This Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is the perfect opportunity at the beginning of a new year for all of us to stop and reflect a little bit on our own Baptism. Most of us don't remember it. But we were brought into Church, this one, or wherever. Our Parents and godparents stood up for us and said, this Child will be raised in the faith, this child will be taught what we believe and will live their life as a child of God. And then the water was poured over our head.
It's come into vogue recently to return to the early Church practice of full immersion for Baptism - a lot of Church's now have a holy hot tub in the back somewhere and the child is fully submerged in water to be Baptized. Some Church's at every Baptism even have their own Lion King presentation of Simba moment when the pastor holds up this wet naked baby for everyone to see. That ain't happening here I can assure you.
But the notion of being submerged at Baptism is important. Because we are covered in Christ at that moment - we are completely washed clean of sin - it's not just a trickle, not just a little bit of our head, but all of us is completely washed clean and we become children of God with all that we are.
But too easily we lose connection with that moment - we forget that our Baptism is supposed to be continually unfolded throughout of lives. That even though it happened eons ago, we are still a child of God - and we need to be living our lives that way.
In a few moments we will again make those Baptismal promises - no one makes them for us, we make them for ourselves. Don't just go through the motions - listen to what I ask, and make sure you mean your response. This is not a blah blah blah blah blah moment - it actually matters. Let's put on our big boy pants, and really mean what we say.
Look at your life - are you still fully immersed in Christ? Are you still fully committed to Him and what he calls you to do? I have to ask myself the same questions too. It's ok to struggle in our lives as Catholics, to struggle to live out the faith in the world. But what's not ok is to do it half heartedly. This takes all that we are. And yes it's hard work, and yes rejecting evil in our lives and living for God is difficult - but it's who we are - it can't just be an option in our lives, our faith needs to be at the center.
Let's reconnect with our Baptism, lets wake up and pay attention to these promises we are about to renew this morning, and let's pray for the grace to live out those promises in our daily lives. God help us all. +
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