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the door to spiritual life. Baptism is the way in, baptism is the foundation of the
condition of having the possibility of having a spiritual life.
To grasp the basic thing about this journey. Because Christianity is being so much
more than being a nice person, or having a heart of gold or doing the right thing
as this things are important.
Lets face, pagan, a jew, a muslim could be all of this things. But what does it
mean to be a Christian. It means to be grafted on to Christ. It means to share in
his very being. To become a member of his mystical body. To participate in a
relationship that he has to his father. To share the divine life.
At the heart of Christianity is not much more of goodness as important it is... the
heart of it is DIVINIZATION becoming a sharer in Gods own life.
We see now how it is important that someone is baptized in THE NAME OF THE
FATHER, AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. For all eternity the SON and
FATHER may kill each other or may fall IN LOVE, the report their love for each
other, that SHARED BREATH of the father and of the son is the HOLY SPIRIT, to be
baptized therefore; to share in the relationship between the Father and the Son is
to be in the spirit is to live a spiritual life.
This is why BAPTISM is all about GRACE, Its all about unmerited, undeserved
love God is showing us by drawing us into his life. We dont earn it, we dont do
something to get it, whether through Gods love we are drawn into his life.
Why did Jesus say into his Gospel; It is not you who chose me , it is me who
have CHOSEN YOU. Its so important there is because today we think spiritual
life is our quest for God, there something for that we do have some sense of
searching for God, but thats not Basic Christianity IT IS ABOUT GODS SEARCH
FOR US. That God has found us and God has grafted us unto Christ so we can
share in his life and become DIVINIZED. Thats what finally BAPTISM IS ALL
ABOUT.
NOW, BAPTISM IS ALL ABOUT THE WASHING AWAY OF ORIGINAL SIN, an idea
which is controversial today , not at all. Think of this way we are born, ALL OF
US IN A DEEPLY DYSFUNCTIONAL ENVIRONMENT, Produced by era, millenia,
and eons of many DYSFUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND SIN. Think of all the cruelty
and hatred, violence and injustice, that has happened in all the millennia of
history producing as it were a POISONOUS ATMOSPHERE. Were born into that.
We didnt choose it, but we reaped them in all of them, almost literally. Its in our
nerves, its in our blood , its in our bones on the time we were born.
That is why a comparison of a baby born with an addiction is a good comparison.
Think of a baby having inherited his mothers addiction to cocaine, well we
cannot blame the baby for that but is foolish to deny that the baby really is
addicted, its really BORN WITH THIS PROBLEM. Or think of a kid born of a
dysfunctional family, characterized by alcohol abuse or physical abuse. Well, all
the child knows is the strange dysfunctional world in both cases something
should radically FROM THE OUTSIDE, to change, to lift them up, to transform
them. That a good analogy of baptism.
All of us, human beings are all members of a dysfunctional family. Chesterton
said we are the same and we are all seasoned and we cannot solve our
problems. But rather through GODS GRACE AND LOVE WE ARE GRAFTED ON TO
DIVINE LIFE.
And that is why we say baptism saves us, redeems us, makes us really into a
new creature.
LASTLY, THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP now between BAPTISM AND OTHER
SACRAMENTS.
If baptism is the way in, it makes other sacraments make sense; Baptism gives
me the divine life. And all life needs to be sustained with food, it needs to be
fed, nourished hence we need the Eucharist, day in day out. Steadily to nourish
the divine life I get.
I can lose the divine life, through mortal sin that is so opposed to Gods life, it
cant be tolerated. Well I need to be cleansed with that sin, I need to be restored
to that new kind of baptism. The great gifts of baptism need to be confirmed,
they need to be strengthened as in the sacrament of confirmation.
Why ordinary life is not so much of biology. It has purpose and sense of direction
and mission. Same is true with spiritual life. We have the basic spiritual life that
comes from being grafted unto Christ. And that life need direction and purpose,
hence we have the sacraments of mission marriage and holy order, and the
last rites as we are being prepared to move from this life to the next and are
strengthened for the journey. All those sacraments are made possible by
baptism, the door to spiritual life.
That is why without baptism we cannot be pleasing to God, we cant live the
spiritual life.
When Jesus himself was baptised he heard a voice from heaven YOU ARE MY
BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED. EVERYONE baptised , grafted on
to the son. Sons and daughters in the son SHOULD BE ABLE TO HEAR THE SAME
VOICE Saying the same thing.