Homily Notes, 07-04-21 - Baptism

 07-04-21

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

“You, too, must think of yourselves as dead to sin and alive unto God...”

Today Saint Paul tells us about the most fundamental and first sacrament: Baptism. 

In order to receive any other sacrament, we have to receive baptism first. Baptism is not the most important, the Eucharist is the most important, and yet baptism is the most necessary. One cannot go to heaven without baptism, or at least the desire of it.

It’s important for us to remember what we received in our baptism and what God does for us even now, and especially what Paul talks about in his epistle today. In Paul’s epistles he’s writing to us, he writes for us. Baptism removes original sin and gives grace to our soul. 

Why? How? By burying us to sin.

We are no longer guilty of sin because of Christ, because of the life given to us in our souls. Christ’s death is applied to us through our baptism: it as though we died with him on the cross and rose to a new life of resurrection. 

Sometimes we fall into a trap thinking that we can never deserve Heaven. It’s true that without baptism there would be no way to erase our sins — Christ died on the cross to make heaven possible for us. It’s true that we can’t deserve it on our own, only through Christ we can receive grace and then heaven. We were washed in Christ’s blood, baptized in his blood. 

The life of grace in the soul is a life we can’t imagine because God lives in the soul; it’s incomprehensible to us, we can’t fully understand it. God living in our soul, giving it something it was not capable of before. Baptism elevates our soul to a supernatural level, a level beyond our natural powers. 

Life after baptism is God - to live after baptism is to live a life of God. Your whole life is consecrated to God and that’s all that matters. “For me, life means Christ.” - St. Paul. He took the grace of his baptism seriously and it animated every action in his life. We are called to the same sanctity. Every daily action is meant to make us a saint. The reward that we receive in heaven will be much greater than anything we can imagine. We take this on faith, believe in Our Lord, and let that effect our whole life. St. Paul talks about his suffering and how much he underwent for Christ’s sake, all the times he had to suffer, all for Christ. “To me, life is Christ.” What does that mean for us? We also have been baptized and are therefore called to live accordingly. 

This must influence the way that we pray: the purpose of our prayer is not for ourselves, but to honor God. Prayer is something we owe to God. We know that our prayers are heard by God and granted if they are truly good. Our prayers are not individual but include the prayers of the church. All of our prayers effect the whole church with grace. Our prayers of the liturgy are truly the prayers of Christ Himself and have the efficacy that Christ Himself would have. 

It must influence the way we act. We should always act in a way that preserves the grace in your soul, and helps others receive the same gift you have received. Often converts lament that they weren’t baptized at birth because so much time was wasted; they say they could have been baptized sooner and lived a life for God earlier. And yet so many who were baptized as infants have wasted that opportunity that God gave them! They often waste that gift, forgetting that it is a gift. God chose to give us that gift, but didn’t have to give it to us. So we have to ask ourselves: how effort do I put into pleasing God?

We can’t please God unless we know God, so we must study our faith. If we don’t study our faith then we won’t know God. We won’t recognize error. 

Not only study, but make time for silent prayer and meditation to ponder the mysteries of our Lord and to grow in knowledge of Him through prayer. Many prayers that we say come from Scripture, and yet we don’t take the time to think and ponder over them. Our prayer can be fostered with spiritual reading. 

When we take our own faith seriously, then how does God see us? How do others see us? What example are we setting? How do we act, speak, and dress? You are called to be a light to the world. “Do all that lies within you, never hesitating, to show yourselves children of God...” - St. Paul. We need to be beacons to the world. By example we lead others to Our Lord and lead others back to Christ. 

We are meant to be a light to the world, to shine out to the world. Ask St. Paul for the same zeal that he had, the zeal to live a life for Christ. 

We’re 6 months into the year. Have you kept your resolutions from the parish mission? If not, why not? How can you improve and be better? What about your penance and reolutions during Lent? Did you grow in virtue and good habit; do you still practice those good habits? Do you need to redeem them while they are still possible to redeem? 

Ask Our Lady for her generosity and the grace to always do the will of God as she did, no matter the cost and no matter the consequences.