Today’s Gospel takes place years later, when Jesus arrived at the River Jordan where His cousin John practised a baptism of repentance and foretold the coming of the Messiah. How well did Jesus and John know each other? They probably knew the stories surrounding each other’s birth, but just as every human life is an unfolding of a mystery known only to God in its totality, so also with the two cousins. Jesus’ baptism is an awakening for John and also for Jesus, for whom this is the start of His public ministry. Jesus’ awareness of His vocation has grown from the time when, as a boy, He was found with the teachers in the Temple. Now God acknowledges Jesus, the man, as the beloved Son.
Discerning one’s vocation in life does not normally happen in one blinding flash of enlightenment. It is something that unfolds gradually, during the many events and encounters of ordinary daily life. This special calling often needs years of careful thought before it becomes clear. What a young person may believe is his or her path may, at the end of life, have turned out to be very different as that vocation matured. Jesus, as a boy, knew that He had a special relationship with God, a relationship confirmed and directed at His baptism. Yet, in the Temple in Jerusalem and on tha banks of the Jordan, it was not automatically clear that His proclamation of the kingdom of God would lead to Calvary.
Our own vocation mirrors that of Jesus: moments of revelation and understanding mixed with confusion, uncertainty and, occasionally, opposition as we live out God’s unique call. The Holy Spirit fills Jesus. The same Spirit, deep within our heart, leads and guides us, helping us also to be faithful witnesses and messengers of God’s kingdom of love. We do not know where obedience to God’s call will take us. Our understanding of our own vocation will change and develop in living it out on our unique path. Where Jesus leads us, we are called to follow.