Word of the Week

Baptism of Our Lord

Departure: Exodus (Gk): “a going forth” or “divide”

Departure, commonly seen as the Exodus, is God’s saving intervention in history by which God liberated the Hebrew people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt (by ‘dividing’ the waters), established a covenant with them, and brought them into the Promised Land. This perennial intermediate stage of salvation history is what the Jewish people commemorate at Passover, which for the Christian faithful is a prefiguring of the New Covenant Passover of Jesus Christ from death to life in the celebration of the Eucharist (CCC glossary, 878).  Jesus' departure from Egypt recalls the Exodus and presents him as the definitive liberator of God's people from sin (CCC 530).

The word departure is used three times in the NT and several times in the Greek OT. It refers to either the historical Exodus, as noted above (Ex.19:1; Heb 11:22), or to the physical death, when souls depart from this life and go to another (2 Pet.1:15). Both of these cases are drawn together when Moses and Elijah converse about the exodus of Jesus at the Transfiguration (Lk.9:30-31). Jesus will exit this life in visible form when he dies on the Cross, while at the same time accomplishing a new exodus with his sacramental presence that frees the world from slavery to sin (Hahn and Minch, 41).

Furthermore, the Transfiguration also accounts for the manifestation of the Trinity in the father’s voice, the chosen son, and the cloud of the Spirit (Lk.9:35). Consequently, the only other time that we see the manifestation of the Trinity in Sacred Scripture was at the Baptism of Jesus, the Solemnity we celebrate today. It is upon this great feast day that we are reminded of our need to participate in the one Baptism of Christ, that we might hear those words pronounced over Jesus 2000 years ago, “you are my beloved son with you I am well pleased” (Mk.1:11; Mt.3:17; Lk.3:22). Such words lead us into a new departure, an exodus in relationship!

We often speak of departure in terms of travel. My “departure time” for travel is “noon”. This mode of using departure is not far from a deeper spiritual truth. In order for there to be a departure, there must be ‘a going forth’ from a particular place. In the spiritual life, the Christian must depart from a former way of life to arrive at a new place, in the case of spirituality, an entrance into a new life with God. This seminal truth is a step towards the heights of our relationship with God, when we hope to make our final departure from this world to be with our Lord in the beatific vision.

“Exodus is an arrival”

--Origen

Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
•  Hahn, Scott and Minch , Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001.

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