Welcome to the Church Isabella Josephine Buckley

I told Mike and Jen and Kent and Kellie that this is going to be a little harder than most baptisms. As a minister of the Church, I want to treat all three babies and all the parent and grandparents equally. You shouldn’t expect anything less. On the other hand, one of the babies is my only granddaughter. I’ve never done a baptism quite as special as this one before.

Hopefully you’ll all be patient with me if I seem to be a little partial.

Now that that’s out of the way, I hope the grownups will excuse me for a minute while I talk to my granddaughter. Keighlen and Kuhlen, I want you to listen to this too.

I’ll bet you’re wondering what we’re doing here. Why am I all dressed up? Why are all these people here? Why’s my grandpa wearing a dress? What’s the deal?

What we’re doing here today is called Baptism. In a few minutes, you and Keiglhen and Kuhlen are going to be baptized. I’m going to put oil on your chests. Then I’m going to pour water on your heads. Then I’m going to put oil on your heads. It sounds funny, but there’s a good reason.

See, a long, long time ago, there were two people. They were the first two people, Adam and Eve. God had made them and let them live in paradise. It was beautiful. There were lots of trees and animals and plenty to eat. God gave them one rule, leave just one tree alone. They could eat the fruit from every other tree, but not that one. Guess what? The devil pretended to be a snake and tricked them into eating the fruit from that one tree.

Because God had told them to leave that one tree alone, He really got mad when he found out what they’d done. It was the first time one of us disobeyed God so we call it original sin.

Since Adam and Eve were the first people, all of us inherit original sin when we’re born, even you. What we’re doing today is getting rid of that original sin. We’re going to wash it away. That’s why I’m going to pour water on your heads.

A long time ago, God saw that things had pretty much gone down hill ever since He threw Adam and Eve out of paradise. People just weren’t acting very nice. We had piled lots of our own sins on top of the original sin of Adam and Eve. But God loves us, even when we’re not good. He decided to send His Son down here from heaven to save us from ourselves. God’s son’s name is Jesus.

Jesus could have just shown up as a grown up. He was God. He could do that. But God thought it was important that Jesus be just like us, except that He never sinned. So Jesus came as a little baby, just like you. God wanted Him to live in a family, just like you and mom and dad, and to grow up just like we all do.

Jesus did grow up just like you’re going to grow up. His mom, Mary and his step-dad, Joseph loved Him very much. Unfortunately, Jesus had to die for our sins. They took Him and nailed Him on a cross. That’s Him up there. But, He had the last laugh. Three days after He died, his friends went looking for Him in the tomb and he was gone! He had risen from the dead! He beat death so you, and I and Keighlen and Kuhlen and everybody who believes in Him can beat death too.

In the reading I just read, Jesus was talking to the people when a lot of little kids were trying to get His attention. It won’t be long until you’ll be doing the same thing. You’ll be tugging on mom or dad’s leg going “Mommy, mommy, mommy” or “daddy, daddy, daddy”. That’s what little kids do. Jesus’ friends didn’t want the kids bothering Jesus and tried to make them stop. But, Jesus got mad at his friends and said, “Leave them alone. The kingdom of God (that’s heaven) belongs to such as these. Whoever doesn’t accept the Kingdom of God like a child won’t enter it.” Then he hugged the kids and gave them a blessing.

Jesus knew that the time when we’re most ready to go to heaven is when we’re little, because we haven’t learned how to sin yet. As you grow up, you’re going to learn so many things. Most of them are wonderful things like how to walk and talk and how to read and write. You’re going to learn how to jump rope and kick a ball and you’re going to learn about Big Bird, and Bert and Ernie (Ernie was your dad’s favorite).

But, you’re going to learn about bad things, too. It’s mom and dad’s job to protect you from that stuff, but no matter how hard they try, bad stuff is going to get through. It’s everywhere. It’s on TV. It’s in movies. When you get older and start to school, you’re going to learn about bad stuff from the other kids.

People will try to convince you that it’s ok to sin. They’ll make fun of you for wanting to do the right thing. Everybody that’s here today will be praying that all three of you make the right choices. Your Baptism, and later on your Confirmation will help you do that.

Mom and dad just aren’t going to be able to keep all the bad stuff away without help. Your grandparents will help. Your aunts and uncles and cousins will help. Your godparents will also help. In fact, in just a few minutes, they’re going to get up in front of all these people, and in front of Jesus, and promise to be there when you need them.

When you start school, especially if you go to a Catholic school, your teachers will help. Everybody who loves you will try to keep sin away. But it’s such a big job, we just can’t do it by ourselves. That’s why we need Jesus. He promised He’d be here to help us if we just ask Him. You can always depend on Jesus, even when you can’t depend on anybody else. Sometimes mom and dad will make mistakes. Izzy, ask dad sometime how many mistakes your grandpa made when he was growing up. Make sure you’ve got lots of time when you ask him because grandpa messed up a lot.

No matter how much we love you, we’re just people and we can’t fight off sin without God’s help. When you get older, after you’ve started to school, you’re going to start getting ready for what’s called “First Communion.” Communion is Jesus’ Body and Blood. I know it sounds kind of icky, but during mass the priest turns bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood. Jesus said that unless we eat His Body and drink His Blood we have no life in us. We need to do that so that Jesus is part of us. That way, even if the people who love you can’t keep sin away, you’re protected by having Jesus really be part of you.

I guess we’d better get back to all your company and get on with the baptism. It’s a really important day for all three of you. Thank you for letting me be the one to pour the water on your heads.

I just want you to remember one thing. Mom and dad will get older really fast. One day they’re here, having you baptized and the next thing you know, they’re going to be watching you get married and then watching you have your baby baptized. You won’t know where the time went. So, enjoy ‘em while they’re young.

Holy Trinity

One day St. Augustine was walking on a beach near the ocean, thinking about how he was going to explain the Trinity to his congregation. As he walked along, trying to understand it himself, he saw a little boy running back and forth between the water and a hole he had dug in the sand. He had a little pail and he was dumping water from the ocean into the hole.

Augustine watched him for a little while and finally asked him what he was doing.

The boy said to him, “I’m going to empty the ocean into this hole I dug.” Augustine laughed and said that that was impossible.

The boy stopped, looked at the future saint and said, “I’ve got a better chance of emptying the ocean into this hole than you have of understanding or explaining the Trinity.”

If you’ve read any of his work, you know that Augustine was a lot smarter than I am and in this case, the little boy on the beach was smarter than either one of us. If you understand that you can’t understand the trinity, then you understand the trinity.

One God: three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How can that be?
How can Jesus take the form of bread and wine?
How could He change water into wine?
How could He raise others and then himself from the dead?
They’re called mysteries. We believe them because we have faith in God, .….…….all three of Him.
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Do you understand why airplanes fly? I’ve studied it and I know the principles involved, but have you ever looked at an airplane and wondered how it can travel through the air without falling? Commercial planes weigh thousands of pounds. They carry thousands of pounds of people and cargo. Yet they travel through the air, and the air holds them up. How can that be?

Even if we don’t understand it, we believe it. Thousands of planes take off and land every day and they virtually never fall out of the sky. They may run into one another or run into a mountain once in a while, but they don’t just fall out of the sky. When we get on a plane, we have faith.

We have faith in the airline. We have faith in Boeing or whoever made the plane. We have faith in the pilot. We have faith in the mechanics who maintain the plane, even though we don’t see them or know who they are. Nowadays, we have faith in the TSA employees who screen the passengers and the baggage before they get on the plane. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t leave the ground.

If it’s possible for us to put that much faith into human beings who we don’t know, and often don’t see, why is it so hard for some people to have faith in God? We have faith in the plane because we see planes flying all the time. But, don’t we see God’s work all the time too? As Catholics, he’s present to us all the time, especially in the sacraments, especially in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Two weeks ago, Archbishop Burke ordained four men to be priests for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit empowers them, as He empowers all priests, to turn ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. He also empowers them to forgive sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. Before Ordination, they couldn’t do either one. Now they can. That’s the working of the Holy Spirit.

One week ago, the Archbishop ordained eight men to the permanent diaconate. Again, he laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. In the case of the new deacons, they still can’t turn bread and wine into anything other than what it is, and they can’t forgive sins. Deacons receive the Spirit to enable them to perform special services for the people of God. If you’ve got an hour or two, I’ll tell you some stories of things that have happened to me in the last four years the I can’t explain except that it was the Spirit working through me. Priests are ministers of the Eucharist. Deacons are ministers of service. The Holy Spirit works in and through each of them in a different way.

Of course, last Sunday was Pentecost when Jesus promised to send the Spirit to the Apostles. Remember He told them that He had much more to tell them but that they couldn’t bear it now. Their human minds just couldn’t handle it. Like Jack Nicholson said, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth! But the Spirit would guide them to all truth. That was the beginning of our Church. Considering the mess we humans have tried to make of things for the last 200 centuries, there’s no doubt that the Holy Spirit is watching over the Church or it wouldn’t have survived.

This morning Father Gary will administer the Sacrament of the Sick to members of our parish. He’ll anoint each person with the oil of the sick. On Holy Thursday, when the Archbishop blessed the Holy Oils for each parish, he asked God to “send the power of your Holy Spirit, the Consoler, into this precious oil….” As Father anoints each person, he’ll say, “Through this holy anointing, may the Lord in His love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit will then work within each person who’s anointed. Notice that the prayer isn’t to make the person well. The prayer asks for help. And, through the Holy Spirit, each person will be helped. Some of us will get better. Some of us will receive additional grace to deal with our illnesses. Some will experience a peaceful death. But ALL will be helped.

This morning after 10:30 mass, we’ll see the Spirit work in another way. We’ll be baptizing three infants. One happens to be my granddaughter. If you’re interested, I have pictures. Next week, I’ll have more. The other two babies are her cousins. All three will be welcomed into the Church as they begin their faith journeys.

As I prepare the water for Baptism, I’ll praise “God, the Holy Spirit for you anointed Christ in His baptism at the waters of the Jordan, so that we might all be baptized in you.”

The Holy Spirit anointed Christ in His baptism, and He anointed each of us in our baptisms. In one day here at St. Bernadette, we’ll invoke the Holy Spirit for those who are just starting their earthly lives and for those of us who are closer to the end than to the beginning. The Spirit works in us all the time. Sometimes we let him in, sometimes we don’t. If it looks like the Spirit isn’t working in our lives, don’t blame Him. He’s always there. Sometimes, we just won’t cooperate.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus called on the Apostles to go and make disciples of all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

The Apostles followed Jesus’ instructions, and we still follow them today.

In the second reading, Paul wrote to the Romans that “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” He says that we’re children of God and since we’re children of God, the Father, then we must be brothers of Christ, the Son. How? Through the working of the Holy Spirit.

We were created by God the Father. He made the world and everything in it. When we made a mess of things, He sent His Son to live as one of us, to suffer and to die for our sins. Rather than leave us to fend for ourselves until He comes back, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Advocate who works in us in strange and wonderful ways.

Of course, the most wonderful way of all is through the Eucharist. In just a few minutes, with the blessing of God the Father, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Father Gary will turn bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Son, Jesus Christ. And, by receiving Him in the Eucharist, each of us will be energized to go out into the secular world. Like He said, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” That’s why we believe that we should receive Christ in the Eucharist as often as we can.

One God, three persons. IT IS impossible to explain, but then how do you explain God’s love? You can’t. It’s Infinite. It’s boundless. We have as much chance of fitting it Into our tiny human minds as that little boy had of pouring the ocean, one bucket at a time, into that hole on the beach.

Happy Anniversary to Me

It's hard to believe, but it was four years ago today that I was ordained as a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Much has happened in the last 48 months, most of it good. In fact, it's been far beyond my wildest expectations. The hardest thing is that I never feel like I've done enough. I always seem to get so much more out of my ministry than I give.

As mentioned earlier, this Sunday I'll baptize my first grandchild. What a day that's going to be! God has been very, very good to me.

Isabella's Baptism

This coming Sunday, following 10:30 mass, I will baptize my granddaughter, Isabella Josephine. I hesitate to blog on the subject because I'm really not capable of describing my emotions. If I were a poet I might be able to come up with the proper words. But I'm not a poet so the words just don't seem to be there.

I'm reminded of the words from George Strait's song, "Love Without End, Amen". He dreams he's died and gone to heaven and says, "If they know half the things I've done, they'll never let me in." That's pretty much how I feel most of the time.

Who am I to welcome my little granddaughter into the Church? But, I'm going to do it. I've done enough baptisms that I'm not concerned about the mechanics, but I am concerned about the emotions. Will I make it through without tears (mine, not her's)? Probably not. I sometimes break myself up when I preach on a regular Sunday.

But, if I do shed a tear, it will be a tear of joy. Mike and Jen tried very hard to have this child and she is very much loved, both by her parents and her grandparents and by her aunts and uncles. God has already blessed her just by allowing her to be born. I pray that she will have a long, holy, and happy life.

As a p.s. I have to mention Domenico Bettinelli's bettnet.com blog. He and his wife recently became parents for the first time and he chronicled many of the events in his blog. By coincidence, they named their little girl Isabella. By yet another coincidence, their Isabella will be baptized this Sunday too. As I say the prayers for our Isabella, I will be thinking of Dom and Melanie's Isabella as well.

I will post my mass homily for Sunday and the baptism homily here later this week.