Baptismal Commitment

Message from Fr. Jose Koluthara, C.M.I.

Infant Jesus, help us see that the needy are treated not merely with charity but with dignity that is justly theirs as God’s children.

In the movie “The Godfather”, one of the most memorable scenes is the scene of baptism. Connie wanted her brother Michael Corleone to be the godfather in the christening of her son. “Do you renounce Satan?” asked the priest. “I do”, responded Corleone, and in that same moment, the camera cut away from the sacramental scene to shock the viewer with a brutal murder. “And all his works?”, came the question. Again Corleone’s positive response was shown to be nothing more than a lie as another violent killing was perpetrated. So it went all through the baptismal ceremony. Corleone said one thing and did another. His profession of faith was empty, his integrity a sham.

Today’s feast of the baptism of Jesus offers the occasion for turning a reflective eye upon ourselves and our own baptismal commitment. Christ’s own commitment, as reflected in today’s scripture texts, was to assume the role of God’s Son (Mt. 3:13-17), empowered by the Holy Spirit so as to go about doing the good works of healing (Acts 10:34-38) and establishing justice on the earth (Is 42:1-4,6-7). True to his baptismal anointing, Jesus said what he meant and meant what he said. Nor was there any discrepancy between the faith that he professed with his lips and the faith that he lived in the presence of his contempories. For his integrity, he suffered the ultimate penalty - death at the hands of those who rejected him, his faith, his message, his relationship to God and the radical character of his baptismal commitment. We who call ourselves Jesus’ own are also called to live out the reality of baptism, as he did, even at the risk of dying, as he did.

Fortunately, many have taken this risk; one of the most notable of them was Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933. She worked with her mentor and partner in the Gospel, Peter Maurin, to open hospitality houses for the poor across the United States. Within 5 years they had established 33 places where the needy were not just treated with charity but with the dignity that was justly theirs as God’s children. Day and Maurin believed that baptized believers should work to change the very structures of society so as to make room for social justice, equality and peace.

At Jesus’ baptism, Jesus became a dominant social force for the world. At her baptism, Dorothy Day grasped Jesus’ hand and made his work and his mind her own. At each of our baptisms, we were consecrated for similar service. How do we live out our baptismal promises in word and deed in the context of the present crises in the world and thus become a church that Jesus would readily claim as his own.