An Open Heaven

The Baptism of the Lord

Year B

Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Psalm 29:1-4, 9-10; Acts 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11

On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open…
Mark 1:10

I love baptisms.  It doesn’t matter if they’re babies or older people.  They’re amazing.  Jesus taught that unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven [John 3:5].  The Church has always interpreted this to refer to Baptism.  It is in Baptism that we are born again of the Holy Spirit and we begin our new life of grace.  Watching a person issue forth from the font is like watching the birth of a child.  It’s always grand.  It’s always amazing.  But have you ever wondered how it is that this can take place?  In today’s Gospel we see its origin in the baptism of our Lord.  Something to keep in mind is that what we see happening in the baptism of our Lord is what happens to each person who receives Baptism.  But I want to focus on a key point in the narrative given to us specifically today in St. Mark.  It’s that of an open heaven.  There’s something really cool taking place that we don’t want to miss because it’s the key to everything else that happens.

It will be helpful to review for a moment.  In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth He made everything good.  The crowning glory of His creation was of man and woman made in His own image and likeness.  God created us in love and for love.  He created us for beatitude; that is for blessing.  He intended that there would be an open and ongoing communion with us forever.  But sin changed all of that.

With the fall from grace into sin, our first parents closed heaven.  No longer would there be the open, free, intimate communion with God.  God would be sealed up in heaven and humanity would be cursed with the effects of sin.  This was the sad condition that existed when our Savior came into the world. 

In the fullness of time, God Himself became human in order to remedy our fallen state.  This is what we have been celebrating throughout the Christmas season.  But as we come to the conclusion of this season we not only consider Christ in His infancy, but also in His revelation to the world.  That happened fully at His baptism.  Here He began His public ministry.

Jesus comes to John to be baptized to fully identify with sinful humanity even though He Himself was without sin.  When He went down into the water, He blessed the water and gave it the quality to be the means of Baptism.  When He came up from the water something amazing happened.  The heavens were opened.

For thousands of years since the Fall the heavens were closed.  Now they were opened.  We could again commune deeply, intimately, and continually with God.  The blessings intended from before the foundation of the world could be ours again.

It’s here that I want to pause for a moment and take a look at something unique about St. Mark’s version of this event.  The other Gospels say that the heavens were opened.  But Mark says they were “rent”; “torn open.” 

The word he uses is schizo.  It’s where we get the term, schism.  It means to tear apart or to divide.  We use the term today to refer to any group that begins to teach something different from the Catholic Faith and causes a division in the body of Christ.  It indicates a violent rending as in a garment or cloth.  In fact, it’s the same word that’s used in the other Gospels when it speaks of the veil in the Temple being torn from top to bottom when Christ was crucified.

Mark isn’t content to just tell us that the heavens were opened, but rather that they were torn open.  It’s as if God has been chomping at the bit since the Fall to tear away the veil that sin created so He could come and love us and bless us again.

What are the results of such a tearing open?  Two things issued forth from heaven: the Spirit in bodily form like a dove and the voice of the Father.

The Spirit descended upon Jesus and remained with Him.  In Baptism the Spirit comes into our lives and bears witness with us that we are now the children of God.

The voice of the Father spoke, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  So He speaks to each of us by virtue of our Baptism that we are now His beloved children in whom He is well pleased.  When we come forth from the font, it’s like being a newborn babe in the arms of a proud papa.  God brags about us: “See my new child!”  God bursts through the torn veil of heaven to come and embrace us. 

Yet, the enemy does not rest.  He is relentless in his temptations and we often find that though we have been set free from sin we fall into its snares again.  In these moments the veil begins to return.  If we are not diligent to repent and turn back to God, the veil becomes thicker.  If we persist into mortal sin, it shuts out the light of heaven entirely and we return to the place without God.

Christians too often live in this sad state to varying degrees; perhaps not in mortal sin, but certainly with an essentially closed heaven.  What is the remedy?

Confession?  Yes, but it must be more than just that.  The sacrament will restore whatever has been lost from Baptism.  It will re-open heaven.  It will tear away the veil.  But then we must determine that we will continue to walk in this grace.  Most Christians just live endlessly in the cycle of sin and reconciliation.  It need not be so.  We were intended to walk in the light of an open heaven.

Perfection?  No, not in this life.  But victory?  Yes!  Absolutely!  God intends for His children to walk in the freedom of His love; in the light of an open heaven.

Today as we ponder again the wonderful mystery of the Baptism of our Lord, let us renew in our hearts our baptismal vows: to renounce Satan, and all his works, and all his pomps- the ways he makes sin look desirable.  Let us reaffirm our faith in the one, true God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Let us walk in unbroken communion with Him in His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  And let us bring His light and love into a dark and lonely world where the heavens are still closed. 

Look up, dear friend.  God is waiting.  Our Lord Jesus awaits to bring you His blessings: the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father: “In you I am well pleased.”