CCC 1224 Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for sinners, in order to “fulfill all righteousness.”1 Jesus’ gesture is a manifestation of his self-emptying.2 The Spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation, and the Father revealed Jesus as his “beloved Son.”3
1 Mt 3:15.
2 Cf. Phil 2:7.
3 Mt 3:16-17.