Baptism

On Easter Sunday morning mass we celebrated the baptism of two young boys.
They came from different ethnic backgrounds.
As I looked across the Cathedral, I could see people from so many different parts of the world.
As is the practise at Easter, we all renewed our baptism promises together.
We are baptised only once but need to keep renewing our baptism commitment again and again. We do it in a special way at Easter.

As each child was baptised, they were lifted up and the congregation welcomed them and clapped. It was a beautiful moment.
That evening, the father of one of those two children shared with me what a wonderful moment it was for him  to hear the community welcome his son in such a special moment.
As I lifted the other child to present him to the community he clapped himself.

Then I went and splashed everyone with water blessed during the Easter Vigil the night before.

Baptism is indeed a death to sin and a rebirth in Christ. We become members of Christ’s body, the mystical body, the church.
We are reminded not to take for granted the wonderful gift that we have in Christ.

Our baptism commissions us to remind each other and all others not to choose false values but the life giving values that come from Christ.
We need to keep revisiting the mysteries and events that we have celebrated in Holy Week.
In our personal prayer, in the Eucharist, and by continuing to understand our faith more deeply by reading and in other ways, we keep being reminded about what really matters.