Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

106 JANUARYheard a voice—perhaps others heard the voice as well: “This is mybeloved Son on whom my favor rests” (Matthew 3:17).Abuna Elia said that the baptism in the River Jordan was one ofdivine love and mercy, of divine affirmation. The Father’s love waspoured out upon the Son, and the Son enjoyed all that the Fathergave him. But following the baptism in the Jordan, the Holy Spiritdrove Jesus out into the desert. At least, so it is recorded by Mark inhis Gospel when he says: “The Spirit drove him out into the desert”(Mark 1:12).And here is the point Abuna Elia was making: that in the baptismof the Jordan, there is affirmation, but in the baptism of thedesert there is temptation; there’s a test. The baptism in the Jordan,the first of the two-fold baptism, is a baptism into divine life, abaptism into divine friendship, an immersion in the fullness oflove. The baptism in the desert is a baptism into human alienation,into human estrangement from God. It is a dehydration, a hungerand thirst to which Christ Jesus freely gives himself for love of us.The first is the Father’s act of love poured out upon Christ; thesecond is Christ’s act of love poured out upon us. In both baptisms,the Holy Spirit figures very prominently, appearing in the form ofa dove above Jesus in the Jordan for the first baptism and drivingJesus into the desert for the second.In the same way that Jesus is driven by the Spirit of divine loveand mercy into the desert, he is driven by that same Spirit to carryhis Cross. He’s compelled; he goes of an inner necessity, for thesake of love, for love of us. The second baptism of Jesus begins theprocess of a divine pursuit: the pursuit of human beings whereverwe have fallen: into the lowest and the worst of places; into ourgreatest suffering, our greatest despair and our deepest sin; evenunto death.In reality, said Abuna Elia, the work of the Spirit began in thewomb of the Virgin Mary, the place where he was first conceived.The womb of the Virgin Mary was like the baptism in the Jordan.Just as the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters of creation, so theHoly Spirit hovered over the Virgin Mary when Christ Jesus wasconceived in her (Luke 1:35). The womb is a watery place intowhich we are all received; it is a place of affirmation, a place wherewe are conceived in love. Certainly, Christ Jesus was conceived inlove.