Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 - Wednesday in the 23th Week in Ordinary Time
[Col 3:1-11 and Luke 6:20-26,1063]If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is 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.....Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all. [Colossians]
St. Paul has powerful words to say about the importance and effects of baptism in Christ. In his Letter to the Romans [6:3-11], he speaks of baptism as a participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. The baptized person dies to, or puts off, the old self and rises/lives in Christ. This is not something abstract. It means a complete change of attitude and behavior, as the Letter to the Colossians indicates. This understanding is somewhat lost on a "cradle Catholic" baptized in infancy. We may get a reminder of it through the sacrament of confirmation later on in grade school or high school, but that seems more like a continuity rather than a big change or conversion. It takes a conscious acceptance of the responsibility that comes with faith in Jesus Christ. And it means more than avoiding sin. It means doing good as well to our neighbor. We are all equal in the sight of God in whose image and likeness we are made, as the quote above preaches.
We are baptized only once. What we gain in that sacrament requires "maintenance." The sacrament of reconciliation helps with the failures, but we have to go beyond that to extend to our neighbor the same forgiveness that we have received. [cf. Matt. 18:21-35] and reach out to the neighbor in need [cf. Matt. 25:31-45]. Recovering and maintaining the "new self" is a daily and lifelong challenge with an eternal goal in which we already participate but bring to completion at the end of life. AMEN