The baby girl was peacefully at sleep throughout the baptismal rite until I poured water on her forehead and pronounced the Trinitarian baptismal formula. She woke up, let out a loud cry, and began to swirl around endlessly in her mother’s arms. For a moment I thought I had mistakenly used boiling water for Baptism!
Think of this: she was crying out in pain and discomfort at the very moment that she became a child of the Triune God by the power of the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism.
I believe we all are like that little girl in her baptism experience. From the moment of our Baptism, we are made children of God even as we are crying in pain and sorrow in this world. It is not by mere chance that we experience both pain and joy as God’s children. Though we have this deep joy from belonging to God as His children, we also experience sorrow and pain because this world is not our true home and we are on a journey back to our heavenly Father.
The Holy Trinity, three divine persons, perfect in their divinity and in their eternal communion of life and love do not need us or anything from us to supply anything that is lacking in the Godhead. Yes, God does not need us! But God passionately wants us! God’s undying desire for us to belong to Him is the source of the joy that energizes us in the face of all the pain and suffering that we have to bear in this life as we journey to heavenly glory.
Before ascending, Jesus told His disciples, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Then He added, “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.”(Mt 26:19-20) The command to baptize rightly comes before the command to teach all that He commanded because, without our communion with the Trinity from baptism, we cannot obey God as His loving children. We cannot obey Him with joy if we do not have the joy of belonging to Him. We also cannot endure the pains of life if we do not have the conviction that this world is not our true home.
It is an understatement to say that we have so much sorrow and pain in our world today. We have a dreadful virus that has killed many and left many more trapped in fear. The future has so much uncertainty as many lose their jobs and sources of income. We also have contradictory and scary accounts of the origin, nature, and effects of the vaccines being provided and even endorsed by many of the Church’s hierarchy. Our family and friends are sick and dying. We have to deal with our own inner struggles. Our families are also feeling the weight of draconian lock-downs and restrictions of even worship. Our Church is plagued by the most abhorrent sexual and financial scandals and there seems to be no end in sight. There are wars and rumors of wars all around us.
What then are we supposed to do in the face of these pains and sorrows of this life? Let all these pains and sufferings remind us that this world is not our home and let them impel us to press on in our journey back to God. We will end up hopelessly confused and paranoid if we buy into the many clichés today that tend to reduce our entire spiritual life to “saving Mother earth” or seeking a vague consensus with every warped ideology of our times.
In Rom 8, 14-17, we find three essential ingredients of this journey back to God.
First of all, we must allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in this journey, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” The Holy Spirit leads us along the path of truth and love for God and others. We allow the Spirit to lead us by responding to His challenge to seek for the truth alone, speak the truth alone, and live by the truth alone. We are led by the Spirit when we are pay closer attention to the will of God and the needs of others.
We resist the promptings of the Spirit when we choose to be led by our constantly changing emotions or sentiments. We ignore the Spirit’s promptings when we are slaves of current fashion and trends. The Spirit cannot lead us when our sexual orientation becomes the sole determinant of our identity, relationships, and mission in life. How can the heavenly Spirit lead us to our true home when we depend on the mass media and public opinion to supply us our deepest values in this life?
Secondly, we must relate with God as a loving and personal Father, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” As our loving Father who accepts us unconditionally, we are completely open and honest with Him. We trust in Him and do not submit to the worries of life. We easily surrender our lives to Him in prayer and allow Him to be God in all aspects of our lives, including our sexuality. We relate with others as our brothers and sisters, ready to speak and act in defense of the most vulnerable, especially our unborn brothers and sisters.
Thirdly, we are ready and willing to suffer with Christ, “If we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffering with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Like Jesus Christ, our path to heavenly glory is the path of suffering and pain. We do not try to avoid suffering at all costs in this life. We are ready to experience trials from both men and demons without trying to scrutinize and understand God’s plans for in these painful events.
My dear brothers and sisters, we are indeed children of the true God now even in our pains and tears. Our sufferings do not mean that we have been abandoned by God and it definitely does not mean that we are being punished for our sins. Our sufferings only indicate that this world is not our home but the arena of “working out our salvation,”(Phil 2:12) We are to reverently use all that God has given to us to live as His children now as we journey back to Him.
If for whatever reason we have forgotten or given up on our journey back to God, we will do well to begin this journey again today. In the midst of all the joys and pains, the Triune God who does not need us wants us passionately and He is calling us back to Him at every moment.
Jesus solemnly promised us, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” He fulfils this promise in the Eucharist where He is with us in both the joys and pains, the laughter and the tears of this earthly life. We never travel alone! He who has received “all power in heaven and earth” is with us to provide us the graces we need to be led by the Spirit, to relate with God as Father, and to share in His suffering till the very end. Our pains will surely give way to perfect unending joy of heaven only when we journey into the very heart of the true God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
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Photo by Jonathan Dick, OSFS on Unsplash
