On the Baptism of the Lord

In today's Office of Readings, we read:

"He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water...Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him." (From a Sermon by Saint Gregory of Nazianzus)

Here, we are given an interesting thought. Christ sanctifying the world, not just humanity? When we think about it, original sin was such a disorder to God's creation that it affected all of creation. Man's sin altered the creation of God, and thus God had to alter it back to its original state.

In the Baptism of the Lord, we see that. Just as the Easter cander is dunked into the Holy Water font at the Easter Vigil, so too is Christ sent into the waters of the Jordan to sanctify them for all of time and eternity. Christ's salvation was so great that it affected all of creation in some way or another.