So far, I have given you two new year’s resolutions. First, do not take the Lord’s name in vain. Second, let the way you live your faith take someone’s breath away. Today as we officially end Christmas we receive our third resolution: take ownership of your baptism. If you want to grow in your spiritual life this year, then do these three things:

1. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.
2. Let the way you live your faith take someone’s breath away.
3. Take ownership of your baptism.

Why is baptism so important? Because it is the means God uses to save us from the powers of the world. Jesus is baptized in order to transform baptism, a mere symbolic action of forgiveness, into an actual a source of power to transform evil into good. Each baptized person must then take ownership of their baptism if it is to make any difference in their lives.

Most of us who were baptized as babies, we didn’t really know what was going on, nor do we have any memory of it. At that time, our parents promised to bring us up in the faith of the Catholic Church. Maybe they were able to do that for you – some of you grew up with parents who were incredible examples of faith. Maybe they didn’t, some of you grew up with parents who lived in a way that was completely contrary to the love of God. Maybe you had parents who simply just didn’t know how to raise you in the faith.

Regardless, you are here now, either because of the faith passed on to you successfully by your parents, out of mere obligation, guilt or cultural duty, or out of the mercy of God that you have experienced in your life despite the lack of faith in your upbringing. In either case, if you are baptized, you have been empowered to confront whatever challenge you might experience in this life, so claim your baptism, claim this power.

To help you take ownership of your baptism and take advantage of what you have received, it is important to understand three things that happened when you were baptized.

First, you were washed with water. In the early Church, baptism was always by complete immersion. The tradition was to dig a cross-shaped pit in the ground, fill it with water, and have the person fully submerged in the water with arms outstretched and then pulled back up. They understood that baptism was a dramatic experience, it was meant to shock you, it was the experience of death and rebirth. Baptism by emersion continues in Eastern orthodox Churches. You might have seen videos of the priest taking a child and dunking him headfirst into the water three time really quick and the child emerging completely stunned, no time to even cry. I wish we did that in the Latin Rite. At least at the Easter Vigil I get to completely soak those getting baptized (if you are one of them this year, get ready).

Water is meant to remind us of the action of God to bring order into the world. Genesis describes the beginning the earth as a formless wasteland and darkness covered the abyss, then the spirit of God swept over the water and began to bring order. This is the same symbolic action behind the flood in the story of Noah’s Ark. Chaos once again covered the earth, but this time caused by human sin. So, the flood represents the action of God bringing order into the chaos of human evil. Just as in Genesis, the spirit of God hovered over the water and began, in Noah God made a wind sweep over the earth to subside the flood and the sign that God had restored order was when a dove was released and did not come back, a sign that land, order, had been restored. Out of that comes the image of the rainbow as a sign that God wants to have a relationship with us, and Noah and his family come together. Those where the intentions, union between humanity and God.

This restored order did not last very long, I was only a matter of time before we humans where submerged in the chaos of division again led by pride and envy. The description of the baptism of Jesus with water and the dove descending over him tells us that in him is God’s action to save us from sin once and for all, this time by bringing about a different kind of flood, the flood of God’s love. Jesus allows himself to be submerged in the power of hate and evil in order to overcome it by emerging out of it not a bitter person, not a person wanting vengeance over those who mistreated him, but a person desiring that all may realize they are children of God. That is why he tells us: unless you too are willing to submerge yourself in the baptism of God’s love and be empowered to fight evil will love, it will only be a matter of time before you are being submerged into chaos again only to begin to be bitter and resentful against God and others. To claim our baptism by water and the Holy Spirit is to allow ourselves to be submerged in the flood of God’s love, and keeps us united with God and each other. When someone tries to drown me in chaos, when someone offends me, when someone utters every kind of evil against me, I am reminded of whose power I am under.

After being washed by water, in the rite of baptism we were anointing with sacred oil, symbol of the Holy Spirit. The book of genesis tells us that God gave his spirit to all human beings, but the Spirit did not remain among humanity due to the growth of sin. Instead, the Holy Spirit dwelled among the people of God in the temple, but we were afraid to come near it because of our sin. In the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist identifies him as the one mightier than I, he will baptize you with the spirit. In the baptism of Jesus, we are not only submerged in the love of God, but the very Spirit of God enters our very being in a new way, and this is the spirit now speaking in my conscience, claiming me for his own, reminding me that I am a child of God. To claim my baptism is to remember who God has created me to be and not fall for any false identities the world tries to give me.

Then finally, after anointing, there is the Rite of Ephphatha, which means “to be opened.”  The priest traced the sign of the cross over your lips and over your ears, blessing you to become a child of Abraham our father in faith. God promised that all would come to know God through his descendants. Baptism makes us members of God’s people, the fulfilment of the promise given to Abraham. Therefore, a person that claims their baptism is a person hears the word of God, and speaks the word of God to others. I need to claim my baptism so that I can use my language to build others up, not bring them down. To speak truth and not spread lies. When I do that, I help others come to a sense of their own identity as persons created in God’s image.

These three actions of baptism: water, oil, and blessing and what they signify: to be submerged in God’s love, to be led by the Spirit of God in me, and to be moved to speak God’s blessing to others, this is what is proper to someone who is a Christian. If I claim my baptism and I know what I have received through it, then I will be careful to not take the Lord’s name in vain and I will most definitely take someone’s breath away as I drown them with the love of God.

Fr. Carlos