This past week I relistened to the soundtrack of Les Miserables (‘Les Mis’ for short), a beautiful musical which deals with deep themes like love, self-sacrifice, and redemption. To this day, it remains one of my favorite musicals of all time. The music is phenomenal, the characters and stories are compelling and the overall message of the musical is full of hope. Some of you may remember that I was a theater kid in high school and actually performed in a stage production of Les Mis in high school. It was such a blessing to be a part of that show as a senior. For those who were or are theater kids or who just enjoy watching musicals, you know how great Les Mis is. There is a reason it gets a fresh run about every ten years or so. This year is 40 years, so maybe there will be a new tour!
One of the main themes in the show is the redemption of the main character, Jean Valjean. He begins the musical as a jaded prisoner who has lost his faith in society. But through the generosity of a Bishop, his life is changed and he begins to live for other people. The real turning point in Valjean’s story is when he decides to adopt the young daughter of a woman named Fontine who is near death. This young girl, named Cosette, becomes the light of his life and he fights bravely to give her all that she needs to be happy. Valjean goes from cynical self-isolation to loving self-giving and concern for others, above all, his beloved daughter, Cosette. At the end of the musical, Valjean is at the end of his life and tells Cosette about her mother, Fontine. She appears to him and beckons him to follow her to Heaven. Then he, Fontine and another character sing a song with these beautiful words: “Take my hand and lead me to salvation.” While they sing this, they each hold out a hand for God to lead them to paradise. It’s an incredible moment.
This image of them holding out their hands for God to finally lead them home is one that really grabs my heart. That image of someone holding out their hand for another to take is a powerful image that has appeared over and over in cinema and art. It evokes the invitation to trust, the offer of love and friendship, and the beginning of a deeper relationship. There is a reason that you see it so often.
This image is even taken up by the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah gives voice to the Lord God’s invitation to the people to remain in His covenant. Speaking on God’s behalf, Isaiah proclaims:
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
The Lord God holds out his hand to the people of Israel, calling them to join Him and be in covenant with Him. He then grasps them by the hand, leading them to be a light to all the nations, bringing restoration and hope. Of course, we know the story with the people of Israel. Even though God held out his hand to them in covenant and even grasped them by the hand, so often they pulled away from Him and were unfaithful to his covenant, choosing to follow their own whims instead of His will. They let themselves fall into darkness all too often.
But then came the incredible moment in history which we conclude our celebration of on this feast day, the moment where God definitively grasped our hands, not just in a covenant written on stone like Moses brought with the commandments, but in one written on the human heart, a covenant formed by the self-offering of the God-man. This covenant was founded on Jesus, who was born for us on Christmas to inaugurate the new and eternal covenant, the covenant in which we would be grasped by God in the very depths of our hearts. Because God joined himself so intimately to humanity in the incarnation, we can have our humanity joined intimately to His divinity through our Baptism!
This is what we celebrate today in the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We remember that earth-shattering moment when Jesus, in humility, was baptized in the Jordan, buried in it’s waters to make available for us the Sacrament of rebirth. Jesus was baptized not because he needed it–He was completely pure and free from sin–he submitted to the Baptism of John the Baptist so that the waters of Baptism could be filled with the grace to make all of us new creations in our hearts. He was baptized to make the Sacrament of Baptism available for all of us!
As St. John the Baptist was inspired to say about the Baptism of Jesus: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Baptism is that Sacrament that plunges us into the depths of God, making us share in His life in an incredible way. It fills us with the fire of God the Holy Spirit, making us the sons and daughters of God. In Baptism, that desire of God to grasp Israel by the hand reaches it’s ultimate fulness: God the Father grasps us by the depths of our being in Baptism, transforming us into His sons and daughters and saying to us what He said to Jesus at His baptism: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Hear those words of the Father today brothers and sisters and let them sink deeply into you: you are well pleasing to the Father, not because of anything you’ve done, but because of who you are. You are his beloved daughter, you are his beloved son. And when the Lord grasps you and adopts you in this Sacrament, he never lets go. Although we may do many things to damage or even kill that grace that God gives us in Baptism, He never, ever abandons us. He simply calls us back to Him to be reconciled, like the Prodigal Son.
There is another line in that final song from Les Mis that speaks so well to the grace we have through Baptism:
For the wretched of the Earth, there is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise
Truly, for all of us chosen by God in our Baptism, the flame of the Holy Spirit given to us in that Sacrament constantly invites us to deeper relationship with the Father. When we turn away and even abandon Him at times, He never forgets or forsakes us. We are his children and he reaches out to us with his grace, love and forgiveness.
So as we ponder that great gift of being God’s children that Jesus gave us in Baptism, let us pray that God would help us to cooperate well with the grace of our Baptism, to hold firmly to His hand by the power He gives us in faith. The grace of our Baptism is here with us each and every moment to help us live and love as His beloved sons and daughters. Let us lean into it on the feast day and every day.
+ Heavenly Father, thank you for adopting us as your sons and daughters through Your Son. Jesus, help us to be faithful each day to the grace of our Baptism. Holy Spirit, stir up the grace of Baptism in our hearts this day and help us to know the goodness of the Father’s love. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen. +