I was baptized on Sunday, June 28th, 1970, at my hometown parish of Saint Lawrence. I was 8 months old. The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29th, is a holiday in Colombia and I guess my parents and godparents chose the Sunday of a long weekend to have my baptism. My godparents, Jaime and Elvia, who are now deceased, lived in Tunja, a city one hour away from my hometown of Sachica. I was baptized by a holy priest, Father Hector Julio Gomez.
On Ash Wednesday I mentioned that one of the goals for the season of Lent is to prepare for and remember Baptism. Someone may ask, “How am I going to remember my baptism when I was a baby whose memories of the event never registered in my mind?” Remembrance of the specific event is not exactly what the Church intends. It intends another type of remembrance. Before I mentioned the way we who have been baptized are to remember Baptism, I need to add one more thing about my baptism. I was ordained a priest on Saturday, June 27th, 1998. The following day, on Sunday, June 28th I celebrated my first Mass, exactly on the anniversary of my Baptism. This is not a coincidence, as Saint Thomas Aquinas taught, “From God’s perspective there are no coincidences”.
We who have been baptized are to remember Baptism during this season of Lent by reflecting and deepening its spiritual meaning and application in our daily lives. Out of the many things we could reflect on this, I highlight the teaching that by Baptism a person is “made conformable” (similar, harmonious, resembling) to the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord to the degree that the person dies to sin and begins to live anew unto righteousness.
Today’s readings mentioned the human condition of sin, of which we ourselves cannot be saved by our own means. The people of Israel in Babylonian exile were spiritually dead in their transgressions just as anyone else according to Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. To them salvation was announced, both through the action of King Cyrus who prefigures the Lord, and the Lord after his Passion and Death. Saint Paul expresses the uniqueness of God’s salvation: it is by grace. Grace as the favor of God on his beloved children. Grace is something we cannot purchase; it is something we cannot obtain by our own merits.
We are to remember Baptism in the sense that we are to resemble the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord, dying to sin and beginning life anew unto righteousness. We are now in the second half of Lent. The Word of God today challenges us to take stock of our commitment to dying to our sins in order to raise with the Lord on Easter. Let us humbly ask the Lord to grant us his grace to deepen our baptismal commitment.
On the pilgrimage to Emmitsburg, Maryland, to the Shrine of Mother Seton
As many of you know by now, August 28, 2024, will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Our parish, under her patronage, will highlight this occasion, not only that day but at other occasions before and after. Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama has confirmed his attendance at the Mass with our parish on Wednesday, August 28th, only five months away. Please, mark your calendars. A parish pilgrimage to the holy place where Saint Elizaberh Ann Seton is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland has also been planned. It will be on Wednesday, June 5th, and Thursday, June 6th. A bus for 55 passengers has been reserved, and hotel rooms blocked for us.
A pilgrimage is a religious experience, never a tourist trip. Holy Scripture is full of pilgrimages where individuals, groups, and even the entire people of Israel at times such as the exodus out of Egypt or Babylonian captivity, traveled to sacred places and holy lands. After the Lord’s Ascension, his disciples are on pilgrimage towards the sanctuary of heaven.
The essential quality of pilgrimage is that it is a journey to a shrine that functions as a parable of our journey towards the Kingdom. The Church teaches us that a pilgrimage affords an opportunity for the Christian to take greater stock of his ultimate destiny as he journeys between the obscurity of faith and the thirst for the vision of clarity, between tribulation and the desire for everlasting life, between the weariness of the journey and the rest awaiting, between exile and homeland, between frenetic activity and contemplation. Lent is a mini pilgrimage.
More information on the pilgrimage is available in the gathering area. There will be informational meetings after all three masses next weekend, March 16th, and 17th, and on Wednesday, March 20th at 6:15 pm.