May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
There are a several anniversaries that I celebrate. December 16th is my birthday. March 29th is the day I was
ordained a deacon, and June 6th is the day I was ordained a priest. One anniversary, however, is more important
than all of the others. It is the 9th
of April: the day that I was baptized.
More important than the day that I was born into this world is that day
that I was born of water and the spirit.
More important than the day I became a Father in God is the day that I
became a child of God. Everything in our
lives, everything in our lives of faith, flows from the waters of baptism. Today in our reading from the Gospel, we hear
the testimony of John the Baptist about the baptism of the Lord Jesus. Last week we heard the event of Christ’s
baptism. Today we are given another
opportunity to reflect on the meaning of baptism.
Baptism gives us our identity. In the waters of baptism we are claimed by
Christ. We are adopted as beloved
children of the Most High God. The Lord
Jesus, as the beloved Son of the Father, gives each of us a share in his own relationship
with the Father. As he is the beloved
Son, in him we are the beloved children.
In baptism we receive our identity.
Baptism draws us to the celebration of the Eucharist. In baptism we receive a mark on our souls
that can never be taken away. We cannot
ever lose the mark or character of our baptism.
We can lose the grace of baptism through sin, but we cannot lose the
mark. The mark on our souls allows us
and invites us to participate in divine worship. The mark on the soul of a baptized child of
God gives them a place in the celebration of the Eucharist. We receive the privilege and the obligation
to join in the celebration of the Eucharist so that the daily sacrifices of our
lives of faith can be united to the one sacrifice of Christ. The mark on your soul enables you to offer
yourself completely to Christ as he offers himself completely on the
Altar. With the mark of Christ the High
Priest on my soul, and the royal mark of the baptized on your souls, we join in
Christ for the single act of worship of the Father. And from the acceptable sacrifice, we receive
the grace of the sacraments.
Baptism admits us to the sacramental life. St. Ambrose and St. Leo the Great teach us
that when the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven, the power and presence of his
earthly ministry passed into the sacraments.
In the celebration of the sacraments of the Church, we encounter the
presence and the power of the Lord Jesus.
Baptism admits us to life in union with Christ Jesus through our
participation in the sacraments. The
life that we receive in baptism is strengthened in the sacrament of
Confirmation. When the divine life and
the grace of God are rejected and lost through serious sin, the life of grace
is restored in the sacrament of reconciliation. When illness and suffering afflict us, the sacrament
of the anointing of the sick unites us more deeply to Christ and strengthens us
with his healing grace. In the sacraments
of vocation, we share in the love of Christ and bring new life to the Kingdom. And in our reception of the Body and Blood of Christ
in Holy Communion, we are transformed into the one that we receive.
Through our participation in the sacraments of Christ, we grow
into the likeness of Christ. We become the
people that we were created to be. We claim
our identity as beloved children of the Loving Father. We offer our lives in union with Christ our High
Priest in the sacrifice of the Eucharist. And through our sacramental life on earth we are
prepared to embrace the eternal life of heaven. Amen.
Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church, Monroe , NC
