“In the Jordan River our Savior crushed the serpent’s head and wrested us free from his grasp.”

Antiphon, Vespers, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

With the feast of the Baptism of the Lord we bring the liturgical season of Christmas to its conclusion, and we call to mind the manifestation of Jesus as the only begotten and beloved Son of the Father.

He did crush the serpent’s head, doing so by becoming humble and low, allowing Himself, the sinless one, to be baptized by a mere mortal.

So, too, our own baptism is a joining (continually, daily) to His death so that we can put sin to death in our hearts. Filled with the grace of the Son, we can grow more and more each day into the fullness of adoption that the Father wills for each of us.

Indeed, baptism is powerful because it is a humble acknowledgement of absolute powerlessness.   There is no other way to salvation than to follow our Lord through the pathway of the waters.