“You are my Son, my Beloved: in you I am well pleased.” In these words, spoken to Jesus at the time of his baptism in the Jordan, we find the key to understanding today’s feast. Just as Jesus’ baptism marks the initiation of his public ministry, his passage from the hidden life to the public life, so too does this feast mark the liturgical transition from the Christmas season to “Ordinary” Time – the time of the Spirit. At his Baptism, Jesus publicly embraces and commits himself to his most fundamental vocation: life as God’s Beloved Son, a life in which each of us is called to share through our own baptism. As Jesus is baptized, he is affirmed and confirmed in his identity and mission. As we ratify today the promises of our own baptism, so also are we!

In this spirit, the Church also celebrates today the beginning of National Vocation Awareness Week. Through our baptism, we too are God’s beloved children; anointed by the Holy Spirit, called to share in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and pastoral mission. We recommit ourselves – whether single or married, whether lay or ordained or vowed religious – to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to live the life of the Beloved, to proclaim the Good News in word and deed. There can be no “vocation shortage”, for each of us has a vocation. We are called by name. The choices we have made – past, present, and future – are an extension of the call we all receive in baptism and confirmation: to life and love, to holiness and discipleship, to service and mission. “The challenge is not to find out whether or not you have a vocation, but to identify and respond to the vocation you unquestionably have.” Something to think and pray about this week!