JANUARY 2024
hand and said, “Ordination, because without priests we cannot celebrate the Eucharist.” Te bishop responded, “Good reasoning, but wrong answer.” Another candidate answered “Te Eucharist, because it is the source and summit of our faith.” Te bishop gave a similar response. After a few more candidates responded, one answered: “Baptism, because without it we cannot celebrate any of the other sacraments.” Te bishop answered with a big smile, “Yes, you have answered correctly. We wouldn’t be able to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation today if you were not baptized.” Te Sacrament of Baptism is our entrance into the life of the Church.
A
After I first heard that story, I preached a one-day retreat for a Dominican community in Chicago. My focus for the day was the importance of our Baptisms. I asked the community members if they knew the date of their Baptism. A few did, but most did not, they’d have to look it up. I remember the date of my Baptism because I was baptized shortly after I was born. With a collapsed lung, the doctors told my mother that I would probably die, so I was baptized immediately by the hospital chaplain. And then the “ceremonies were supplied,” as we said in those days, on April 15, six weeks after I was born. Tus, I celebrate two anniversaries. After our retreat that year, instead of sending cards on our birthdays, the Superior sent cards on the anniversary of each Friar’s Baptism.
I ask you, what is the date of your Baptism? Do you celebrate it? Do you light your baptismal candle on your anniversary? I suggest doing that to honor the importance of that day. We become adopted daughters and sons of God through Baptism and are anointed priest, prophet, and king with Sacred Chrism: priest to offer sacrifice and worship to God; prophet to announce God’s Word to God’s people and the people’s words to God, as Rabbi Abraham Herschel would say; and king to imitate Christ, the Servant-King, who washed feet at the Last Supper and gave himself totally to God and to us on the cross. We promised to worship, announce God’s Word and serve in Christ’s name when we were baptized. We promised to live Jesus through our words, deeds, and attitudes, every day of our lives.
How do we know the ways to live Jesus, to do what Jesus did? We sit at his feet as his disciples, his students, in the school of Christian living. We can’t live Jesus if
t a Confirmation the bishop asked the candidates what the most important sacrament is. One candidate raised her
we don’t have a relationship with him. We can’t worship God like Christ, the High Priest, if we don’t know how he gave worship, praise, and thanks to God. We can’t serve like he served without knowing how he served. Tis means that we must pray with the Gospels in order to give flesh to the Gospel in our lives.
In the USCCB document Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship, the American bishops write:
Liturgical musicians are first of all disciples, and only then are they ministers. Joined to Christ through the Sacraments of Initiation, musicians belong to the assembly of the baptized faithful, they are worshipers above all else. Like other baptized members of the assembly, pastoral musicians need to hear the Gospel, experience conversion, profess faith in Christ, and so proclaim the praise of God. Tus, musicians who serve the Church at prayer are not merely employees or volunteers. Tey are ministers who share the faith, serve the community, and express the love of God and neighbor through music.1
Let’s unpack this important paragraph:
1. Liturgical musicians are first of all disciples. Tat means that we sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him how to live like him, how to live his values and his vision of God.
2. We are united to him through Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Our Christian identity comes from our union with him, a union celebrated in these Sacraments.
3. We belong to the Body of Christ, to all the baptized who gather to worship God. Our service in the Liturgy helps the Assembly of God’s faithful offer worship to God and practice their identity in the baptismal priesthood, and offer worship, praise, petition, and thanks to God.
4. We are disciples of Jesus Christ who need to hear the Gospel. What’s more, we need to pray with the Gospel, make it our own and then, live it. St. Francis de Sales said that we must imprint the Gospel, word for word and page for page in our bodies. Pope Francis put it this way in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (Te Joy of the Gospel): “Jesus’ whole life, his way of dealing with the poor, his actions, his integrity, his simple daily acts of generosity, and finally his complete self-giving, is precious and reveals the mystery of his divine life.
11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
