Birthdays are common celebrations across a variety of cultures, remembering the day when you were born into this world from your mother's womb.
In the Catholic Church there is often a second "birthday" that is celebrated: your baptism day.
Jesus inaugurated the sacrament of baptism on the day when St. John the Baptist baptized him in the Jordan river and as a result, St. Maximus of Turin called it Jesus' second "birthday."
2 Birthdays
He explains his reasoning in a sermon that is featured in the Office of Readings:
The Gospel tells us that the Lord went to the Jordan River to be baptized and that he wished to consecrate himself in the river by signs from heaven.
Reason demands that this feast of the Lord’s baptism, which I think could be called the feast of his birthday, should follow soon after the Lord’s birthday, during the same season, even though many years intervened between the two events.
St. Maximus then continues his reflection, connecting the two events in the life of Jesus:
At Christmas he was born a man; today he is reborn sacramentally. Then he was born from the Virgin; today he is born in mystery. When he was born a man, his mother Mary held him close to her heart; when he is born in mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice when he says: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to him. The mother caresses the tender baby on her lap; the Father serves his Son by his loving testimony. The mother holds the child for the Magi to adore; the Father reveals that his Son is to be worshiped by all the nations.
As a note, the main difference between our baptisms and Jesus' baptism is that we are in need of spiritual cleaning and Jesus was not.
St. Maximus explains that, "Someone might ask, 'Why would a holy man desire baptism?' Listen to the answer: Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched. For the consecration of Christ involves a more significant consecration of the water."
Celebrating Jesus' baptism should remind us of the importance of our own baptism, even potentially celebrating it each year.
Baptism is a vitally important sacrament, one that we should acknowledge and give as much attention to as the day of our birth.
