All that Baptism Entails

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
    I’m not the biggest fan of cheese.  Yes, I’ll eat pizza, but it usually has to have some meat toppings on it.  The same goes for lasagna: I’ll eat it, but if it’s meat lasagna it’s much more enjoyable.  Some of my dislike for cheese is taste, but my body also doesn’t agree with it.  So if I go out to eat, I usually have to check if there is cheese, for example, on a salad, or in a particular dish where it can be removed.
    While picking and choosing at a meal does not mean a big deal usually (after all, Burger King ran with the slogan “Have it your way”), when it comes to the sacrament of baptism, the same does not hold true.  Baptism does come as a customizable sacrament.  One cannot pick and choose which parts of baptism one wants, and which parts one would rather not come with the meal.

    Perhaps not as much at this parish, but always a perennial danger, is picking which parts of baptism we want, and ignoring the others.  As a reminder, baptism washes away original sin, opens for us the path to salvation, makes us an adopted child of God, and make us a member of the Church.  Everyone takes seriously the first two effect of baptism.  In my fifteen years of being a priest, parents know that their child has original sin, which is not a personal sin but a state of being opposed to God.  As St. Paul says, before baptism we were enemies of God (see Romans 5:10).  That is what we mean by original sin.  Another effect is that baptism also opens the possibility of salvation, by granting us, for the first time, sanctifying grace: the grace that makes us holy, which allows us to stand in the presence of God who is Holiness Himself.  Before baptism we lack sanctifying grace.  While God can choose to grant sanctifying grace to whomever He wishes and however He wises, the only way we know that God gives us the grace that makes heaven possible is baptism.  Again, parents want their child to go to heaven, and realize that we never know what can happen, so they make baptism a priority.
    But part and parcel with the washing away of original sin and the opening of the possibility of heaven is becoming an adopted child of God and a member of the Church.  These two effects connect with each other because, when one becomes an adopted child of God, one becomes a part of the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church.  To belong to Christ means to belong to the society He formed which helps us live out the call to continue in sanctifying grace.  Even those who receive baptism outside the Catholic Church (as long as their baptism is administered validly) are connected to the Catholic Church and only need to be received into full communion, rather than baptized.  
    Receiving adoption from God entails trying to live a Godly life.  St. Paul also says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  That is the goal, or should be, of every Catholic.  Our actions should be the actions that Christ would take were He in our circumstances.  They way I work, the way I rest and recreate, the way I live in a family, the friends I choose, what I eat and drink: all should be what Christ would do in my circumstances.  St. Paul talks about putting to death the old man (sinful man), and setting our minds on what is above (the new man, Christ) so that heaven is the natural consequence that follows the way we lived our lives.
    The last effect, becoming a member of the Church, also entails certain rights and responsibilities.  We have the right to the other sacraments, as long as we are well-disposed to receive them.  We have the right to expect the Church to help us form children in the faith (though as an assistant, not as a surrogate parent).  We have the right to make our needs known to the pastors of the Church–from me, your local pastor, to the bishop, and even to the pope, should it be necessary.  But every right carries with it a responsibility–the duty to support the Church financially according to our means; the duty to attend Mass each Sunday and holyday unless sick, caring for the sick, or work necessitates our absence; the duty to grow in our understanding of the faith according to our God-given intellectual gifts.  This last part is what parents usually ask to exclude from the sacramental meal, or at least to set it on the side so they can add it if they want it, and only in the amounts they want.
    But baptism is all or nothing.  Either we choose all the effects of baptism, and all that those effects entail for the person and, in the case of infants, for his or her parents, or we should not choose it at all.  A parent’s eternal salvation does not depend on his or her child remaining Catholic after adulthood, but is impacted by how much the parent raises the child in the faith while the child is still under the parent’s guidance.  Skipping Mass on a Sunday or holyday for no good reason not only harms the parent (skipping Mass is a mortal sin), but compounds when a person also has the responsibility of getting a young person to Mass on those days who cannot go on his or her own.  
    And the judgement of my soul connects to how I make sure that you understand what baptism means and how it affects you.  I do this through baptism formation classes before you have your firstborn, and occasional homilies like this where I remind you just how weighty a choice it is to have your child baptized.  Baptism is so beautiful, and I was honored to celebrate 32 baptisms last calendar year, but it is also my hope that each of those whom I baptized continue to practice the faith to the best of his or her ability.  

    Baptism is not a customizable sacrament.  We cannot ask the Divine Chef not to include certain parts that we don’t like, or set them to the side.  Baptism means new life and sanctification, and is the ordinary requirement for salvation.  But it also means making the life of Christ our own and living up to what it means to be a part of the one Church Jesus Christ founded.  May our celebration of the Baptism of the Lord today remind all of us just how important and weighty baptism is, so that we live up to the call that each of receives in baptism: to turn away from sin; to make choices that lead us to heaven; to live as a child of God; and to live as that child of God in the Catholic Church.

The Blessings of Baptisms

 Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Tate with his parents after his baptism

    One of the great blessings of being pastor of St. Matthew is all the baptisms we have.  Today, during this Mass, I’ll baptize Tate Matthew, and then after the 1 p.m. Mass I have three other baptisms.  Over the last three years I have averaged a little over 18 baptisms per year, which is the highest three year average I have had since Bishop Boyea ordained me in 2010, and that includes being in a parish of some 3,000 families.  Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, as well as Tate’s baptism, I wanted to reflect on baptism and just what a great blessing it is, not just for me as a priest, but for the whole Church and for families individually.
    To appreciate the blessings of baptism, we have to know what baptism is.  Baptism is the first sacrament by which we receive God’s saving grace which opens for us the possibility of heaven.  Until baptism, we only are connected to God through His will in letting us be conceived and existing.  After baptism, we become a son or daughter in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  We go from merely being the child of our parents to being a child of God.  
    I think that we’re used to hearing this phrase, but it really is quite powerful!  In baptism, God claims us as His own, and promises to support us with all we need to spiritually thrive, much as parents do when they conceive a child.  We could not earn this status as adopted children of God, anymore than a child could earn its parents’ love.  St. John puts it this way: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.  Yet so we are.”  We are not simply called God’s children; we are God’s adopted children in Christ.  Islam sees itself as a slave of God, with the word islam meaning in Arabic, submission.  Through baptism, we rise above mere service to God to joining His family.  
    Because we are joined to God through His Son, we also become members of the Church, as the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ.  This is an extension of God’s family: all those who are configured to Christ in baptism.  It is the Church who helps us grow into the child our Heavenly Father wants us to be.  She dispenses to us from God all the graces He wants to bestow.  We see this especially in the other sacraments that God opens to us after Baptism: Penance/Confession/Reconciliation; Confirmation; the Eucharist; Anointing of the Sick; Matrimony or Holy Orders.  But she also helps us with sacramentals, things like blessings, or holy water, or medals of the saints, or the Rosary.  The Church helps us to be the saints that God calls us to be in baptism.
    Baptism also washes away any previous sins, including original sin.  St. Paul makes it very clear that, before we baptism joins us to God, we are at enmity with Him.  The dictionary defines enmity as being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.  Before sin is washed away in the waters of baptism, it opposes God and His rule in our lives.  Even with the good that we can do without baptism, sin still works against that good and draws us toward evil.
    So baptism is such a great gift from the Father.  Our Lord showed us humility in being baptized, but by doing so encouraged us to receive baptism ourselves to be like Him, though He was already the Son of God, was already the Head of the Church, and did not have sin.
    But baptism is a great gift that calls for a continuous gift.  While it can only be received once, it’s not as if we can get baptized and then walk away from God and hope to enter into heaven, any more than a man could marry his wife, walk away from her, and then expect a big party for the 50th anniversary.  Baptism calls for us to respond each day to the greatest gift we could have, new life in Christ, not just get water poured on our head and then walk away from God.  As we heard in the second reading, baptism helps us to reject “godless ways and worldly desires,” and helps us to live “temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age,” so that we can be prepared for heaven.
    Because heaven, to which baptism points, is not a club where if you have your baptism card you get admittance, no matter what.  Heaven is a way of life that images Christ.  Heaven is the fulfillment of the sonship in Christ.  And we only enter there if we want to be there, which we make manifest in the choices we make each day.  The more we choose to live like Christ in obedience to the will of the Father, the more we ready ourselves for heaven.  The more we choose to live like the world where we do whatever we want and follow each desire, the more we ready ourselves for hell.  
    The French Catholic novelist Leon Bloy said, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”  What a sad reality it would be if we received the great treasure that baptism is, giving us everything we need to allow Christ to live through us, but did not act on those graces.  It would be like God giving us $1 billion each day, and all we had to do was invest it in particular companies who promised us significant returns, but we chose to waste that jackpot and ended up broke because we wanted to invest elsewhere, which squandered our investment and left us holding an empty bag.
    Baptism is a great gift, but one that we probably don’t always appreciate.  We live with it every day, but how often do we take advantage of the treasures God gives us through baptism?  We are blessed in our parish to celebrate baptisms frequently.  But the real blessing will be if we each allow baptism to give us the grace to live as Christ desires so that we are ready for heaven when we die, and share in the eternal life God desires for all His children.

Connected to God

 Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
    I greatly appreciate all of your prayers, emails, messages, posts, and offers to help when I was in quarantine due to COVID.  It is a beautiful thing to have a parish family come together in prayer and assistance when another member of the family is struggling.  I know that we have some parishioners who are still going through COVID, some with very strong strains, so let’s make sure that we’re keeping them in prayer and doing what we can to help them, as well.
    I was very happy that my case of COVID was very mild, and I never lost my sense of taste.  The hardest part for me, though, was being on my own, without the usual face-to-face contact with the outside world.  I was well-stocked with food, but a few parishioners dropped off food after a reception at St. Matthew for Fr. Jeff’s Mass of Thanksgiving, or a funeral luncheon that took place at St. Pius X.  It was a beautiful thing even just to see their faces through a door or window.  You would think, living on my own, that I would be used to alone time.  But most of my vocation is dealing with others, and having personal contact with others, which is something of which I was deprived, for the health and safety of others, during my time of quarantine.

    As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, we look to our own baptisms, quite naturally.  Do you know the date of your baptism?  Do you know where you were baptized?  Baptism washes us clean of original sin, and makes us sons and daughters in the Son of God, which also makes us members of the Church.  By baptism, we are connected to God by a bond which not even death can sever.  By baptism, we are sealed as belonging to God, and will be baptized no matter where we go after death.  
    But we are connected to God through Baptism.  And so, even in the midst of our physical separation from others, we are always connected to God, and, therefore, always connected to everyone else connected to God.  Because of baptism, God carries us in His arms, like a shepherd, and can feed us, not by dropping off food at our front door, but with His love and His grace, which is truly His life.
    This is part of the “kindness and generous love of God our savior,” that St. Paul talks about in the second reading from his letter to Titus.  And it is, “Not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy.”  God does not need us.  God lacks nothing without us, or without any part of His Creation.  And yet He chooses to connect us to Himself through baptism and shower His love, His grace, His truth, His life down upon us so that we can truly be happy, so that we might be “a people as his own.”
    And if we are God’s people, then our response to such a love is “to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our…savior Jesus Christ.”  If God has held nothing back from us, not even His Only-Begotten Son, then what can we hold back from God?  If, when we were baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon us and made us adopted sons and daughters in the “beloved Son” of God, then our response is to do our best to live in a way that shows that we belong to God.  
    I talk a lot about sharing the Gospel with others, and we need to.  Words matter.  Words about Jesus matter.  Others need to hear the Gospel, and withholding that from them is not acting in accord with who we are as children of God, who want others to have the same connection to God that we have through baptism.  
    At the same time, people should know that we are Catholic by the way that we live our life.  What we say, how we drive, how we treat people, where we spend our money: all of that should show that we are connected to God.  That’s one of the things that has always attracted people to Catholicism throughout the centuries.  The early Romans saw how women and children, and slaves were not treated as property by Catholics, but brothers and sisters.  Barbarians noted the peace that Catholics had even in the midst of great trials and sufferings.  Pagans would see how Catholics would care for the poor, without expecting anything in return.  And even in our recent times, we can think about how much difference St. Theresa of Calcutta made by caring for those who were untouchables, those whom society had thrown off as garbage.      Through baptism we are connected to God, not as slaves, but as adopted children.  Through baptism, God claims us as His own.  Let’s make it our aim to strengthen those bonds each day through prayer, and let others see, by what we say and do, that we belong, that we are connected, to God.

Banjos and Baptism

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

    As a fan of country music, I love the sound of the banjo.  The banjo got a bad name from the movie “Deliverance,” but it’s a beautiful instrument with a great sound, almost part and parcel of country music.  When I served as a priest in East Lansing, I decided one year to get a banjo.  I’ve played piano, saxophone, and the bassoon before, so I felt I could handle a new instrument.  I took lessons for a few months, bought a book with an accompanying DVD to help me learn, and went to it.  I didn’t pick up the instrument as quickly as I liked, and then Bishop Boyea named me pastor of St. Joseph in Adrian, so it fell by the wayside.  After years of not using it, I gave it to Jake, the seminarian who was living with me for the summer when I became pastor here.  Hopefully he has found more use for and success with it than I did!
    Sometimes we Catholics treat baptism and our faith life like a banjo.  We’re excited about it when there’s a new child, we might use it a lot at the beginning, but then things get hard, and we set it off to the side, never to use it again.  I think some of this comes from a misunderstanding of what baptism is and means.
    For years after the Second Vatican Council, there was an emphasis on how similar our sacraments were to human milestones.  The intent was good.  If all people are created in the image and likeness of God, and if all humans truly desire God, as St. Augustine noted, then it makes sense that other cultures and even other religions would have times and ceremonies that mimic what Christ Himself instituted in the sacraments.  For example, baptism is connected to birth, confirmation to adolescence, matrimony and holy orders to marriage and family, anointing of the sick to dying and death.  Many cultures and religions do have rituals during those times of life, and I do think that it reflects the pieces of truth that connect other cultures and faiths to our true religion.
    But at the same time, baptism now is often viewed as a merely sociological experience that is over as quickly as it begins.  Parents come to church to have their children baptized, and then they’re not seen again until first reconciliation and first Holy Communion, then leave again, then not seen again until confirmation, then leave again, then return again for marriage (often because it’s a requirement of the parents who are footing the bill), and then leave again, hopefully returning again at the baptism of their own children. 
    But millennials in particular, and the generations that are following them, are not into empty rituals that are done for the sake of being done.  Many young people who leave the church during college never return, unlike the generations before them.  And when they have kids, fewer and fewer are having their children baptized.  In some ways that’s troubling, because baptism is the ordinary way that eternal life is opened up for humans, but in other ways, it’s almost more honest, at least if the parents have no intent to live out their faith. 
    Baptism means seeking the Lord, like Isaiah said in the first reading, but it also means the scoundrel has to “forsake his way and the wicked mad his thoughts.”  It’s the beginning of the growth of new life and a relationship with God, the first watering of the field of the soul, not the harvest and the rest that comes after.  Jesus didn’t quit telling people about God the Father and drawing them into relationship with the Father once Jesus was baptized; He began His public ministry of calling all to repentance and the fulness of happiness.  As a pastor, it seems like many take baptism to mean that they never have to work at keeping the commandments, unlike what St. John said in the second reading.  Baptism is treated as a Get Out of Hell Free card. 
    But Baptism really means that the person will try his or her best to make the life of Jesus his or her own.  Baptism is the grace-assisted and grace-empowering beginning of a habit of: listening to the Holy Spirit; trusting in and following the will of God; dying to our own preferences and fallen desires and habits; putting behind us sinful life and living for God above all else.  Yes, it washes away original sin; yes it imparts a character with which we are sealed for all eternity as a child of God; yes it gives us sanctifying grace which pushes us toward heaven.  But it’s not magic.  It’s not a “do this and then you’ll never have to do anything else” ritual. 
    Baptism is the beginning of a grand adventure with God.  Baptism is the beginning of a saintly life.  It doesn’t mean that we always get the saint part right, but it means we’re trying to, and we put behind us things that don’t help us be saints.  It is a life-long commitment to strive to do the will of God in every circumstance.  It gives us the identity of a son or daughter in the Son of God, which isn’t so much a badge that we can scan to get to exclusive areas, but rather a mission to live like Jesus would in our own day, a life that truly begins happiness, and share that call to happiness with those we meet, both by word and by deed. 
    Don’t let your baptism be like my banjo.  Don’t just start and then not follow through.  Don’t just pick it up every now and then.  Allow your baptism to be the strength which allows you to live each day in the freedom of the children of God, a freedom God gave us not for license, for doing whatever we want, but for holiness, for doing what God wants.  Live your baptism every day, and at your judgement you will hear from the Father: “‘This is my beloved…with you I am well pleased.’”

What We Are Called

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
    There are numbers of things that we can be called during our life time, and some of them can even be said in church!  My grandparents and their generation called me Tony; among my elementary and middle school friends I was TJ; in high school I was AJ; Bishop Mengeling liked Anthony, which is what I started to be called in seminary.  In seminary I developed the nickname Strohs, after the cheap beer, since my last name was similar.  In the State Police I have developed the nicknames Padre and Chap (short for chaplain).  I’m sure there are others about which I don’t know because people don't say them to my face!
    Today we hear a few names or titles.  In the first reading: “my servant” and “my chosen one,” and in the Gospel, “‘my beloved Son.”  Each, too, comes with longer descriptions about the identity of the one about whom God is speaking.  Isaiah talks about the servant and chosen one as “upon whom I have put my spirit.”  He goes on to say about this person, “I…have called you for the victory of justice, I…set you as a…light for the nations.”  Isaiah probably didn’t know it, but God was speaking to Isaiah about Jesus.    In the Gospel, the name is without doubt about Jesus, and John and the people hear it clearly.  As Jesus is coming up from the water, God the Father, who had sent the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, says that Jesus is the beloved Son, “‘with whom I am well pleased.’”  What an identity!  What an expression of love from the Father!
    And yet, in Baptism, both of those things now apply to us.  Let’s look at the Gospel first.  In Baptism, we become a child of God in the Son of God.  God does not simply cover us up with His grace, as snow covered dung (to paraphrase an alleged phrase of Martin Luther).  In  Baptism, He changes our soul and makes us like Himself, so that, when God looks at us, He truly sees His beloved Son.  We are configured to Christ, with an indelible mark, a seal, a character, that forever wants us to be like Christ in our daily choices.  Preface VII of the Sundays in Ordinary Time says it this way: “so that you might love in us what you loved in your Son.”  That’s no small thing!  God is not blind, so it’s not like He cannot see our sins, but at our soul, since we are baptized, He sees Jesus, His beloved Son.
    And then, turning to our first reading, because of our new identity in Baptism, our path is changed.  Before Baptism, we are not likely on the road to heaven.  The road to heaven is narrow, and the only way to it is through Christ.  In fact, the Church goes so far as to say that for those who do not know Christ or His Church through no fault of their own, if they are seeking God with all their heart and doing their best to follow their conscience, it is possible that they can be saved.  Possible.  It can happen, but the pre-requisites (not knowing Jesus through true ignorance, doing everything possible to try to know God, and following the conscience) are pretty tough. 
    But with Baptism, the road becomes a bit easier, because we have a well-spring of grace flowing up within us, urging us on towards the divine life of holiness.  Which is why Isaiah can say, “I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice.”  We are not baptized into failure.  We are baptized for victory, for greatness.  Ours is not meant to be the mediocre life.  Ours is meant to be a heroic life, even if not many people know about our heroism.  For January 12, listen to the saints that are honored on this day (even if not in the general calendar): St. Marguerite Bourgeoys; St. Aelred of Rievaulx; St. Anthony Mary Pucci; St. Arcadius; St. Bartholomew Alvarez; St. Benedict Biscop; St. Caesaria; The Ephesian Martyrs; St. John of Ravenna; St. Martina; St. Martin of Leon; St. Salvius; St. Satyrus; St. Tatiana of Rome; Sts. Tigrius and Eutropius; St. Victorian of Asan; and St. Zoticus.  Have any of you heard of any of them?  I haven’t!  But they’re all canonized saints.  And beyond them, think of the others who are in heaven who lived heroic lives but not well-known lives.  All of that was a response to baptism, to that call for the victory of justice. 
    What does that look like?  For parents of young children, it means doing all you can to pass on the faith to them and help them to develop their relationship with Jesus.  For young children it means obeying parents and being loving even when your young siblings maybe aren’t showing that love to you.  For older couples, it means putting up with your spouse’s idiosyncrasies (which you see much more as retired), and caring for each other in illness.  For widows and widowers it means turning to the Lord in times of loneliness and sorrow.  For all of us it means donating our time to the Lord, avoiding gossip and speaking ill of others, and making our relationship with Jesus the most important part of each day. 
    In Baptism, we were chosen by the Lord as His servant and chosen one.  In Baptism we became a son or daughter in the Son of God.  In Baptism we were made for the victory of justice.  Let’s not forget those names and titles, and, by the grace of God, work to make them even more true each day. 

Our True Identity

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

One of the most popular Disney movies is “The Lion King.”  I think we’ve all seen it; I know as a kid I watched it too many times to count.  Powers did a great stage production of it last year.  Towards the end of the movie, there is a powerful scene, and I won’t be able to do justice to it here, but it’s the scene where Rafiki, the wise baboon, tells Simba, now grown and hanging out in the jungle with Timon and Pumba, that his father, Mufasa, is still alive (remember that Scar had killed Mufasa when Mufasa saved Simba).  Rafiki takes Simba to a pool, where Simba looks into the pool and sees his reflection.  Disappionted, Simba says that it’s just his reflection.  “Look harder,” Rafiki says.  And Simba looks again.  Rafiki continues, “You see, he lives in you.”

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord.  Even though Jesus was already God the Father’s co-eternal Son, still, the voice of the Father is heard from the heavens, “‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”  Jesus had no need to be baptized, but he still allowed St. John the Baptist to baptize him as a model for what we are to do, and to show us the reality of what happens.

When we are baptized, original sin is washed away from us, like dirt being washed away by the water.  When we are baptized, we become a member of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, the group of those who follow Jesus’ teachings.  When we are baptized, even if we cannot hear it, the voice of the Father comes from heaven and says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  In baptism, we become sons and daughters in the Son of God.  God gives us His life, and imprints in us the identity of His Son, Jesus Christ.  That becomes who we are, and who we are meant to be.

Too often, we identify ourselves by something other than our baptism.  Maybe we identify ourselves by our work, by what we do.  Maybe we identify ourselves by our worldly successes, by how much money we make, or the home we own, or the car we drive.  Maybe we identify ourselves by our failures, by the mistakes we make, the sins we commit, the standards, realistic or unrealistic, that are set for us or that we set for ourselves.  I know that’s my Achille’s heal: to identify myself by my failures, and Lord knows there’s enough of them to think about!  But, however we think we should identify ourselves, God invites us today to identify ourselves the way He does: by our baptism. 

In Baptism we are given a dignity that infinitely surpasses anything we could hope to achieve on earth.  Even if we were the most powerful, the richest, the most famous person on earth, that is nothing compared to how God sees us.  Even the weakest, poorest, most insignificant person, if baptized, is a son or daughter of God in the Son of God, and has worth beyond measure in the eyes of God.  Think about how much love God has for Jesus.  Try to imagine it!  You can’t imagine it, because God’s love for Jesus is infinite, and our finite minds could never even come close to processing how much God loves Jesus.  Now, because of baptism, that love that God the Father has for Jesus is given, freely and generously, to us.  In baptism, we are joined to Christ so that the Father sees Jesus whenever He sees us.

It is that identity that then becomes the way we should live our lives.  We don’t live a certain way to earn God’s love.  That’s foolish and a heresy (Pelagianism).  We can never earn God’s love.  If we were to live the best and holist life ever, we could still never earn God’s love.  But the identity that we receive in baptism, the identity of Christ, that calls us to live in a certain way, to live as Jesus would live, to the best of our ability.  It is supposed to be, as St. Paul says, no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.  

Think back to the Lion King.  Simba had grown used to living as a wart hog and a meer cat.  It was fun, it was carefree (hakuna matata!), but it wasn’t who Simba was.  Sin is often fun, it’s almost always carefree.  But it’s not who we are.  We are not our jobs.  We are not our successes.  Most importantly, we are not our failures.  Satan tries to convince us that our identity is in something other than our baptism.  Simba, though, was a lion and a king.  And it was living according to that identity that gave him true joy.  We are, in Christ, little anointed ones, little christs.  In Jesus, we are sons and daughters of God.  That identity gives us true joy, and helps us know how we are to live our life.

When we were baptized, we went from merely being our parents’ child, to being a child of God in the Son of God.  God made our identity that of His beloved Son.  That is how we should see ourselves.  That shows us how to act in life.  That is the most important thing to know about who we are.  Today the voice of the Father speaks: “‘You are my beloved Son.’”

What God Said at Your Baptism

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

What happened on the day of your baptism?  For those of you who were baptized as babies, you may think it’s an impossible question to answer, as you were too young to remember.  Maybe some of you who were baptized as adults remember.  Even if you don’t remember, you can at least get the gist of things from the baptisms you’ve seen celebrated here or elsewhere: your parents asked to have you baptized, they professed their faith, and water was poured upon your heads or you were immersed in water, and then you were given the Sacred Chrism anointing, the white garment, and the baptismal candle.  But there’s something else that happened, something very big: when you were baptized, God the Father said, “‘You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased.’”

Now, if you’re a female, you might think this is a bit odd.  Did God not know which sex you are?  Of course He did!  But, when you were baptized, the very life of Jesus was given to you, so that, when the Father looks upon you, yes, He sees you, but He also sees the image of His Beloved Son, Jesus, in whom He is well pleased.  When you were baptized, you were made to be like Jesus.

Now, this isn’t like a costume that you put on.  It’s more like painting a portrait.  You, as a human person, are the canvas, and the artist cooperating with God.  You are the one who receives the image and craft the image that you display.  It’s part of who you are, not an added on extra.  When you were baptized, God traced the pattern of His Son in pencil, hoping that, with His help, you will color it in within the lines.  

Baptism is not a ritual we’ve come up with to celebrate new human life; it is not a ceremony to pass on a cultural identity.  Baptism is a remaking of ourselves, at the very core of our being, by God, so that we can live Jesus’ life.  Not that we ape Jesus; otherwise we’d all go to Israel and Palestine , wear sandals, and dress in tunics.  But we receive strength to live as Jesus did: in total obedience to the Father.  That, of course, is a tall order.  But God Himself makes it possible, and gives us assistance along the way.

Baptism is also not something that we did long ago that has no bearing on our life.  It is a life-long commitment to follow Jesus.  As infants, we don’t have a choice: our parents make the loving choice to have us baptized, because they want God to assist that child in living like Jesus.  Sometimes people will say, “Well, I never got to choose to be baptized; my parents forced it on me.”  Yes, it was forced upon many Catholics as infants.  So was food, clean diapers, love, and all that other “horrible” stuff.  Sometimes parents making choices for us as babies isn’t all bad.  True, as we grow older, we have to also claim it for ourselves and live it out, but we’re set on the right path when our parents have us baptized as infants.

The call that all of us receive in baptism, the outline that is given to us by God, is the call to be a saint.  When the life of Jesus is given to us in Baptism, we are set apart to be a holy man or woman of God.  We can do so as a husband or wife, priest or consecrated person, child or adult, CEO or McDonald’s worker.  No matter what our vocation, no matter what our job, it is possible for us to be saints (and I don’t mean that we all need to go to Siena Heights).  In every circumstance of life, if we are obedient to God the Father’s will, then we will be saints.  Maybe we won’t be canonized, but it will not go unnoticed by God, and His is the only measurement that truly counts.  

Today, celebrate your baptism.  Celebrate that you were called when you were baptized to be a holy man or woman of God.  Celebrate that God the Father looked upon you in love and said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  May our lives reflect that life of Jesus in all that we do and in all that we say.

Sensing God's Presence

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Today we come to the end of the Season of Christmas.  It’s the shortest season of the year, usually only lasting 20 or so days.  This year it was only 17 days.  And yet, what we celebrate at Christmas changes everything.  It is more monumental to human history than the discovery of fire; than Aeneas traveling to Italy from Troy or Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon; than the Battles of Lepanto and Vienna stopping the Muslim invasion into Europe; than the storming of Normandy on 6 June; than the assassination of John F. Kennedy or the resignation of Richard Nixon; than the terrorist attacks on 9/11.  

The Incarnation was bigger than all those world-changing events.  God Himself was able to be seen in His Son, Jesus.  When you looked at Jesus, you saw God.  When you heard Jesus, you heard God.  When you touched Jesus, as so many people did for healing, as Mary did in holding her baby, you touched God.  This was a radical change from what had come before.  And it changed radically what would come after.

Because of the Incarnation, God communicated Himself through physical reality.  This includes the Sacraments.  Through the Sacraments, we experience God.  And this is an effect of the Incarnation.  Water remains H₂0, but by the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the priest, it also gives God's grace and makes a person a child of God and a member of the Church for all eternity.  Olive oil remains what it is, but becomes a vehicle of God’s grace to strengthen, console, and anoint a person for a mission in the Church.  A promise between one man and one woman remains a valid agreement between two free people, but is strengthened by God’s grace to allow the married couple to share God’s grace with others just by living their married life with God.  The Sacraments are possible because of the Incarnation.  In the Sacraments we encounter God and share in the events of the life of Jesus Christ.  As Pope St. Leo the Great said, “Our Redeemers’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments.”  Every time we celebrate a Sacrament, we are coming into contact with the Risen Lord.

God uses material things to make Himself known.  That is the great news of the Incarnation.  He made us to come to know reality by our senses.  There is nothing that we know that we did not learn, at least at its heart, by our senses.  Numbers, which are immaterial, are learned through physical things: if we add one orange to one orange, we get two oranges.  We learn about history through hearing.  We learn to do so much by experiencing it.  God knows that we learn through our senses because He created us this way.  And so He continues to come to us through our senses.  

Look at today’s celebration, the Baptism of the Lord.  When Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descends, and God the Father’s voice is heard.  God makes Himself known.  St. John talks about this in our second reading, when he says that, “there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood.”  Even the blood of Jesus, a blood that was seen poured out, and the water the flowed from the side of Jesus, and the Spirit who rent in two the veil of the temple, make known God’s presence.  God does not leave us simply to imagine that He exists, imagine that He comes to us, imagine that he loves us.  God shows us that love by physical signs.  God’s presence is effective.  His Word, another way God communicates through our senses, changes us, just as Isaiah prophesied in the first reading: “just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth…so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void.”

In the Sacraments, we are meant to have an encounter with Christ, no less than when John the Baptist and the people at the Jordan River saw Jesus rising from the waters, saw the Spirit descending like a dove, and heard the voice from the heavens.  In the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we are meant to experience Jesus who helps us to know if we are called to be a priest, a consecrated man or woman, or married.  In the Sacraments, Christ wants to strengthen our priesthood, our consecration, and our marriages.  But we have to be open.  God wants to reveal Himself to you in the Sacraments.  Today, as we prepare to receive the Eucharist, ask God to reveal Himself to you.  If you are open to His presence in the Sacraments, you will know of His presence.  

Show Off

Epiphany of the Lord

Being a show-off is not a good thing.  Doing something just to grab attention to yourself for some talent that you have is not something for which people usually praise you.  But today is the exception to the rule.  Today, the Lord is a show-off, or rather, is shown off, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.  In fact, the very word epiphany comes from two Greek words (epi and phanos) which is most commonly translated as to reveal or to manifest, but could also be translated as to show off.  

The Epiphany celebrates three times that God showed Himself off.  We’re all familiar with the first one: when Jesus revealed Himself to the Magi, the three Wise Men, who came from the East and presented Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  This is what we usually associate with this celebration.  But the Epiphany also celebrates when Jesus manifested Himself at the Wedding at Cana, where He turned water into wine, as well as the manifestation of Jesus in His Baptism in the Jordan River.  That last aspect our Western Church focuses on in a special way next Sunday on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, but in the Eastern Church, where this feast originated, all three were celebrated.

But notice that when Jesus shows off, it is not a matter of bragging, as is often the case when we show off.  When Jesus shows off, something else points to Him and makes His presence known.  When we talk about Jesus showing off to the Wise Men, it was really the star that pointed out the newborn King of the Jews.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph didn’t go through the streets proclaiming Jesus as the new monarch of Israel.  The Magi had to follow the star, and when it finally came to rest, they recognized Jesus as the King of Kings, though He was in such a lowly circumstance.  When we talk about Jesus showing off at His Baptism, it is not Jesus who says, “I am the Beloved Son of God; listen to me!”  Instead, the Holy Spirit descends like a dove over Jesus, and the voice of God the Father is heard from the heavens declaring that Jesus is the Beloved Son of God and that we ought to listen to Him.  When we talk about Jesus showing off at the Wedding at Cana, it is not Jesus who says, “look what I can do!”  It is Mary, the Mother of God, who tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”  When Jesus reveals who He is, He never does so on His own to draw attention to Himself.  Rather, He lets His heavenly Father and his Blessed Mother make Him known to others.  Jesus is not an attention junkie.

The question for us is whether or not we make Jesus known.  If Jesus doesn’t really bring attention to Himself, but lets others draw people into knowing who He is, then it is our responsibility to show off Jesus.  We are called to be like the star, or the voice of the Father, or the Blessed Mother, in helping others know who Jesus is.  We are called to be the evangelists, the ones who spread the Good News about who Jesus is.  We are called to help others to know that their mundane life, full of suffering and sorrow, is not all there is, but that God has so much more planned for them, even if none of their earthly circumstances change.  An unemployed person without Jesus can become bitter, despondent, and melancholic because nothing is going right for that person in helping him or her to provide for self or family.  An unemployed person with Jesus still may not have a job, but knows that God is in charge, and that, if the person continues to turn to God and offer those sufferings to Him, that something will happen for the betterment of that person.  A sick person without Jesus simply has a lack of good health that may or may not change based upon what medicine can offer.  A sick person with Jesus still does not have good health, but sees that sickness as a way to offer up suffering to God who can make it beneficial to eternal salvation.  Having Jesus makes all the difference in the world, and it is our call by our baptism to share Jesus with others so that they have hope in the midst of suffering.

One way that we show off Jesus is by talking about Him with other people.  That may seem odd for us Catholics.  It may seem very Protestant.  But the first disciples were not so driven to build a church building; they were driven to show off Jesus by talking about Him to others and sharing the wonderful things He had done in their lives.  When they showed Jesus off, others wanted that joy, that new outlook on life, and they joined the Church.  Whether it was Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free, when people heard about this Jesus who conquered sin and death and gave people freedom to live a truly happy life, they wanted it.

Pope Bl. Paul VI, Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis have all encouraged us to participate in the New Evangelization.  One way that we, as a parish, are going to participate in this together is by participating in faith-sharing small groups this Lent.   Next week we are going to have a sheet to fill out which will give our contact information and in which interest group we would prefer to share our faith.  The groups will be for 6-10 people, so they won’t be too large for you introverts, but will be large enough for extraverts to be able to share.  It will focus us on the love of God and the difference that love makes.  After Lent is over, there will be more opportunities for different kinds of faith-sharing groups to meet.  And the whole point is that we get in the practice of showing off Jesus to those we know, so that when God calls us to, we can share that faith with others whom we may not know as well.  

When Jesus shows off it is not about vainglory or bragging.  Jesus allows others to point Him out so that they can find happiness and joy.  May we show off Jesus by what we do and what we say.

Mistaken for the Father

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

            It’s a pretty common occurrence, I think, that happens to many young men and women during adolescence.  It has certainly happened to me a number of times.  The phone rings.  “Hello?”  “Hi Rob, how you doing?”  “Actually this is Anthony.”  “Oh, sorry, you sound just like your dad!”  I know it also happened a at least a few times with my sisters picking up the phone, and the person on the other line thinking it was my mom.  While it can be frustrating for the young man or woman, there is a certain fittingness to the fact that the child sounds like his or her parent.

             As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord today, we notice a similar series of events taking shape, albeit without the telephone, in our readings.  As we listen to the words of the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading, we hear God the Father promising to send a servant who will bring justice to the nations.  The servant will open the eyes of the blind, bring out prisoners from confinement, and bring those in darkness out from the dungeon.  This servant will be one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, and with whom God the Father is pleased.

            To those who had ears to hear and eyes to see at the Jordan River, to those who had remembered this passage from Isaiah, Jesus’ baptism would have been a jaw-dropping moment.  Because just as Jesus came up from the water, the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove, came upon Jesus, and a voice from heaven said, “‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”  The prophecy from Isaiah was fulfilled in their hearing, and it is reaffirmed for us in our hearing today. 

But if you notice, God does not simply fulfill the prophecy.  No, he goes beyond its fulfillment.  He does not simply send the Spirit upon Jesus in a nebulous, invisible form, but allows the Spirit to take the form of a dove, so that all might see it.  And Jesus is not just the servant with whom the Lord is pleased, but Jesus is the servant who is the beloved Son of God, with whom God the Father is well pleased.  God’s abundant love is seen here, going beyond what the Chosen People were taught to hope for.  God outdoes His own promises, out of love for the people He has made His own.  And Jesus’ public ministry, the proof that He is the servant and Son of God, is Jesus opening the eyes of the blind, freeing prisoners from the slavery of sin, and bringing the light of truth and grace to those who were kept in.

Brothers and sisters, if we have been baptized, then we have been joined to the Body of Christ, and this prophecy, which was fulfilled in its fullest form in Jesus, also is meant to speak of us.  If Christ is the Son and servant of God who is called to open the eyes of the blind, free prisoners, and bring light to those in darkness, and if we are members of the Body of Christ, the Church, through our baptism, then we are also called to do the same.  When people hear our voices, they should hear the voice of Christ, the revelation of the Father; when they see our good deeds, they should see Christ present, and in seeing Christ, know of the Father’s love in action; when they hear us proclaiming the Gospel, and telling people to repent and believe because the Kingdom of God is at hand, they should recognize Christ, and in recognizing Christ recognize the Father, because Jesus is the manifestation of the Father in the world.

It is as if we were on the telephone, and because we are so like Christ, who is the full revelation of the Father, people mistake us for the Father’s beloved Son, not by the treble of our voice, or by the way we look physically, but because we are continuing the proclamation of the Good News: that God loves us so much, that He sent His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life.  Just as can happen with young men and women on the telephone, people should confuse us for Jesus when they come into contact with us because of our devotion as disciples to the Master.

Now, certainly this is a tall order.  But you have what it takes.  It is not limited to a particular race, gender, or those with good speaking abilities, or priests, or religious.  No, as St. Peter said in the second reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, “‘God shows no partiality.  Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.’”  We have the ability because we were baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, and we have a fountain of graces, ready to flow, if only we would accept it, and let it flow, rather than blocking it by embarrassment of seeming “extreme;” by false humility of thinking, “I can’t spread the Gospel because I don’t know enough;” or by sin which separates us from God.  Certainly we do have to work at presenting the truth of the Gospel in Love, and we must know Him about whom we preach, and all of us need to return to the Lord for forgiveness for those times when we have fallen into sin, but God has already given us all we need to spread the Gospel to all nations, so that they can be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and become members of the Body of Christ, and co-heirs of eternal life. 

We have a mandate from our Lord to preach the Gospel to all nations, and we must use both our words and actions.  We cannot hide behind an alleged saying of St. Francis that we only need to act.  We need both words and deeds, so that when people hear our words proclaiming Jesus as Lord by what we say and how we say it; so that when people see our kind deeds to the least brothers and sisters of the Lord by the actions of our daily lives, they do not see us so much, as see Christ.  I pray that all of us, by the graces given to us in our baptism, are so like Christ, that we can be known as the continuation of the His ministry, the manifestation of the Father’s love, even more than, when the kids are at their parents home, they can be confused over the phone for their parents.