Born to New Life

With the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, the Church officially ended the Christmas season.  For Jesus, this event at the River Jordan marked the beginning of his public ministry.  For us, in addition to the remission of original sin and the beginning of the new life of grace, Baptism is, in a real sense, the beginning of our “public ministry,” the acceptance of our commitment to live our faith and to bring Christ to the world in which we live—to become “missionaries” who share the message and gift we have received.

The texts in the Rite of Baptism are directed towards the role of parents as the primary educators in forming their children in the ways of faith.  Parents are reminded often during the ceremony of their responsibility to be living examples for their children.  Pope Benedict XVI, when baptizing twenty infants in the Sistine Chapel last Sunday, addressed the importance of their role.

Dear parents, in asking for Baptism for your children, you manifest and bear witness to your faith, to the joy of being a Christian and of belonging to the Church.

He continued:

The way of faith that begins today for these children is therefore based on a certainty, on the experience that there is nothing greater than to know Christ and to communicate friendship with Him to others; only in this friendship is the great potential of the human condition truly revealed and we can experience what is beautiful and what is free. Those who have this experience are not willing to give up their faith for anything in the world.

As you and I reflect on the meaning of our own Baptism and our commitment to communicate friendship with Jesus to others, we pray that this Year of Faith will be a time for us to grow in our faith and share it with those who, were it not for us, would never hear the message. 
-Rev. Rodney J. Copp, JCL