Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. During my morning Holy Hour, as I read the Office of Readings for today, a few lines from St. Gregory Nazianzus' sermon on Christ's baptism hit me. In his sermon he recounted:
"Jesus rises from the water; the world rises with him. The heavens like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like the dove that so long ago announced the ending of the flood and so gives honor to the body that is one with God."
The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, as foreshadowed by the dove in the Old Testament, that returned to Noah to announce the end of the rain and the flood. So too does the Holy Spirit descend to us, so as to announce the end of the reign of the flood of death and destruction, and the return of peace and paradise. Amen!
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