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What Have You Done with Your Baptism? Fr Peter M. J. Stravinskas on the Baptism of the Lord

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My first experience of witnessing a baptism took place when I was in the third grade.

The baptism of Jesus, which we recall today, is given to us as an opportunity to reflect on our own baptism which, in most cases, took place many years ago and was also probably done for us by our parents and godparents.  What did baptism do for you? By living out our baptism to the full and wholeheartedly, salvation becomes a real and daily experience, bringing peace and fulfillment in this life and the assurance that we will hear at the end of our lives, the same message Jesus heard from the Father at the outset of His public ministry:  - You are my beloved son or daughter.  On you my favor rests.

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ROYERSFORD, PA. (Catholic Online) - My first experience of witnessing a baptism took place when I was in the third grade. 

I attended a large parish grammar school in Newark, New Jersey, in a neighborhood which was just beginning to attract blacks, most of whom were not Catholic.  However, a good number of those people recognized our schools as superior and asked to have their children admitted. 

In the third grade, one of our classmates and his entire family were received into the Church.  Ronald was baptized during the school day so that all his classmates could attend.  Immediately after the water was poured over his forehead, he blurted out in his still-fresh-from-the-South accent, "Ah feel bettah ahlready!"

Naturally, such a response brought out explosive laughter from all of us.  And also naturally, Sister Vera explained to us back in the classroom that although Ronald's exuberant acclamation was a little out of place, he surely did have the right idea.

The baptism of Jesus, which we recall today, is given to us as an opportunity to reflect on our own baptism which, in most cases, took place many years ago and was also probably done for us by our parents and godparents.  What did baptism do for you?

If you were baptized as an infant, the Church made a powerful statement of God's love for you by bringing you into a relationship of love with God long before you could even begin to return that love.  Original sin was removed, and you were accepted into the family of God, which is His Church. 

That first and most basic sacrament made you a Christian, a little Christ - called to share in Christ's three-fold mission as priest, prophet and king.

Some people have the mistaken notion that the very fact that at some past moment they were baptized provides an automatic guarantee of salvation.  Today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles should make them pause as they hear Peter remind his hearers that "God shows no partiality." 

Being a Jew or a Gentile means nothing in itself; just as being a Christian in itself means nothing.  What matters is that a person "fear God and act uprightly."  In other words, if we wish to claim that we belong to the company of the saved, we must act like saved people.

How does one act "saved"?  By doing God's will in one's life, by living as a member of the community of the Church -  faithful to one's baptismal promises - by worshiping God with the entire Christian community, by performing works of mercy, by "healing those in the grip of the devil," that is, by challenging our pagan culture to conform to the ways of Christ and His Gospel through the faithful witness of our lives.

Fifty years ago, that classmate of mine asserted that he "felt better already."  I have often wondered how he has lived out that first profession of faith in the power of the sacrament he had just received.

By living out our baptism to the full and wholeheartedly, salvation becomes a real and daily experience, bringing peace and fulfillment in this life and the assurance that we will hear at the end of our lives, the same message Jesus heard from the Father at the outset of His public ministry:  "You are my beloved son or daughter.  On you my favor rests."

When Pope John Paul II made his first pastoral visit to France in 1980, he addressed the nation as "France, eldest daughter of the Church."  Undoubtedly, that historic title for the first country to embrace the Catholic Faith made many Frenchmen swell with pride.  He then finished the sentence, "What have you done with your baptism?" 

Many French heads sank into their chests as the Pope not too subtly reminded them of the massive abandonment of Christian values in that country. 

John Paul's successor could ask the same question of most of the formerly Christian West, including our own nation: Indeed, you dear people here at Holy Mass this morning, what have you done with your baptism?

In just a brief moment, you will have an opportunity to renew your baptismal promises, making a firm commitment to live in total fidelity to them in grateful response to the grace first given you on that life-changing day of your baptism.  At the end of that ritual, I will pray on your behalf:

And may almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us new birth by water and the Holy Spirit and bestowed on us forgiveness of our sins, keep us by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord, for eternal life.

Amen.

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Rev. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D. is the Executive Director of the Catholic Education Foundation. The mission of  The Catholic Education Foundation is to serve as a forum through which teachers, administrators and all others interested in Catholic education can share ideas and practices, as well as to highlight successful programs and initiatives to bring about a recovery of Catholic education in our times.The Catholic Education Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)3 national non-profit organization formed to ensure a brighter future for Catholic education in the United States.

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We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

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