While The Incarnation of the Son of God was a Year of favor from the Lord to the world, around three decades later Jesus experienced his own Year of favor from the Lord on the day of his baptism in the Jordan. In accepting consciously in his humanity his vocation from the Father to be the Messiah, Jesus desired to publicly give himself to the plan of the Father. In his gift he received a gift. He experienced the double grace, which would sustain him for the totality of his earthly existence: affirmation of the Father's love and the anointing of the Spirit. Let the scriptures reveal once more this transforming moment in Jesus' life:
“After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'”(Lk 3:21-22).
But Jesus knew that this favor from the Father was not just for him but for the sake of others. Sometime later, when he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, he went to the family synagogue in Nazareth. It was obvious to the people who knew him that he was not the same son of the carpenter they knew before. Something was different. Jesus identified the difference. The favor from the Father to him in the Jordan was really the beginning of God's favor for all. The Gospel of Luke tells us what happened. “(Jesus) stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.'” (Lk 4:17-19)
As the world has never been the same since that great favor of the Lord, the Incarnation, so individual lives for and in whom the Word has taken flesh have also experienced change, all according to the eternal plan of God.
Through the Incarnation, Mary's life was dramatically changed. She could no longer be a simple, unknown, young woman, living in an isolated part of the world. As the highly favored daughter of God and blessed among woman through the privilege of her immaculate conception, she became the Mother of the Messiah. She was no longer a private person in a unique relationship with God, but a public witness of the mystery of God's plan. Her quiet yes to that plan, as announced by the Angel Gabriel, was publicly acknowledged by Jesus himself, when he said: “Blessed is she who hears God's word and acts on it.” She herself affirmed this realization early on: “Behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.”(Lk 1:48). Because of the Incarnation, Mary became the Mother of the Savior; because of the Redemption, Mary became the Mother of the saved. “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.”
Because of the Incarnation, Redemption, Resurrection and Coming of the Spirit, the faithful disciples of the Lord were changed, not knowing the future consequences of that invitation and response. This change began when they first responded to the invitation to follow Jesus. During the time of discipleship, their hearts often would burn, when he would reveal the mystery of the Kingdom of God to them. This change was solidified, when Jesus appeared to them on Easter and said: “'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'” (Jn 20:21-22) There is no evidence of their water baptism in the Scriptures. This is the closest we have of what did take place, but never recorded.
