The Most Important Day of Your Life

What was the most important day of your life? You might want to say the day you were born or got married or had your first child. But think about what Pope St. John Paul II said when he was asked that same question. He responded: “It was the day of my baptism.” He didn’t mention the day he was ordained a priest or a consecrated a bishop or elected as the successor of Peter. No, the pope who made such an impact on the Church and the world knew that everything flowed from the day his parents brought him to the baptismal font in a Catholic church in Poland. It was there that he was born into new life in Christ and made a true son of God’s family.

The same is true for you and me. Baptism is where our life as Christians began. As the Catechism tells us, Baptism is “the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission.”

On this Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord, we should take time to think about our own baptism, to reflect on what that means and how we are called to live each day. We are God’s anointed people, members of the Body of Christ, sent to spread His light and love in the world. As Pope St. Leo the Great said in a famous Christmas homily: “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member.”

This weekend, we also take time to recognize in a special way all of the families who have had a child baptized in the past year. It is important for us as a parish family to foster discipleship, which means we journey with families beyond the sacramental celebration itself. As we acknowledge again the baptisms we celebrated throughout the past year, we have to reacquaint ourselves with these families and let them know they are supported, loved, and an essential part of our parish family at MQP.

Each one of you, in fact, is an essential part of this parish family. As a baptized Christian, you are a member of Christ’s own body, the Church. You don’t have to be a pope, a bishop, or a priest to understand the profound nature of your call. You only have to understand what was the most important day of your life – the day you were baptized.