Clean Waters
Every now and then, as a father, there’s a moment that reminds you—maybe, just maybe—you’re doing something right.
The other day, my 7-year-old son and I were on a hike. We had just come from Mass, where we celebrated the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. As we walked, he asked me:
“Why did Jesus get baptized if He never sinned?”
What a question! It’s one we’ve probably all wondered at some point. Thankfully, the wisdom of the Church offers us some beautiful insights.
I recently came across this quote from St. Ambrose, which provides one powerful answer:
"The Lord was baptized, not to be cleansed Himself, but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of Baptism."
It’s a profound explanation, but to help my son understand, I thought of a simple analogy:
When we think about water, we often assume it exists to clean what goes into it. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, the opposite is true.
Think of soap. When we wash dishes, we add soap to the water—and it’s the soap, not the water alone, that does the cleaning. The soap transforms the water, giving it the power to make things clean.
Even a seven-year-old gets that.
And then comes the age-old question: If you use a bar of soap on a dirty plate, does the soap get dirty?
The answer, of course, is no. The soap doesn’t take on the dirt; it removes it. It remains what it is—clean and pure—even as it cleanses everything it touches.
This is how we can begin to understand the Baptism of Christ. He entered the waters not to be cleansed, but to cleanse. He sanctified the waters of baptism, filling them with the grace that now washes over each of us in that sacrament.