Water and Blood
You’ve heard the expression, “Blood is thicker than Water”. This is meant to say that the social bonds between relatives, those people we are biologically connected to, are stronger than any bond we will make with people outside our family unit. We will, in a pinch, do for family what we will not do for others.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), the great English novelist put a different spin on this old saying in the form of a short verse.
“Blood, as all men know, than water’s thicker/ But water’s wider, thank the Lord, than blood.”
It is this “Wideness” of water that we are called to reflect on in the scripture readings for today’s liturgy.
We are still in the season of Christmas, the great celebration of the Church that recalls for us that Jesus was born into a human family. We are reminded that Jesus had blood relatives. Being like us in all things but sin, Jesus was brought into this world fully immersed in the human condition.
But blood, for Jesus, was not a limiting factor. Family ties did not constitute the circle within which his love was constrained. For Jesus, giving love was unbounded; it was as wide as water. It was through water that Jesus chose to begin his ministry as he approached John the Baptist on the bank of the Jordan River.
Jesus humbled himself to be baptized by John, immersed in water, so that we might all have the opportunity to be immersed in that same baptism with him. As the Father revealed the gift of His Son to us in the waters of baptism, so to God recognizes us in our own baptism as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is not to say that blood is unimportant. In the first reading the beloved disciple John says that those who believe in Christ as the son of God will not forget that Jesus came to us by water and blood. It was blood that allowed the sacrifice which took place for our redemption and it was water, the water of baptism, that allowed that sacrifice to be for the many.
We cannot cease to be grateful for the gift of our closest family, our blood. But in Christ our family has grown. The waters of baptism have widened our kinship to include all those who profess faith in Jesus Christ.
