Today is the final day of the Christmas season and the beginning of ordinary time in the Church with the feast of the Baptism of Christ.
Because Christmas fell on a Saturday this is the shortest possible Christmas Season under the new calendar (under the old Calendar Christmas ran till Feb 2nd, forty days till the Feast of the Presentation) but it’s an appropriate end to the season as the events are a precursor of “Water and the Spirit” that Jesus explains to Nicodemus in John’s Gospel:
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a person once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.
John 3:4-6
As John the Baptist noted Christ did not need baptism but yet he submits to it as an example and the spirit descends and makes it clear exactly who Christ is.
This is what our baptism does for us which is why so many are so desperate to delay or stop it from happening. As soon as we are baptized we are part of that Christmas morning when we become flesh and spirit and enter into this world a new creation.
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