As a Christian community everything we do begins with the sign of the Cross and the accompanying words: “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” We began today’s celebration of the Eucharist with these words and at the end of our celebration you will be blessed and sent forth in the same words. These words are for us our identity as Christians. We are a community of faith centered on a common belief that God is a communion of divine persons united in perfect love. It is through the waters of Baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit at work within those waters that this communion of divine persons is able to extend its outreach in such a way that we are able to dive right in.
Before Jesus ascended into Heaven to the glory of his Father’s presence, he gave his disciples and those who would believe on account of their witness the commission to go forth into all the nations making believers. The central mark to be held by a believer in the mind of Jesus was faith in God as a Trinity of persons. This passage of scripture that we are dealing with in Matthew’s Gospel comes at the very end of his portrait of Jesus. In a real sense this is a climactic point in the Gospel. According to Matthew, the most important words that Jesus wants to leave his disciples with is the necessity of being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This baptism in the mind of Jesus ensures the truth of the very last sentence of Matthew’s Gospel that reads: “And know that I am with you always, until the end of the world.” These words of Jesus are very comforting and reassuring to his disciples who have now been commissioned by their Lord to continue his work of redemption.
This work of redemption is for all the nations of the world. Whereas it was in former times confined to the Jewish people, now it has become a universal outreach. This outreach is a sign of the all-encompassing love of the Trinity that seeks to continually add new members to its communion of love. According to Jesus’ teaching this inclusion into the communion of persons within the Trinity can occur only after a person is immersed into the life of each of the members of the Trinity. This communion ensures the intimacy that Jesus promised to his disciples. This communion also calls forth the need for mission, for after all; who having tasted the goodness of the Lord is not compelled from within to seek others to share such a feast? The disciples in today’s Gospel had already tasted the goodness of the Lord at the Eucharistic banquet of the Last Supper and now Jesus is sending them forth to share what they themselves have come to know and believe.
This commission to go forth was given by the Risen Lord who had just come through the great ordeal of the cross and who now is victorious over death, hell and the grave. Through baptism, this child will be united in a most profound and real manner in the death and resurrection of Christ and will be thus free to live the life of the Trinity. It is by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary that baptism is able to produce the effect that it does within us namely, the forgiveness of our sins and new life in the Trinity.
This great gift of baptism comes to us at the expense of God’s life and it is of the utmost importance that we honor this gift by aiding this child in whatever way necessary so as to ensure that he/she brings their baptismal beauty unstained into the kingdom where God will be all in all. As entry into the life of God, we must be careful never to fall into the mindset that baptism is simply a rite of passage that once obtained is to be left by the wayside. This would be a grave error on our part as a faith community. Baptism is more than a social thing; it is a divine remedy for original sin, a sin that has extinguished the fire of God’s love within the human heart rendering it incapable of responding generously to the call of transcendence. The waters of baptism therefore are to be sought with greater urgency than the water that merely quenches physical thirst.
Through baptism this child, like all of us will not only be immersed into the life of the Triune God but he/she will also become a member of Christ’s mystical body which is sustained daily and weekly through the gift of the Eucharist. Baptism not only teaches the human person how to relate to God in the core of who he/she is but also how to relate to the whole of Creation: them self, others and the universe around them. It is on account of this that the sacrament of baptism could be rightly called the sacrament of creation for it brings about a right relationship between the person and their surroundings with the ongoing grace of God. Baptism is an event, it is an encounter and as such it is a wellspring of grace from which every baptized person should be taught to continually seek refreshment and direction in life.
It is interesting to note that as Catholics we believe that our vocation or mission in life flows from the waters of baptism and that Jesus gives his disciples in today’s gospel their great mission or vocation, which is to baptize all the nations. Their call in a sense is to assist the rest of humanity in recognizing their vocation or mission in life. This truth heightens our responsibility in terms of making known the saving grace of God present in baptism as well as the possible meaning that we can offer others by introducing them to the means behind discovering the purpose for which they were created.
It is the will of Christ that all people should experience the intimacy of discipleship and the rewards that follow upon the completion of faithful service. By the very nature of baptism one must necessarily seek to be in communion with others because to be baptized is to live in communion with the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To deny living in communion with others is in fact to deny the very essence of baptism and so it will be the responsibility of the whole Christian community in general and the parents in particular to safeguard this young child from the enticing and sometimes culturally approving reality of individualism that sees the world around him or her as being at the service of them alone. It will be through our commitment to living this dynamic of communion and mission that is expected of us by the Church that will guide this young child in an experiential awareness of the truth.
Matthew’s gospel does not end with Jesus ascending into heaven, as do the other gospels. For Matthew, Jesus remains present to his disciples as he promised he would, the only difference being that he will be present under the signs of sacraments such as baptism. The sacraments are a real encounter with the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity, an encounter brought about by the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross.
As we ready ourselves, and this child for the momentous transformation of baptism let us be ever mindful of the price paid for such a gift from which even we have benefited, namely, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As good disciples let us also be ever watchful for ways in which we can assist others in discovering the call of God upon their life for the great commission given to the twelve is also for us who believe on account of their witness.
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