By Dale Gavlak
BETHANY BEYOND THE JORDAN (OSV News): The officially recognised site of Jesus’ baptism drew thousands of Catholics and others nationwide to the east bank of the Jordan River on January 13 for a special Mass as Covid-19 restrictions were dropped.
Families, youth, dignitaries, nuns and priests joined the throng of pilgrims throng gathered at the lush, reed-filled banks of the river as bagpipe music welcomed the faithful. Several priests filled jugs with purified water from the river to be used for the Mass at the adjacent Catholic Church of the Baptism of Christ.
“Although the church is big, the space inside has apparently become small,” Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, told the overflowing crowd as he presided over the Mass in the cavernous structure.
Archbishop Pizzaballa emphasised in his homily the importance of Bethany Beyond the Jordan, recorded in the New Testament as not only the place of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, but for the act that heralded the start of Jesus’ public ministry.
Although without sin, Jesus stood in line with sinners waiting to be baptised by John, “publicly entering the world in the opposite way than expected,” Archbishop Pizzaballa explained. “Jesus goes where people are in their situations, their problems, their difficulties. Jesus enters there and starts his ministry there.” This, he said, revealed Jesus’ overwhelming, abundant love for humanity.
Archbishop Pizzaballa emphasised in his homily the importance of Bethany Beyond the Jordan, recorded in the New Testament as not only the place of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, but for the act that heralded the start of Jesus’ public ministry
But that was not all. “We also have a wonderful manifestation of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” the archbishop said, underscoring the appearance of the Trinity during Jesus’ baptism.
It’s important to humble ourselves and give our consent to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, he urged. “Life in the spirit means love, patience, forgiveness, and respect. If you are not able to forgive, everything is broken. The Spirit unites, the flesh divides.”
In fact, the baptism site itself is a place of reconciliation.
More than 25 years ago, following Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, excavations began on the east bank of the Jordan River and uncovered the baptism site. In 2030, Christians will celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ baptism, and to prepare for that celebration, a big investment in the area is underway.
In December, Jordan unveiled an ambitious US$300 million, six-phase project aimed at drawing a million visitors annually to the site by developing a biblical tourism village in the adjacent area. Housing and other services will enable Christian pilgrims and visitors to spend more quality time at the baptism site.
Jesus goes where people are in their situations, their problems, their difficulties. Jesus enters there and starts his ministry there
Archbishop Pizzaballa
This year’s pilgrimage to the baptism site was the first after the Covid-19 pandemic. Archbishop Pizzaballa took a sprig of olive branches. Dipping them in water from the Jordan River, he went throughout the congregation sprinkling the holy water on the faithful in a renewal of baptismal promises.
“The altar from the late Pope Benedict’s visit to Jordan was used in Friday’s Mass in remembrance of him,” Father Rifat Bader, director of the Catholic Centre for Studies and Media in Jordan, alluding to the pope emeritus’ death on 31 December 2022.
“We preserve the site as the way John and Jesus saw it,” Rustom Mkhjian, the director general of the Baptism Site Commission, explained. It’s “a World Heritage Site that belongs to mankind. We, Jordanians, are the custodians.”
The baptism site is full of the ruins of ancient Roman and Byzantine churches and chapels, a monastery, hermit caves and baptism pools, destroyed by earthquakes and the river’s flooding. Mkhjian said five sources prove the site’s authenticity “where Jesus was baptised and Christianity started: the Bible, the nearby priceless mosaic map of the Holy Land, pilgrims’ testimonies and archaeological discoveries, and letters of authentication sent by heads of Churches affirming that this is one of the three holiest sites for Christians on earth.”
