Sometimes we find in the Gospels expressions that don’t sound like anything. We would do well not to pass them by because, frequently, such expressions contain a great density of message.
One of them we have read in the Gospel today. When Jesus presents himself to John the Baptist, in a popular setting, to receive baptism, John seems to oppose it due to a presumed inferiority. Jesus responds to him with one of those enigmatic expressions of the Gospels. “Let it be so now. IT IS RIGHT THAT WE FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS.” What does this mean?
John’s baptism, all baptism, is not merely a sign of repentance. It is also a sign of righteousness. Indeed, by receiving baptism, one points to a life lived in justice. Because a life of a baptized person without justice is an emptiness. Whoever is baptized is saying that, from now on, his or her life must be compatible with justice and goodness. Otherwise, the rite is emptied of meaning. Rarely are baptism and justice united. But it is so: an unjust life renders Christian baptism meaningless.
Therefore, how can we who have received baptism fill it with the spirituality of justice?
· Keeping the longing alive: Don’t say that this about justice is obsolete. Truly believe that a world in justice is possible if we all pull our weight. Believing in God is easy; it’s more complicated to believe in justice.
· Being honest with the real: Don’t hide your unjust behaviors. Face them. Try to be honest, good, and compassionate. Return to the paths of good whenever you stray from them. Repair the harm you do.
· Living in equity: you think it’s fair that the weakest receive more protection. Do not position yourself against social needs: the homeless, immigrant minors, those who come to us from the underworlds of poverty.
Many times we have talked about recovering our baptism, which is neither in our memory because most of us were baptized shortly after birth. We can recover it by filling it with the spirituality of justice. To begin, when we celebrate the baptism of a child from our families, let us not live it simply as a sympathetic, almost childish party. Let us give it all the content of justice. If you participate in a baptism, you are signing up for justice. If not, it is almost better not to celebrate it. Let the matter of justice resonate in the celebration.
And let’s think, we baptized, that justice is not something outdated that has nothing to do with you. Don’t you have anything to do with the children who die of malnutrition? Don’t you have anything to do with the more than 50 wars in the world? Will you look the other way at the economy that kills? Doesn’t it matter to you that the effects of climate change are deadly for many? Do you think you have nothing to do with the poverty of our Spanish society? Aren’t you, in some way, family of those who have no roof and are in great distress? Let these questions not be alien and bothersome to us. Because otherwise, what’s the point of being baptized?
Fidel Aizpurúa
January 11, 2026
English version translated with AI