Merry Christmas! With the conclusion of this Mass we come to the conclusion of our celebration of the Christmas season. We began our season of Christmas with Christ's birth into the world where the word was made flesh. Today we conclude this season with Christ entering into the waters of baptism. For all of us this event should seem odd and without a purpose. After all we have been rejoicing since the 25th of December at the reality that God desired to enter into the world to dwell with us. We know from our own experience of faith that we have been washed clean inside of the waters of baptism because we have inherited the effects of original sin upon our souls. Of course with Christ we have a being who is both fully human and fully divine. Here is found God Himself coming to dwell within the world and thus at the same time being free of the state of sin. With baptism we have a means to become clean, but Christ was not in need of reaching salvation through this means.
The Baptism of Christ is an event where Christ takes a step closer to our human experience. Inside of His baptism He was able to journey towards emptying Himself, being humiliated, and the reality of the Incarnation. The waters of baptism where a way for Christ to become poor because inside of these waters he would conform to our poverty. In these waters we are being shown our need to be purged from sin not by mere words, but by an example that has been shown to us. Christ appears inside the passage to be a sinner because He enters into the waters of baptism with sinners. Upon the wood of the cross He was also condemned as a sinner and would be left to hang until His death. From the death of Christ comes the Resurrection of the Body that brings great faith and hope into our lives. Baptism is this foreshadowing because Christ descended into these waters and walked out of them prepared to enter into His public ministry that would be brought into the world.
This day we call to mind our own baptisms and how through this event we were brought into the very life of the Church. We came to these waters feeling the effects that had been left behind through original sin and walked away from them transformed into a new person. As Saint Paul said to Titus: "we have been saved through the baptism of rebirth." The waters of our baptism have taken us away from the poverty of our own sinfulness and have aligned us to the hope that can be found within Christ's infinite mercy. Our act of baptism is not something that exists in the past, but is something that continues to effect us to this present moment. In sin is found the death of ourselves, but inside of baptism we are forever changed towards new life. The cross is the instrument through which all of our sinfulness had been sacrificed and from it came the hope of the Resurrection of the body that would triumph over death. Our own baptisms are a share inside of this reality.
According to an inscription that is found on a fourth century baptismal font we are told "that the waters received an old man, but brought forth a new man." Saint Augustine referred to the Sacrament of Baptism as being greater then the creation of the world itself. This is true because within these waters an infant is able to be cleansed of original sin and an adult is able to be cleansed of both original and personal sin. The effects that are brought into our lives through this sacrament allow us to return to the state that was lost through original sin. In baptism we are able to return to God and remain connected with Him. We are able to return to our relationship with God and enter into the spiritual life of the Church. Inside of the spiritual life of the Church flows each of the Sacraments into our lives where God desires that we will continually turn ourselves towards His love. With ourselves placed within the love of Christ we can find a way to triumph over the death of sin and arise anew within the light of Christ.
For each of us who are assembled here today that are united together through the reality of our baptism we must realize that we have entered into a gateway that leads us into the Christian life. Our primary goal within life should not be based upon racing after the many things of the world, but should be about finding a way to grow each day closer to Christ. We get caught up in our desire to make lots of money, to become successful in the eyes of the world, and following after all the pleasures of the world that are marketed to our senses. Through our baptism we are called to chase after holiness within our everyday lives instead of chasing after the pleasures of the world. The pursuit of holiness in not limited to priests, monks, and sisters, but is an invitation that has been brought into our lives through baptism. Baptism challenges us to come to understand and follow each of the ten commandments and the precepts of the Church. Learning and following after these things can truly liberate us from the many things that hold us captive and bring to the love that is found within God.
And so my dear brothers and sisters in Christ may we be renewed in the commitment that was made on the day of our baptisms. For on this day we joined Christ within these waters and arose from them with eyes opened from the state of sin and death. May we continue to follow this path that was begun in our lives by turning away from sin and towards Christ. May we allow ourselves to join with the poverty that was found with Christ within these waters because from them we are given the riches of everlasting life. May we depart from here not as mere spectators, but as individuals whose lives have been transformed and therefore forever challenging ourselves each day to live out this reality and to draw other people to it by our example.
No comments:
Post a Comment