Homily for the Baptism of the Lord

In 2006, a film titled Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson, was released. It is a gently absurd fable that, despite its implausible premise, serves as a thought-provoking meditation on the meaning and purpose of life.

Ferrell portrays Harold Crick, a colorless and compulsive IRS auditor in the film. An unvarying routine and a rapid, computer-like proficiency with numbers characterize his life. His apartment is meticulously neat and unadorned. He is unfailingly polite and cooperative, yet he feels terminally lost and lonely.

Everything changes when Harold hears a woman's voice narrating his life. He cannot silence the dry, British female voice in his head, which describes the story of his empty days as he is living them.

As he becomes increasingly unhinged by this voice, Harold discovers that he is a character in a novel being written by a once-bestselling author struggling with severe writer's block.

As the writer unfolds her story about Harold, he must make crucial decisions about the direction of his life. He grapples with whether his life is a comedy or a tragedy and considers whether he is cast as a romantic lead or a selfless hero. Guided by the unshakeable voice in his head, Harold becomes a puzzled but hopeful seeker of love, friendship, and the small joys of life he has overlooked, like homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Without revealing the ending, it is essential to note that Harold evolves into someone willing to give his life to save another. The narrator/novelist realizes Harold is "exactly the kind of man [a storyteller] should keep alive."

In the accounts of Jesus' baptism, the evangelists depict the Holy Spirit as descending upon Jesus, hovering over him "like a dove." The same Spirit that rests upon Jesus after his baptism also descends and resides within us.

The Spirit that hovers within us resembles the voice Harold Crick hears; the Spirit of God functions as the narrator of our own lives, encouraging us to live our "stories" with compassion and mercy.

God's Spirit communicates with us in the deepest and most hidden parts of our hearts; it is the very essence of God animating and guiding us. This Spirit is a wellspring of grace and wisdom, courage and perseverance, empowering us to become the people of justice, peace, and goodness God intended us to be.