The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

OK, admit it.  When you come to mass and you see that there's a choice between a long reading and a short reading, you hope that we use the short one.  Even though the longer reading may only take a minute more to read, there's just something about the shorter one that makes you feel just a little better.  So, I picked the shorter second  reading today, just for you.  The bad news is that I want to talk about the part that we didn't read, so I'm going to have to give you the Reader's Digest version.

Paul's point in this particular passage is that we're all part of one body, the Church.  The part we left out is where he talks about the various parts of the body and how they all have to work together.  "If a foot should say 'Because I'm not a hand I don't belong to the body', that doesn't make it any less a part of the body."  He goes on to talk about some other body parts including some that seem to be weaker and some parts that we consider less honorable, and some parts that are less presentable, that we usually cover up.  At least we covered them up in Paul's day.  Today, sometimes not so much.

Sometimes, when we don't like somebody very much, or if somebody makes us mad, we might call them one of those less presentable body parts.  C'mon.  You know which ones I mean.  Sometimes, in a fit of anger, we might stick an adjective in front of a body part and call someone a name like dumb head, or something more colorful.  I could be more descriptive, but I think you get the point.  And, we ARE in church.

The thing is that when we talk about the "Body of Christ", we're talking about His Church.  And if the Church is a body, then you and I must be parts of that body.  And it takes all the parts to make the body work the way it's supposed to.  It goes without saying that Jesus is the head.  He's also the heart.  We may think of ourselves as the eyes and ears of the Church.  Some may think they're the mouth.  We know that some of us are the hands, but some of us are also the feet.  The thing is that none of us, you and me, are more important than anyone else.

This little book is called the Ordo.  The Ordo lists the readings for every day's mass and Liturgy of the Hours.  It gives a short, very short, summary of the day's mass readings, what the color is for the day, and a lot of other stuff.  On the other side, it lists all the bishops, priests, and deacons in the Archdiocese who have been called home along with the date of their death.  Page after page of men who had received the sacrament of Holy Orders, who had been chosen to serve the Church in a leadership role, but in the end they're just names in a book.  Whether they were a Cardinal or a deacon, whether they served fifty years or fifty days, every listing is exactly the same.

Why do we need such a list?  Because death doesn't break up a family.  Uncle Bob is still Uncle Bob, even when he leaves this world. The listing in the Ordo reminds us of our clergy who have gone on.  It reminds us to pray for them, just like they're praying for us.   When we pass into the next life, all of us will have our names written in the Book of Life for our parish, which we bring out and display every November.  It's another reminder that we're all part of the same body.

So, what's it all mean?  Remember I said a couple of weeks ago that we're all baptized in the same water that Jesus was baptized in?  It's that common baptism, along with our sharing in the bread and wine, transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ at the Lord's table that unites all of us.  You and I are just as connected to a Catholic on the other side of the world as we are to the person sitting next to us.  When one of us is cut, we all bleed.  That's just the way it is.  That's why we respond so generously when someone is in need.  That's why Catholic Charities is collecting millions of dollars to help the people of Haiti.  They're our brothers and sisters.

What Jesus is telling us today, through the words of Saint Paul, is that we share a common bond that's not just of this world, not just for a short time, but for all eternity.

Yesterday (Friday) was the anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court ruling in the case of Roe vs. Wade in 1973.  It's an annual reminder of the millions of unborn children who have been murdered in the United States over the last thirty seven years.  Roughly 1.4 million unborn babies are killed each year, just in the United States.  We tend to think of abortion as an American problem, but  there are at least 15 million abortions each year world wide, probably more than that.

The world was outraged, and still is outraged, over the death of six million Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis in World War II.  We call it the holocaust.  In the early 1930s, between three and ten million Ukranians were starved to death by Joseph Stalin.  There was plenty of food available, but the Communist government was exporting it to pay their bills, leaving the people who grew the food to die of starvation.  The British did something similar to the Irish in the 1840s.  There aren't very good records of births and deaths during that time, but the best guess is that a million to a million and a half Irish lost their lives.  Another million uprooted their families and moved away.

During the 1960s and '70s, something like a million and a half Chinese were killed by Mao Tse Dung's troops during the so-called Cultural Revolution.  As tragic as these four events were, all four together resulted in about the same number of deaths that take place in just one year on the abortionists' tables worldwide.  Even the most pessimistic estimates of the death toll in Haiti amounts to just a few days work for the abortionists.

Why do we care about any of this?  I think you know why.  We are followers of Christ and we are all one body.  Each of us loses a little bit whenever one of us dies.  Whether it's a Jew executed by the Nazis, a family crushed by a falling building in Haiti, or an innocent life snuffed out by an abortion half way around the world.

Nazi Germany is long gone.  The atrocities in the Ukraine happened eighty years ago.  There's nothing we can do about that.  There's also nothing we can do to prevent an earthquake.  All we can do is support the victims with our money and our prayers.   But we have to take a stand for all human life, right here and right now.  As Catholics and as citizens of the greatest country in the world, we owe it to our brothers and sisters, our fellow body parts, to do all we can to protect their lives.  None of us would just sit calmly while someone tried to cut off our leg.  How can we ignore it when someone destroys a part of the Body of Christ?

There are still atrocities being committed by despotic governments all over the world.  People are being killed for daring to challenge their governments.  There are still wars being fought, two of them involving the United States.  There are people getting on airplanes with bombs in their underpants, hoping to kill Americans and others, along with themselves.  People are starving all over the world, including right here in the United States, even here in Saint Louis.  And the abortions go on and on.

You and I don't have the time, the talent, or the treasure to fix everything that's wrong with the world.  We all do the best we can with what we have. Most of us aren't going to get on a plane and fly to Haiti, even if we'd like too.  Most of us aren't going to go to Washington DC to join the pro-life march.  We won't even protest at the local abortion clinic.  We don't have the time, or it's just not our style.

But we do have time to pray.  And we should pray, and pray hard, every day for all human life.  We should flood heaven with our prayers for every one of our fellow human beings.  That's a lot to pray for, but God will hear us, and He will answer us.  We just can't let up because we ARE one body.

The Baptism of the Lord

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord by John the Baptist. We've heard the story lots of times. John's baptizing at the river and Jesus gets in line along with everyone else. But, why? He was the Son of God. He came down from heaven and would soon go back. Why did He need to baptized? The answer is that He didn't. Jesus didn't need to be baptized, but you and I needed Him to be baptized. Saint Maximus of Turin, one of the Church Fathers, wrote "Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy."

If you remember your grade school science you know that water evaporates, forms clouds, and returns to earth. The cycle repeats itself over and over. The wind blows the clouds so that the water that evaporates in one place comes down somewhere else. Eventually every drop of water on earth is connected to every other drop. When Jesus made the water of the Jordan holy, he made all water holy.

Obviously Jesus thought baptism was very important. In John's Gospel He said, "Unless a man is reborn in water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." In Matthew's Gospel he tells the Apostles, "Go, make disciples of all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Baptism is our response to Christ.

Here's what the Church says about the three sacraments of initiation, baptism, confirmation, and first communion, straight from the baptism rite.: "Through the sacraments of Christian initiation men and women are freed from the power of darkness. With Christ they die, are buried, and rise again." Notice it says "with Christ." Just like Maximus said, Jesus had to be baptized first. "They receive the Spirit of adoption which makes them God's sons and daughters and, with the entire people of God, they celebrate the memorial of the Lord's death and resurrection."

Here's what the book says specifically about baptism: "Through baptism men and women are incorporated into Christ. They are formed into God's people, and they obtain forgiveness of all their sins. They are raised from their natural human condition to the dignity of adopted children. They become a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit. Hence they are called, and are indeed, the children of God."

Jesus died and rose from the dead to defeat death, to save all of us from our sins. But what He does today makes it possible for us individually to be one of his people. Baptism is the beginning of our journey of faith. Jesus' seemingly unnecessary decision to be baptized by John, someone "not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals", is actually the beginning of OUR journey of faith.

Personally I was baptized at the age of twenty so I do remember receiving the sacrament, especially how hard it was for my godfather to hold me over the baptismal font. But for most of us, christened as babies, it's good that we celebrate today to remind us of the promises our parents made for us. This is what we ask the parents who present their child for the sacrament. "You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him up to keep God's commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking? At this point the parents answer, "We do."
Then we ask the godparents if they're ready to help the parents in their duty as Christian parents. They answer "We do." Then the deacon or the priest says "The Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In its name I claim you for Christ our Savior by the sign of the cross on your forehead, and invite your parents and godparents to do the same."

Then we have a reading or two, maybe a homily, some prayers and then the actual baptism. But before we bring out the water, we ask the parents to renounce sin and to renew their own baptismal promises. We tell the parents, "On your part, you must make it your constant care to bring her up in the practice of the faith. See that the divine life which God gives her is kept safe from the poison of sin, to grow always stronger in her heart.

"If your faith makes you ready to accept this responsibility, renew now the vows of your own baptism. Reject sin; profess your faith in Jesus Christ. This is the faith of the Church. This is the faith in which this child is about to be baptized."
Then the baptism takes place, we say a couple of more prayers, the family takes a lot of pictures then everyone adjourns for a nice lunch.

Even if you don't remember your own baptism, you probably remember your kids' or your grandkids'. Maybe you've been a godparent a time or two. So you're probably wondering why I'm giving you this baptismal instruction. As usual, I'm taking the scenic route to make a point. Also, I want to make a disclaimer. If I've baptized your child and you're sitting here in church today, what I'm about to say doesn't apply to you. You get it. You're following up on the promises you made that day for yourself and your baby. Congratulations!

But often, too often, after the baby is baptized, after the parents and godparents have said they clearly understand what they're undertaking; after they promise to raise him or her in the faith, after everyone has renewed their baptismal promises, WE NEVER SEE ANY OF THEM AGAIN! Like I said, there are a lot of exceptions which give all of us hope. And sometimes we baptize kids whose grandparents are in the parish but who live somewhere else. They want to have the kids baptized in their home parish. My son and daughter-in-law are in that group. I've baptized my two grandkids here, but their parish is in O'fallon, MO. It's understandable that that happens sometimes. I'm not talking about them either.

The point I'm trying to make is this: Baptism is a big deal. It's a big enough deal that Jesus had Himself baptized, even though He didn't really need it. He did it for us. But too many of us don't take it seriously. A lot of babies get baptized because the grandparents insist on it, even if mom and dad haven't seen the inside of a church since their wedding day, if then.

Some parents don't really have a clue of why they're doing it, but they know that they were baptized, and their friends kids are getting baptized, so they'd better call the church. After all, christening pictures are always cute and they don't want to be left out. A lot of the time they're more interested in what the baby's going to wear, sometimes something really old that they wore for their own baptism, what they're going to have for lunch, and those all-important pictures.

The Church says that parents are the first and most important teachers and I agree with that 100%. It's up to us to bring our kids up in the faith. As a lot of us know, we aren't always successful. Sometimes they go their own way. Then it's up to us to pray them back. But I promise, if we don't lead them by our example, taking them to mass every Sunday, taking them to PSR or Catholic school, if we don't pray with them and for them, then our chances of success are a big, fat zero.

But, even if they are no small people in your life, it's good to remember our own baptismal promises. To remember that we rejected Satan and all his works and empty promises. It's good to think about the words of the Creed that we'll recite in just a few minutes. Not to just recite it along with everyone else, but to actually think about what we're saying.

We're talking about our immortal souls and the immortal souls of our children. Jesus did much more than His share to save us, but we have to do our part, too. Remember what God the Father said in today's Gospel. "You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased." I don't know about you, bit I'd like to hear those words myself when I meet Him face to face.