvific event, that is, an event burdened with redemptive meaning and simultaneously a revelation. The history of salvation is dynamic and follows a linear course. One event follows another, and a new event always builds on and transcends the previous one. The history of salvation moves towards the omega point, towards fulfillment. Each event that does not yet rest in that point is a step towards it, an important link in the chain, but not yet the goal. This is the case when viewing the history of salvation “horizontally.” However, each event also has its “vertical” dimension. From God’s perspective, we can perceive the fullness of God’s presence everywhere. God spoke even with Abraham, addressing him with His Word, which is, after all, one: the Word that was at the beginning with God (John 1:1), to him He also gave this indivisible Word and Himself. God is eternal. Always the same. In every salvific event, therefore, we can perceive the whole God accomplishing His plan. Each link in the chain in a certain sense encompasses the other links, referring to them. Just as it is true for the two laws as wholes that “the Old Testament conceals the New, and the New reveals the Old” (Augustine), so it can be true for individual subsequent events in the history of salvation. Each new event reveals the older one more perfectly, which in itself somehow already contained the new.
Thus, we can understand the events of Jesus' life in this light: as the fulfillment of the Old Testament history and as a preparation for the climax of the whole history of salvation in the Easter mystery. This is exactly how the evangelists represent the entire life of Jesus from early childhood. Everything is a fulfillment of Old Testament prefigurations and promises, and everything points to the cross and resurrection.
In this perspective, we will attempt to approach the mystery of Jesus' baptism. Here, too, the Old Testament is fulfilled, and the path to the Easter mystery opens up, and through it, the path opens for us. At the same time, like every other mystery, this one literally “opens the heavens,” allowing a vertical movement upwards, up to God, who here performs a vertical movement down to the earth.
Old Testament Prefigurations
Jesus' baptism – in connection with the Easter mystery – represents the culmination of a long tradition of the chosen nation, the fulfillment of ancient prefigurations, and at the same time a new beginning. Jesus' baptism lies between the Old Testament and its fulfillment in the Easter mystery, and in this way is opened to the Church. From Jesus' baptism, understood still in connection with the Old Testament and the Easter mystery, the Church derives the baptism that it administers itself. During the consecration of the baptismal water on Holy Night, the Church prays to God: “You created water and at various times showed that its effects signify our baptism.” It first mentions the Spirit, hovering over the waters during creation, then the flood, deliverance from Egyptian bondage by crossing the Red Sea. Then the prayer mentions Jesus' baptism, the piercing of His side, from which blood and water flowed, and finally, His sending of the disciples into the world to baptize.
After mentioning the creation of water as a life-giving element, the first to be mentioned is the flood (cf. Gen 6–9). In it, both the destructive power of the water element was revealed and also – precisely through the destruction of evil – its purifying power. In the New Testament, the apostle Peter explicitly relates this primordial event to our baptism: he reminds that during the flood “only a few, eight persons, were saved through water. The water that at that time was a prefiguration of baptism, now brings you salvation. Not that baptism removes dirt from the body, but it asks of God that our conscience be cleansed, and it effects the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 3:20-21).
A similar significance to the flood has the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 14-15): for the chosen ones, it signifies freedom; for the oppressors, death. Sin is drowned, the creature chosen by God is miraculously saved, however, only after entering the deadly element. The path to life goes through the risk of death. Saint Paul speaks of crossing the sea as “Moses' baptism” (1 Cor 10:1-2).
To these prefigurative stories mentioned in the prayer of the consecration of baptismal water, we can add another:
The crossing of the Jordan (Josh 3-4) is actually a kind of reprise of the Exodus. The people are to recall their roots again. Not just the fathers, but every new generation arising from them owes its life in freedom to the miraculous deliverance through water. It is here, at the threshold of the promised land, that the people must realize this. As a prefiguration of new events, this story is truly eloquent. The promised land is entered through the Jordan, at the place where Jesus Himself will later be baptized. His followers will enter the promised land of the Church through His baptism.
Jonah (1-2): Jonah is a great symbol of the miracle of salvation. Cast into the sea, the symbol of death, swallowed by a whale, personifying the powers of evil and death, he is spit out alive. After three days. Jesus Himself refers to Jonah as his prefiguration (cf. Mt 12:39 et seq.).
Naaman (2 Kings 5:14): Syrian Naaman is sent by the prophet Elisha to bathe seven times in the river Jordan, which will bring him healing from leprosy.
John's Baptism
At the threshold of His public ministry, Jesus undergoes John's baptism. What was it all about? It was a ceremony that was presumably performed at the time not only by John. A whole baptizing movement existed. Its significance can only be understood by considering the overall atmosphere of the time. At the turn of the era, the chosen nation was still unfree. Since the destruction of the Judean kingdom by the Babylonians in the 6th century, no descendant of David has sat on the throne. Judea remained a vassal of others. Only recently has the royal throne in Jerusalem been restored, but it was occupied – by violence and deceit – by the Idumean Herod, after whom his descendants inherited the rule. The high priests were more like politicians pursuing their power goals, leaving the people as sheep without a shepherd. A prophet had long since stopped speaking. Where is the fulfillment of all those wonderful promises left by the last prophets? Where is the promised Prophet? Where is the Messiah? He must come soon! The time in which the Word became flesh was filled with this eschatological impatience and messianic expectation. The Pharisees tried to hasten the arrival of God's kingdom by faithfully fulfilling the Law and all the regulations created by tradition, maintaining ritual purity, which involved various washings and also isolation from everything unclean, including sinners and pagans. They were an elitist group, closed in on themselves. Even more closed off were the Essenes, desert monks, who prepared through asceticism for the final battle against the sons of darkness and for God's ultimate victory over pagan nations and anti-God forces. And the Zealots wanted to help the Kingdom of God into existence by violence.
The baptizing movement was popular, and therefore not much is known about it, as it left behind few written testimonies. It was characterized by baptism itself. The Greek word for “baptism” (baptisma) is a noun derived from the verbs baptein, baptizein, which in classical Greek mean: “to immerse,” “to dip”; it is rarely used in the sense of “to bathe,” rather it has the meaning of “to drown,” “to perish.” In the New Testament, it is a technical cultic term referring to ritual Jewish purification.
John's baptism is, however, not the same as Jewish ritual purification, nor does it resemble the baptism of proselytes. John proclaimed salvation to all through repentance and conversion, which was expressed through the ritual of baptism with water. The significance of the ceremony was clearly defined: Then Jerusalem went out to him, and all Judea and all the region around Jordan, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins (Mt 3:5-6). Such “baptism of repentance” was a rite of initiation into the messianic community; it was a condition for receiving the expected Messiah. John's baptism was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 3:11 et seq.), thus it was to fulfill prophetic messianic promises in which the renewal of the human heart is promised through the removal of sin (Isa 1:15 et seq.; Ezek 36:25; Jer 3:22; 4:14; Zech 13:1; Ps 51:9). In reality, however, John's baptism with water was only the introduction, the pathway to another baptism: the baptism of the Spirit and fire, which the Messiah Himself will administer. After the death of the Baptizer, his movement continued in his disciples. It left traces even in Asia, in Ephesus (cf. Acts 18:25; 19:1–5). John's Gospel testifies that John the Baptist was considered by some followers to be the Messiah (John 1:20; 3:28; cf. Luke 3:15).
The Account of Jesus' Baptism in the Gospels
All three synoptics inform us about Jesus' baptism:
Mark (1:9-11): In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As He was coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens open, and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”
Matthew (3:13-17): Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Luke (3:21-22): When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said: “You are my beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
All three agree that Jesus was baptized by John, that the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and that at that same moment the Father called Him His beloved Son, whom He has chosen. The only difference is that, while in Mark and Luke, the voice from heaven is addressed only to Jesus (“You are”), in Matthew Jesus is presented as the Son to all (though this is not in all manuscripts!). Matthew also mentions John's hesitation to baptize Jesus. Luke, on the other hand, uniquely notes that Jesus was praying during the baptism. These are the summary facts to which we will now attempt to get closer in their meaning. We may read the following motives from them:
1) Epiphany
The first thing we can note about the event of Jesus' baptism is that all divine persons appear in it. The revelation of the Holy Trinity in such an explicit way has no parallel in the Gospels. It is true that we also encounter all three Persons together elsewhere, but nowhere so expressly and in such a “tangible” manner. The angel announces to Mary at the Annunciation that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, the power of the Most High will overshadow her, and therefore the child she bears will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Here at the baptism, however, there is no mention of the three persons of the Trinity; rather, they manifest themselves, allowing themselves to be seen and heard! This is therefore a revelation of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, an epiphany. The word “epiphany” is most commonly used as a technical liturgical term for the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, that is, the revelation of the mystery of the birth of the Messiah to the pagan wise men from the East. However, the Tradition of the Church has placed both mysteries together, along with the revelation of Jesus' glory at the wedding at Cana, as attested by the antiphons from the Liturgy of the Hours for the Feast of the Epiphany: “Today the Church is betrothed to her heavenly Bridegroom, for Christ has washed away her sins in the Jordan; the wise men hasten with gifts to the royal wedding; and the guests rejoice at the water turned into wine. Alleluia!” (Benedictus); “We celebrate the day celebrated by three wonders: today the star led the wise men to the manger; today water was changed into wine at the wedding; today Christ wished to be baptized by John in the Jordan, to save us. Alleluia!” (Magnificat – Second Vespers). In all three mysteries, it is about the revelation of Jesus: by the star, the voice from heaven, and the embodiment of the Spirit, Jesus’ sign of changing water into wine. Many years after the first epiphany through the worship of the wise men, the second epiphany now follows with the opening of heaven itself: the triune God reveals Himself: the voice of the Father reveals Jesus as His beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Him, anointing Him as the Messiah. At Cana, then, Jesus Himself will show that He is the Bridegroom who invites to the messianic wedding feast.
2) Fulfillment of the Covenant
Jesus' obedient, humble participation in baptism in water at the end of the Old Testament causes the heavens to open, the Spirit in the form of a dove to descend upon Him, and the Father to proclaim Him as His beloved Son. Jesus establishes a new connection between heaven and earth. He Himself becomes the promised new covenant (Jer 31:31 et seq.; Ezek 36:24 et seq.; and so on), which fulfills the old. The old was injured by human unrighteousness, to which the human side responded to God’s gift of righteousness. Jesus, who opens the new covenant, requests the old for the granting of baptism. It fears, saying: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” The response:
3) Chosen Servant
Jesus undertook the baptism not because He needed it, after all, He is without sin, but in order to be officially presented to Israel as the Messiah. Nonetheless, even for Jesus, the experience of baptism in the Jordan had a deep existential significance. “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” The heavenly voice here proclaims about Jesus the words with which in Isa 42:1 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…” For Jesus' self-awareness as the Son of God, this address from the Father is foundational and formative. It is not that Jesus only began to be the Son of God at His baptism, as some ancient Christological heresies claimed. Jesus is the Son of God from the incarnation (cf. Luke 1:31,35). Even before baptism, He considers God to be His only Father, as shown by His response to His parents when they found Him in the temple (Luke 2:49). Nonetheless, at baptism, He receives anew from the Father His sonly existence.
It is hard to understand what happens in Jesus' soul when the Father says to Him: “You are my Son.” We can, however, approach the mystery of their relationship with the following consideration. How do we, human beings, come to our identity, how do we build our self-awareness? Not primarily on the basis of introspection and self-reflection. Nor based on what we can achieve. Our work builds our self-awareness only to the extent that it is accepted and appreciated by others. What builds our “I” the most is precisely the other person. What identifies our “I” is the relationship to some “You.” Who I am within myself is understood based on who I am for someone. A newborn already experiences somewhat directly its personal being, its “I.” However, it does not yet have any content. How does the child become aware of itself? By seeing the glowing gaze of its mother directed at it. It sees her joyful eyes aimed at it! At that moment, the infant understands that it is, and its soul awakens to life. The child continues to identify itself based on the relationship of its mother and father to it. This underpins the possibility of education. However, a time comes when this relationship ceases to be the foundational and defining one for the person. It is no longer enough for a person to know who they are to their parents to understand who they are. They seek “a helper comparable to them.” They seek their own life’s “You.” In romantic love, a person finds their true identity and fulfillment of their personal life. However, every human relationship is limited. I want to know who I am. I ask the person. I am what I am for them. But the one who tells me who I am for them is also asking me who they are. They themselves are seekers, questioners, and therefore uncertain in their own identity. Moreover, a person is unreliable. They can betray or die. Who can truly tell me who I am? Only the one who is firmly absolute in Himself. Only in relation to the absolute “You,” to God “You,” can I understand who I truly am. To Jesus in the Jordan, the Father says: “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” The Father tells Him who Jesus is for Him, and by that says who He truly is, because it is said by the absolute divine “You.” Only Jesus knows who He truly is. And when He truly knows who He is, when He is secure in His identity, He can communicate that certainty to us. We too can know who we truly are when Jesus tells us who we are for Him – and through Him for the Father.
4) The Suffering Servant
It is something more than a personal relationship between the Father and the Son. “At the baptism, something happened that changed the course of Jesus' life... It was the moment when Jesus accepted His calling” (Ch. H. Dodd). “It was precisely at the moment of baptism that Jesus realized with certainty that He had to accept the role of the Lord's Servant” (O. Cullmann). In Jesus' human consciousness, at this moment, there occurs a merging of two figures: the triumphant Messiah, who had various forms in the people’s imagination (royal, priestly), and the Servant of the Lord. He is not only the beloved and chosen one, not just “the covenant of the people and the light of the nations” (Isa 42:6; 49:6). The Servant is also a man of sorrows, who takes the suffering and death as a vicarious punishment for the guilt of the unfaithful people (cf. Isa 50:4-11; Isa 52:13-53:12). This merging of the Messiah and the suffering Servant will now characterize Jesus’ new messianic identity and give all His words and actions an unmistakable quality.
“However, this revelation from the Father does not find Jesus unprepared. His decision to be baptized by John, His standing in line with the sinners, to such an extent that He completely disappears among them, was already a step towards taking on the sins of the people, which is a fundamental trait of the mission of the Lord's Servant (cf. Isa 53:6). The scene in which Jesus is baptized in the midst of sinners is like a prelude to the scene in which Jesus will be crucified among criminals.”2
We can see the whole of Jesus' life in the light of His mission as a Servant. Even the name “Jesus” was justified to Joseph before His birth with the words of the angel: “For He will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). This is His name, definition of His identity and the meaning of His life, which perfectly coincides with His mission. At the threshold of His public ministry, Jesus undergoes John's baptism. The mere acceptance of this baptism is already an implicit confession of sin. Jesus comes to the Jordan, stands in line with the sinners, and when His turn comes, He strips down, naked descends into the river and allows Himself to be baptized. The only innocent one enters the Jordan with those who confess sins. He implicitly confesses them with them. He does not separate Himself. He is humble and solidaristic. John protests. Jesus insists, justifying His request with “all righteousness.” It is a peculiar righteousness when the innocent and just one must behave like a sinner. It is the righteousness of God, which justifies. Jesus is to become the instrument of this justification. It must be made evident what it costs God when He recognizes us as just. Here in the Jordan begins Jesus' mission as the Savior from sins. Here He took on the sin of the world. At this moment, as Jesus rises from the Jordan, burdened with the sin of the whole world, which He voluntarily took upon Himself, which He publicly accepted by humbly descending into the water, at this moment, the heavens open up, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus, and the Father declares: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Yes, it is precisely this Jesus who finds favor in the eyes of the Father, humble, lost among sinners. The Father does not overlook Him among them. The sin that clung to Jesus does not prevent the Father from still seeing Him as His beloved. On the contrary, it is precisely the one who humbly and obediently bears and acknowledges “his” sin, who pleases the Father. Jesus' humility, solidarity with sinners, His voluntary renunciation of self for our sake legitimizes Him as the Son of God and opens heaven for us. The Holy Trinity reveals itself through the Servant, who will save us from sins. The epiphany of God is not self-serving but – as always in the Bible – has a salvific significance. God reveals Himself in order to save. And – on the other side – our salvation is precisely the revelation of God.
Jesus entered the Jordan, into the waters in which everyone wanted to cleanse themselves from their sins. However, those waters had no cleansing power on their own. Rather, they became the sewer that needed purification. With His descent into the Jordan, Jesus cleansed and sanctified the Jordan and every baptismal spring. In the baptism in the river Jordan, sin clung to Him; it seeped into Him to the core. Now it can only be disposed of by the baptism of blood. Sin will be destroyed only when He is destroyed. Sin will be eliminated by His death. Jesus immersed Himself in the water, into the state of sinners, disappeared from the surface of the earth, just as one day – like Jonah – He will immerse Himself in death and be buried, disappearing from the surface of the earth. Jesus' mission as the Savior from sins publicly began at the Jordan, it will culminate on the cross. In the Jordan, Jesus took on the sin of the world; on the cross, He will destroy it in His suffering, slaying it with His death. At the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him; at the cross, He will give up the Spirit. At the Jordan, the heavens opened, and the Father proclaimed Him; at the cross, heaven darkens, and the Father will turn away from the Son. The baptism in the Jordan will be fulfilled in the baptism of blood. There, Jesus will immerse Himself into death, and for us, the temple curtain will be torn, our graves will be opened (Mt 27:52). The descent into the Jordan will be fulfilled in the descent into hell.
Hans Urs von Balthasar expresses the connection of both baptisms of Jesus, the baptism with water and the baptism of blood, as follows:3
That Jesus allows Himself to be baptized with all the people striving for conversion from their sins contains something mysterious. It is as if He wanted to announce in His very first public act His solidarity with sinners. Later, He will accept His through the Christian baptism into the Church, through the humiliation of descending into the water as a living element of death and being reborn again. He does not wish to impose anything on His own that He has not Himself gone through. And if baptism truly means being buried with Him in His death and rising again to new immortal life – as Paul describes (Rom 6) – then this first baptism was a prior commitment to His own suffering and resurrection. Everything that happened between the baptism and the cross is framed by a single, unified meaning and action. The baptism in the Jordan is for Jesus the baptism of “the Holy Spirit,” the baptism on the cross is for Him the baptism of “fire.” The first signifies solidarity with the sinners who are to be cleansed, the second is the burning away of the collective sin of the world.
5) Messianic Anointing
In the Jordan, Jesus experiences the Father in a new way and begins His mission, the mission of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit descends upon Him, who has an irreplaceable role in Jesus' messianic mission. Jesus is the Messiah, Christ. Both the Hebrew māšîaḥ and the Greek equivalent christos mean “the anointed one.” The Messiah is therefore not primarily a miracle worker, a being endowed with power, but one who has received an anointing. Jesus' messiahship is connected with His baptism in the Jordan. There He became the Messiah, the Christ, for there He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. This is what the apostle Peter says in his sermon in the house of Cornelius, the centurion, in Caesarea: You know what was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:37-38). Before the baptism, there were certainly other anointings of the Son of God: the anointing of the Holy Spirit at the moment of His incarnation, for which the Holy Spirit descended upon Mary (Luke 1:35). After all, the angel of the Lord announced to the shepherds the joyful news about the birth of the Savior, who is “the Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). According to some Fathers, there was even an earlier “cosmic” anointing, namely, the anointing that the Word received from the Father, so that through Him the world could be created, so that through Him all things could be “anointed and adorned” and the world could thus receive its shine.4 The Holy Spirit is present in Jesus' life from His conception. Nevertheless, the ceremonial anointing at the baptism in the Jordan has its particular and decisive significance. It is the occasion for the inauguration of Jesus' messianic mission. We can say that just as at the Incarnation, the Word became flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit, “Jesus,” so at the baptism by receiving the same Spirit, He became “Christ,” God's anointed one, the Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord was to rest upon the Messiah, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, and thus enable Him for His work (Isa 11:2 et seq.). The same Spirit was also to rest upon the Lord's Servant (Isa 42:1; cf. 61:1). The Holy Spirit now comes to anoint Jesus, sanctify Him, and grant Him the power necessary for His mission, which does not simply mean saving people, but saving them in a very specific way, as determined by the Father, namely, through humiliation, voluntary obedience, and the vicarious sacrifice of the Servant.
The Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One. The word itself expresses a relationship. One becomes anointed through an anointing, when someone anoints him. The anointing that Jesus received in the Jordan is Trinitarian anointing, for all three divine persons were involved in it. This is how the Fathers speak: “In the name of Christ is represented he who anointed, he who was anointed, and the anointing itself, by which He was anointed. Indeed, the Father anointed, the Son was anointed, while the Holy Spirit was the anointing itself.”5 “To name Christ means to confess the whole Trinity; it means to point to God who anointed, to the Son who was anointed, and to the anointing which is the Holy Spirit.”6
Equipped with the Spirit, Jesus can begin His messianic mission. Raniero Cantalamessa summarizes very aptly what this mission of Jesus, fulfilled in the Spirit, consists of:7
The whole life of Jesus unfolds under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In some key moments, the evangelists explicitly mention the action of the Spirit in Jesus' life. We can identify especially three such moments: The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Mark 1:12); the Spirit sanctified Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor (Luke 4:18); in the Spirit, Jesus rejoices and says: I thank You, Father,...” (Luke 10:21). In other words: The Spirit leads Jesus to fight against the demon, to proclaim the gospel, and to pray to the Father and offer Himself as a sacrifice. In these three moments, Jesus' messianic anointing is realized, which is tripartite: kingly (breaking the power of the adversary and establishing God's kingdom), prophetic (proclaiming the gospel), and priestly (prayer and sacrifice).
Jesus begins His public mission, the mission of the Messiah, the Lord's Servant. This new phase of Jesus' life corresponds to a new anointing by the Holy Spirit. It is a new anointing. It is not that Jesus lacked anything regarding the fullness of His divinity beforehand (as Arianism taught). Jesus is already the Son of God, full of the Holy Spirit. However, from this position, He will go among the people and share from His wealth. His being becomes His mission. Von Balthasar notes:8
For the first time, two related sacraments meet here: baptism and confirmation. The latter fulfills through the mission what the former established through being born again from God. The eternal Son, who has been eternally born from the womb of the Father and needed no rebirth, allows Himself to be baptized to become a prefiguration of His future sinful brothers and sisters. His going out from the Father, processio, has taken on the manner of a mission, missio, whereby He no longer allows the Spirit of love to go forth together with the Father as in eternity, but obediently lets it descend and rest upon Him as the Spirit of love, sent upon Him from the Father and giving Him instructions. From now on, He follows Him, led by Him, fulfilling from this moment only the loving will of the Father. The Spirit now rests upon the Son, for the mission always comes from above, which cannot be self-given. However, it rests certainly also in the Son, who does the will of the Father from His innermost being, not as an externally imposed law; He is from eternity the Begotten of the Father, the Child who is initiated into the thinking of the Father’s heart.
