Word to the Wise
Monday, April 28, 2014 - 2nd Week of Easter - Mon
[Acts 4:23-31 and John 3:1-8]Amen, amen I say to you, unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and hat is born of spirit is spirit.
When I was offered my first opportunity to preach a parish mission back around 1992, I accepted the offer but then I had to decide what I would say! I don't know why, except for the Holy Spirit, I chose baptism as the focus of the mission, and I have continued with that focus ever since. By that time, "parish missions," which were once a standard feature of Catholic parish life, had become less prominent. Some parishioners were unacquainted with them and others remembered the "old style" of mission that focused on sin, repentance, purgatory and hell fire and catechism! The importance of baptism lay in the fact that it had taken place at some point and did not have to be repeated. Original sin was taken away and nothing more needed to be done! So, baptism was pretty much taken for granted. For certain more aggressive Catholics, it meant that large numbers of people had no hope [anyone non-baptized], a teaching which the church explicitly rejected, even in pre-Vatican II days!
The first night of any of the parish missions I preach focuses on Baptism not as an event of the PAST but as an event of the PRESENT. Baptism is the very life of the Spirit breathing in us and enabling us to proclaim the gospel. What Jesus points out to Nicodemus is that physical birth [as a Jew or anyone else] did not guarantee anything. Indeed, even the Sacrament of Baptism does not guarantee salvation if the baptized person fails to live up to the life and teachings of Jesus, intentionally or unintentionally. A baptismal certificate testifies that the sacramental ceremony took place, but it does not say anything about what happened after that! We don't just march up to the "pearly gates" and show a baptismal certificate and gain admission!
My hope is that the parishioners attending the parish mission will realize that baptism demands that we become a forgiving and loving person united with others in the task of proclaiming the gospel by word and deed. There is evidence that Nicodemus took this to heart in some way. I hope we all can. AMEN