Baptism of Our Lord

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Sunday 11 January, 2026
St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth

Download the full text in PDF

On January 12, almost exactly one year ago, in fact on January 12, Pope Francis, after having baptised a number of babies in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, said this to the thousands of people gathered in Saint Peter Square:

Dear brothers and sisters, today’s feast makes us contemplate the face and the voice of God, which are manifested in Jesus’ humanity. And so, let us ask ourselves: do we feel loved? Do I feel loved and accompanied by God, or do I think that God is distant from me? Are we capable of recognising His face in Jesus and in our brothers and sisters? And are we accustomed to listening to His voice?

I will ask you a question: does every one of you remember the date of your Baptism? This is very important! Think: on what day was I baptised? And if we do not remember, when we arrive home, let us ask our parents or our godparents the date of our Baptism. And let us celebrate this date as if it were a new birthday: that of our birth in the Spirit of God.

When I heard Pope Francis ask this question, I realised that I didn’t know the date of my baptism. Luckily, I still had a copy of my baptismal certificate in my file, so I went to have a look and discovered that I was baptised just three weeks after my birth. It says something, I think, about the faith of my parents, and therefore the kind of family I was to be brought up in, that my mum and dad realised how important it was that I should receive this wonderful gift of faith so that alongside my physical growth, my emotional growth, and my intellectual growth, I might also grow spiritually. 

And so perhaps, if you don’t know the date of your own baptism, when you get home see if you can find out, put it in your diary or on your Facebook page or your Instagram account or whatever else might be appropriate and make sure that you celebrate it each year. It marks the beginning of your own personal journey of faith which, in God’s strange ways, has brought you here today, inviting you to enter into that deep communion with him through the Eucharist which first began as the water was poured over your head and you entered into the body of Christ, into the Church.

For Pope  Francis it makes perfect sense to ask of every baptised person, and therefore to ask each one of us, if we feel loved by God, if we are aware that God is accompanying us on our journey through life, if we realise that if we look carefully we will be able to recognise the face of Jesus in the face of our brothers and sisters. And by this last question, of course,  the Pope means not just in the faces of our natural family but also of our Christian family and our human family.

The search for the face of Christ: this phrase could in a sense sum up what was at the very heart of the life and the ministry of the man who became Pope Francis. For him, it was Jesus as the face of the Father’s mercy which really took centre stage. You might remember that Pope Francis asked the whole Catholic Church to enter into a jubilee year, the Year of Mercy, in 2016. And, of course, it was also Pope Francis who designated 2025 as the special Jubilee Year of Hope. In the official hymn of that Jubilee Year which we have just concluded, we sing of the hope that is fulfilled when we find our home in Christ. 

As we think, then, about the great gift of faith which was born in us on the day of our baptism, it is really important for us to remember that it is Christ in whom we place our faith, it is Christ who calls us to follow him, it is Christ who is our Way, Christ who is our Truth, Christ who is our Life.

If, for Pope Francis, Christ is primarily the face of the Father’s mercy, the early signs are that for Pope Leo Christ is the source of our unity, first and foremost with God and then, in through our communion with Christ, our unity also with each other. To belong to the Church is to belong to Christ and to belong to Christ fully is to belong to the Church. This is what baptism means. And to belong to Christ is to belong to the one who prayed on the night before his passion and death that all his followers might be one: Father, prayed Jesus, may they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. We will never convince people of the love and greatness of Christ if we fight among ourselves.

At the end of today’s gospel, we hear the Father say of Jesus: This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased. As Christians, and this is especially true of our Catholic tradition, we believe that to be baptised is to be so united to Christ that if and as we live faithfully to our baptism the words of Saint Paul become true in us: I no longer live for it is Christ who lives in me.

Reflecting on the legacy Pope Francis has left us, and now on the guidance which Pope Leo is offering to us, we are invited to understand that to be a Christian, to be truly a disciple of Christ, we must strive, even if we fail occasionally, or even often, to reflect the face of Christ, the face of the Father’s mercy to others. And equally we must strive, even if we fail occasionally, or even often, to be people of communion and unity rather than people of discord, dissension and disunity. If we commit ourselves to this goal, then we can hope that like Jesus we too will hear the voice of the Father saying of us. This is my son, this is my daughter, in whom I am well pleased.