Father Rick Bolte's Homily

A: The Baptism of the Lord                                               2008-1-13

People sometimes ask me when I first knew I had a calling to be a priest.  I find that hard to answer.  When I was in grade school I thought about being a priest.  When I was in high school I had a number of priest teachers and some of them I admired and aspired to be like.  I was in a college seminary and there were a number of times I thought I should leave.  I did end up taking three years off before returning to finish my education and training.  It’s hard for me to say when I knew I had been called.

I think the same is true for those of you who are married.  When did you first know that your spouse was the one you were to marry?  Maybe you had some sense the first time you met.  Maybe there was a significant event you shared that made a significant difference.  May there was that special moment of betrothal when the man asked for the woman’s hand in marriage down on one knee.  Likely, it was not just one moment but something that developed over time.

Today’s Gospel presents Jesus calling to public ministry as a one time event when he goes to be baptized by John.  This seems to all be a one day event culminating in his hearing his Father’s voice from heaven.  However, other places in scripture give the impression that Jesus actually spent more time with John perhaps more like us in pondering his Father’s will in his life.

It is interesting to note that Jesus was thirty years old when he came to John and decided to change his life.  Since he is referred to as Jesus the carpenter and Jesus the son of Joseph the carpenter, it is fairly safe to presume that Jesus spent the first thirty years of his life making a living and developing his career as a carpenter.  Today’s Gospel shows Jesus baptism, not a baptism of repentance of sin, but of a change of life.  His change is from a career to a vocation.

Marriage is considered a vocation because it involves a calling forth of the best and most loving part of us.  To be successfully married, one can’t be concerned only with one’s self.  Your career, your time, you financial and other resources, indeed your life’s focus is no longer just about you.  Even more, having children brings this our even more.  Children start out only knowing to seek what they need and want.  They are not able to return favor or repay you for what you do for them.  Marriage and family begin the process for many of us of following our calling, a vocation.

Many spiritual directors say there are some things about really following Christ that are almost impossible before at least age thirty (interestingly the age Jesus begins his vocation).  It seems it usually takes at least that long to have a sense of being successful in the world and one’s ability to make a living in one’s career choice.  Then one is more able to look around and ask, “Is this all that life is about?  Is there something more than just making it in the world?”  That’s when we can more seriously follow God’s call – our vocation.

We learn a lot from our marriages and from parenting.  We learn to surrender our self-interest for the love which we come to know as a far greater good.  As we begin to more fully embrace our vocation, we begin to see that all people are God’s family and so also our own.  We begin to ask what we can do to make life better for all the members of our fully-extended family.