"If Today You Hear His Voice, Harken Not Your Heart"

The Three Massketeers Are All Ears

Holiness Means Listening to Jesus, Says Pontiff

Speaks of the Commitment Behind Baptism

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 7, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Baptism implies a commitment to holiness, which consists in listening to Jesus, explained Benedict XVI.

The Holy Father explained this today before praying the midday Angelus with thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Earlier, the Pope presided at Mass in the Sistine Chapel, during which he administered the sacrament of baptism to 13 children.

"The commitment that arises from baptism" consists "in listening to Jesus; that is, to believe in him and follow him docilely doing his will, the will of God," he stated in his Angelus address.

"Each one of us can aspire to holiness, a goal that, as the Second Vatican Council reminded, constitutes the vocation of all the baptized," the Holy Father said.

Benedict XVI said that for the four Evangelists, Jesus' baptism in the Jordan is extremely important, as it is the first clear presentation of the Trinity, as well as the start of his public ministry on the roads of Palestine.

"There is a profound relationship between Christ's baptism and our baptism," the Pontiff explained. "In the Jordan, the heavens were opened to indicate that the Savior opened to us the way of salvation and that we can follow it precisely thanks to the new birth 'of water and the Spirit,' which takes place in baptism."

The Holy Father added that in baptism "we are introduced in the mystical body of Christ, which is the Church, we die and rise with him, we are clothed in him."