In the last 25 years the prison population in the United States has quadrupled, now 2.1 million. In 1976 the term "rehabilitation" was dropped from the California penal code. It is not an encouraging picture. At the same time there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who say that they are satisfied with life. 88 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the lives they are leading. That is not a universal fact. One out of every ten Belgians attempts suicide. But what does it mean to be satisfied? Satis for Latin means "enough".... It means being content, having what one wants. But what do we want? What are our expectations? Have we really attained what we wanted or have we lowered the bar? Not all the world is happy. And not all the world can usually define happiness.

The Lord says “I have come that you might have joy and that your joy might be full”. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness is a feeling. Joy is a fact..... Another kind of happiness is fleeting It was for this reason that Our Lord got baptized. Our Lord is the source of joy. And that joy comes from the washing away of the rebellion that separates us from God... sin. That infection has poured through the blood of the human race. Symbolically people would wash themselves to get rid of it. That is a common phenomenon in many religions, ritual washings.

For the Jew baptism was a preparation for the coming of the Messiah. St. John... was one of many people who stood by rivers initiating people into this rite of preparation. As he said, “There is one coming after me the latches of whose shows I am not ready to unloose.” He promised it. He must have said it many times. One day when he was preaching, Jesus appeared.... When John realizes that Jesus wants baptism he demurred.... But Jesus gives the command. Why did Jesus get baptized? There was no sin in Him. St. Paul says He became sin. That doesn’t mean He had sin in Him. It means He took on the human condition.... But he did not have that initial rebellion that you’ve got.... What was washed away in Jesus? Nothing. But by being baptized he was telling the world that he was now about to give the world a new baptism. No longer a a baptism anticipating the Messiah.... He was telling us that He has a happiness far greater than what the world can give and that we must not be satisfied be anything less than that.