Preparing for Pentecost: 2nd Sunday of Easter

"I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, and proof of Mother Church's fruitfulness." St. Augustine

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Easter is more than a day. It is a season of Resurrection as the Church prepares for the Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian Church.

This is a wonderful time to read the Fathers of the Faith as they encourage, challenge, and call us to a deeper life in Christ. Listen to them as they speak to the Church from across the continuum of history.

During the Season of Easter, Catholic Online will be publishing a daily excerpt of the Fathers taken from the Office of Readings along with questions for reflection. We want to help our online community enter fully into the life and faith that is ours in the Church.

2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

Scripture: Colossians 3:1-17

Reading: From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop

St. Augustine, among the most famous bishops and prolific writers in the Church, was born in Western North Africa in 354 A.D. Although his father was a pagan, his mother, Monica, was a devout Christian. Augustine was marked and enrolled as a catechumen, raised with a Christian Education, but, due to illness and other issues, was never baptized.

His later academic success in Carthage and then in Milan, Italy drew him off his spiritual course. He fell into disbelief and an immoral lifestyle, even fathering a child out of wedlock. Through the prayers of his mother and the teaching of St. Ambrose, who became a mentor during his time in Milan, Augustine repented and was baptized a Christian.

He later became Bishop of Hippo in North Africa in 396, and dedicated himself to fighting the Manichaean teachings, which he had embraced earlier in his life, along with other heresies.

A New Creation in Christ

I speak to you who have just been reborn in baptism, my little children in Christ, you who are the new offspring of the Church, gift of the Father, and proof of Mother Church's fruitfulness.

All of you who stand fast in the Lord are a holy seed, a new colony of bees, the very flower of our ministry and fruit of our toil, my joy and my crown. It is the words of the Apostle that I address to you: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh and its desires, so that you may be clothed with the life of him whom you have put on in this sacrament.

You have all been clothed with Christ by your baptism in him. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Such is the power of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead. You have been buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that, as Christ has risen from the dead, you also may walk in newness of life.

You are walking now by faith, still on pilgrimage in a mortal body away from the Lord; but he to whom your steps are directed is himself the sure and certain way for you: Jesus Christ, who for our sake became man. For all who fear him he has stored up abundant happiness, which he will reveal to those who hope in him, bringing it to completion when we have attained the reality which even now we possess in hope.

This is the octave day of your new birth. Today is fulfilled in you the sign of faith that was prefigured in the Old Testament by the circumcision of the flesh on the eighth day after birth. When the Lord rose from the dead, he put off the mortality of the flesh; his risen body was still the same body, but it was no longer subject to death. By his resurrection he consecrated Sunday, or the Lord's day. Though the third after his passion, this day is the eighth after the Sabbath, and thus also the first day of the week.

And so your own hope of resurrection, though not yet realized, is sure and certain, because you have received the sacrament or sign of this reality, and have been given the pledge of the Spirit. If, then, you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory."

Reflection:

1) There is a great deal of difference between being baptized and living out our baptism. It is the latter to which St. Augustine addresses himself in this sermon.

There are words spoken on the Octave of Easter to those who have just encountered the waters of baptism concerning the life they are now called to live.

He reminds us of the words of St. Paul, "make no provision for the flesh and its desires..."

What battles do you face with the flesh and how can you cooperate with God's grace by not making provision for these desires to take have a place in your life?

2) Think about the life of Augustine and the depths he sank before he was raised to new life in the waters of baptism.

What impact do you think his life had upon his teaching concerning the importance of the sacrament?

The next time you enter the Nave for Mass, place your fingers in the Holy Water and make the sign of the cross, think about St. Augustine's miraculous conversion.

The same grace is working in you!

Prayer:

Father, may we never take the wondrous Sacrament of Baptism for granted. Help us to always walk aware of your presence and resurrection power at work in us. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who together with you and the Holy Spirit worshipped and glorified. Amen.

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