Today heaven and earth rejoice, watching the Lord being baptized and drowning in the water the great load of our sins. The human soul is illuminated because, delivered from the shadow of sin, she puts on a divine and incorruptible garment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Christ, announced by the law and the prophets, comes to regenerate us in his divine baptism. You are a mighty torrent, you who have created the sea and the water springs; you come to these waters to wash us yourself, who are to everyone cleanliness and purification. You are a gulf of truth, O Christ! You, the undefiled water source! how could the Jordan hold you? You are the sun that knows no twilight! You have illuminated your sacred flesh as a torch in the midst of the Jordan. You have found our image soiled with passion and sin, and have washed it through your baptism.
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