The Dangers of the Halos We Create

January 12, 2025

The story of the baptism of Jesus is a troubling story for some. Why did Jesus need to be baptized if he was without sin, for we read that John’s baptism was clearly a baptism to signify repentance ? (Luke 3:3, Mathew 3:2-6). And even when John tries to dissuade him (Mathew 3:14), Jesus insists on being baptized ‘in order to fulfil all righteousness” - a phrase that Christians seem to bend over backwards to try and interpret in any way, just so they do not have to accept that Jesus needed to repent. Why does Jesus having to repent make us so uncomfortable?  

Does this make Jesus any less of a Messiah or the Christ ? Is this because our idea of greatness very often has to do with whatever qualities we are born with, rather than what we work to become. Is it because of this that in almost all religions, the ones who are revered (whether Jesus, or Buddha or Krishna) almost always have backstories that tell us how even when they were babies, they were considered special,  and that there were prophecies and miracles that occurred around their birth or early childhood?  

Even more importantly, is this kind of halo that we place around a person somewhat self-serving? For if a child is born special and divinely gifted, then it is ‘natural’ for him/her to grow up and live the way s/he eventually did. But that implies, of course, that we ‘normal’ human beings cannot do that, nor even be expected to try to live like that. 

While it may be true that a child may show certain signs of  significant potential, the whole point of Jesus’ example is that a person who was fully and  genuinely a man (which after all is the Church’s teaching), can grow up to live the way he did. In an earlier blog I have compared Jesus to a mirror that  reflects light. (January 27, 2024,  Was Jesus "God who became Man", or a "Man who reflected God fully"?)   As I pointed out there, in physics we learn that no mirror fully reflects all the light that falls on it,  but the more we polish the mirror the better it reflects light. So instead of painting a halo around Jesus, if we can understand him as one  who throughout his/her life was continuously polishing the mirror that he was (i.e. continuously trying to be ‘better’),and that he eventually reached a state where he reflected much more (or ALL) of the divine light that fell on him, so that, as a result as John’s Gospel tells us, in him we could see the glory of God. (John 1:14).  And it is at this stage that we encounter this much much brighter self. Such a life then calls us not to idolize that ‘mirror’,  and bask in his/her brightness,  but rather to be inspired by that ‘perfect’ person to try to similarly ‘polish our own mirror’ so that, in the case of Christians, we too become perfect reflections of the divine light as Jesus demands of us: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mathew 5:48). In the 3rd century, St. Cyprian coined a phrase for this, when he said that all Christians are called to be  ‘alter Christus’  or another Christ.

But instead of learning to polish our mirror to become more like the ‘god’ we have idealized,  we think we need to protect our ‘gods’ from anyone who tries to break that halo. So despite Luke’s Gospel saying that “Jesus grew in ,and favour with God and men’ (Luke 2:52), most Christians would like to believe that Jesus was always perfect and any imperfection or weakness is downplayed as a kind of play-acting by Jesus. So, if someone says (even in a fictional novel) that Jesus had sexual relations (as was suggested in “The Da Vinci Code”) we feel the need to defend the halo. This leads to much fanaticism, so that anybody who questions or raises possible doubts about our understanding of the ‘perfection’ of this person, is seen as being sacrilegious, blasphemous, etc and needing to be  silenced in any which way. That is why there was a movement  by Christians and Muslims respectively to ban Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”, and  Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses”. This is true of non-religious figures too. So if someone speaks of how Gandhi discriminated between blacks and whites when he was in Africa, or questioned how he treated his wife, his defenders feel the need to defend him. Gandhi’s greatness was not that he was born virtuous, but that over his life time he worked hard to make himself into a great soul, or a mahatma.     

We all have our own ‘gods’ that we will defend from any and all accusations. Sometimes these gods are ideas like capitalism, or communism or atheism or national identities. For many of us religion, like several of these other ‘gods’ of ours, are like display pieces we place in a prominent place in our homes - fragile and completely separate from us. And yet if someone is perceived as trying to damage that display piece, we are angry and intolerant. But religion is not meant to be just a showpiece in our lives.  It is not something outside of us that we pay obeisance to,  it is something that is supposed to be part of us.  

The revered figures of our respective religions, are not so much to be honoured, as to be followed - for it is in the following that one honours.  After all, worshipping is easy; becoming more like the one we worship is difficult.  In other words, we are not just called to belong to a particular religion’; rather we are called to fulfil the religion we belong to. So we need to ask ourselves the question: Are we placing the one we follow on a pedestal of perfection, to excuse ourselves from having to try and become like him/her? 

First Reading: Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,  my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Or  Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,  that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand  double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling: 
“In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert, a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
    he gently leads those that have young.

 

Second Reading: Titus 2: 11-14; 3: 4-7

For the grace of God has  appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

 

Gospel: Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.