Here’s a hypothetical situation: You suddenly find out that you are not baptized even though you always thought that you were. What would you do? Would you panic? Would you reflect and say something like: “Well, I have gotten along quite nicely so far without being baptized. What difference does it make?” But then there is the nagging question: Isn’t Baptism like a “boarding pass” for heaven? Don’t we need it to get in and get a good seat? Well, today, we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the Baptist. I doubt very much that Jesus or John understood baptism to be a boarding pass to heaven. Rather, their understanding as is ours is that baptism is the time for us to believe and to change our behavior. To believe in God as He has revealed Himself and to change our behavior so that it conforms to what God expects of us. Here’s my personal analogy for baptism. I love to meld perfectly the small sliver of bar soap left from a large bar into a new bar so that the small sliver becomes perfectly grafted into the larger piece. It’s funny how little things can give us pleasure. Well, in baptism we are like the little sliver of soap that tries to be grafted to the larger piece, in this case Jesus himself. In baptism, we want to become one with Christ, one with his body, the Church. Without baptism, we retain original sin, the sin passed on to us from our first parents. Baptism removes that original sin and takes us from the water to the embrace of God our Father. Baptism is the moment when, like the small bar of soap, we become grafted to Jesus becoming part of his life that he shares with us. We think of baptism as a baby sacrament. We baptize infants because parents want for their children what is best for them, a relationship with Jesus. That bonding with Jesus needs nourishment. Baptism is a once in a lifetime event, but an event that needs constant attention. How do we nourish our baptism? It starts with the basics. Weekly participation in the Eucharist is necessary. Sunday worship is not an optional event for the Catholic Christian; it is rather the hallmark of the Catholic’s life. Nothing can be more important for a Catholic than regular Sunday Mass. Willfully missing Sunday Mass is stating that something else is more important than God in one’s life. Prayer is another essential element to nourish our faith. Without regular conversations with God in prayer, our faith life will be weak, and we end up depending only on ourselves, not a good option. When a couple presents a child for baptism, the child will be baptized in the faith of the parents since the child cannot express for himself his faith and the desire to avoid evil. If the parents have not been practicing their faith, the priest or deacon will remind them about their commitment to raise the child as a Catholic. After all, family is the place where children experience faith through the faith of their parents. So, the Baptism of Jesus displays his humanity. This celebration gives us the opportunity to review how we, as humans, are doing in our grafting with the Lord. Are we becoming one with Him, letting him lead, or are we going our own way without him? Tough questions requiring a personal response. This little prayer may help us understand how important it is for us to be one with Christ: |
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