Dear Parishioners:
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The Christmas season officially ends today. We set aside for another year the Christmas carols and put away nativity sets in our homes and churches. Likewise, the Christmas trees and poinsettia plants are removed from Church. With the Baptism of the Lord, we begin the liturgical season known as Ordinary Time. We again wear green vestments, and the Church's decorations are simpler.
Tradition held that Christmastide ended on February 2nd, Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The Presentation is also known as the Purification of Mary. It commemorates the occasion when the Blessed Virgin Mary, in obedience to Jewish law, went to the Temple in Jerusalem to be purified 40 days after the birth of her Son, Jesus, and to present him to God.
The Baptism of the Lord is the occasion when the Trinity is revealed—the Son makes himself known, the Father speaks, and the Holy Spirit descends. This mystery, the mystery of the Trinity, brings the revelations of the holy season of Christmas to their fulfillment. As Catholics, we do not believe God is merely an idea in our mind or a projection of our best self. God is not for us some unknown and unknowable force in the universe or a feeling in our heart. The one true God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ as the Trinity—the mysterious communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a communion of Divine Love "in which we live and move and have our being."
This Divine Love brought all into existence, and because of Christ, it is to this Divine Love that we will all one day return. Since most of us were baptized as infants, today's Feast can be an occasion to recall our Baptism and reflect upon that day when life changed forever. Today, we offer prayers and gratitude for those who led us to the font of Baptism, our parents and godparents.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI once spoke to the parents of the infants he was about to baptize. He said: "What happens in the Baptism that I shall shortly be administering to your children? Exactly this: they will be deeply united with Jesus forever, immersed in the mystery of his power, of his might, namely, in the mystery of his death which is a source of life so as to share in his resurrection, to be reborn to new life. In receiving Baptism they are reborn as children of God who share in the filial relationship that Jesus has with the Father, in other words, who can address God, calling him with full confidence and trust: 'Abba, Father'."
For most of us, our Baptism happened so long ago when we were infants and we have mostly forgotten about it. In our minds, our Baptism happened once rather than something that defines us now. This thinking is why Pope Francis, a few years ago, asked all Catholics on the Feast of the Lord's Baptism to "ask about the date of your Baptism. That way you can bear in mind that most beautiful day of Baptism. To know the date of our Baptism is to know a blessed day. The danger of not knowing it is losing awareness of what the Lord has done in us, the memory of the gift we have received."
For all of us who have forgotten the gift we have received at Baptism and find that our lives lack meaning, it is time to rediscover the clarity and purpose of who we became on the day we were baptized. On the day we were baptized, we received a vocation from God, a unique calling to undertake in life, a special mission to accomplish. In the words of Saint John Henry Newman: "God has created me to do Him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission."
Indeed every one of us and every baptized person can make these words their own. So that we might accomplish that mission, God has given us a variety of gifts to enrich the life of the Church and the world. As we celebrate this Feast and recall our Baptism, we might ask ourselves how well we live out our vocation as a baptized Catholic.
We thank the Hill Funeral Home for their generous sponsorship of our parish calendar. They have been left out at the doors of the church, please take one home with you. Hopefully, 2022 might be a healthier and happier year for the world! Be well. Do good. God Bless. Go Pats!