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By John Fencik
The Lenten season focuses our attention
on the sacraments of initiation as we
prayerfully prepare with the catechumens
in our diocese for their baptism at the
Easter Vigil. Lent is a period of immediate
preparation for them prior to this joy-filled
liturgy, and is a six-week retreat for us to
reflect again on what “being baptized”
means in our daily lives.
Perhaps one can recite the effects of
baptism: remission of original sin, entry
into the life of the Church as children of
God, impressed with the seal
of baptism and beginning a
life of grace—friendship
with our Lord. But has it
really taken root?
As the early Church
grew, there was a need for
those who wished to join the
fledgling Church to enter
into some process of instruction
as to the message of the
Gospel and the demands of
discipleship. In those early
centuries, the threat of martyrdom
was real and it was
important to be sure
people would be strong
in their faith, so as to
avoid renouncing the
faith and returning to
the life of pagan society.
(See The First
Apology of Justin
Martyr, circa A.D. 150)
The development of
the catechumenate
served this purpose and
the faithful were to pray
for the catechumens and “witness” (martyr)
to them by the manner of their
Christian lives—and often by their deaths.
In baptism we have received a wonderful
invitation of friendship by Christ. It
demands of us each and every day a “yes”
(like Mary) to this gift of divine love. It
also demands a “no” to anything and
everything that might distance us from
Jesus.
In the baptismal rite (and in our renewal
of baptismal promises on Easter), we are
asked to say “no” to all that can separate us
from the love of Christ. Our threat today
may not be physical martyrdom, but it is
the martyrdom of our Catholic faith and
values that suffer daily from a society that
embraces not the life-giving Gospel, but a
culture of death.
Sadly, many Catholics shape their lives
around this secular world, grasping for the
straws of instant gratification and forgetting
what makes us who we are—Jesus
Christ. Faith becomes simply one “drawer
in the dresser” of our lives, rather than
shaping our every thought, word and deed.
This scourge of relativism (“I am God”)
has penetrated too many lives and has created
a morally chaotic world. Relativism
leads people to form their own “religion,”
one that is very comfortable and easy.
Why? Because the demands of the Gospel
and discipleship are too great. Who has the
time, anyway?
In baptism we have truly died with
Christ—not symbolically, but really—having
our body and soul
changed forever. We rose
from the fount to new life in
him, who is our life and our
hope. We are to live for him,
letting his spirit guide the
formation of our heart and
our values. We renew ourselves
weekly at the altartable
of the Lord in the
Eucharist, for it is there that
we encounter the beloved in
a way unlike any other on
earth. There we are strengthened
to resist modern temptations
to abandon
faith, to trivialize faith,
to secularize faith. No,
we stand as the people
of God with a mission
to bear witness to the
world’s only savior, its
only hope.
Friendship with
Jesus includes spending
time with him
(prayer), celebrating
his paschal mystery and
our life in him (Eucharist), and seeking his
forgiveness (reconciliation). There also is
the ongoing need to grow in knowledge of
him and his Gospel. When is the last time
we attended the Lenten parish mission? Or
the Lenten reconciliation service? Or read
a good spiritual book or saint’s biography?
Or attended an adult faith formation program?
Baptism was a gift. Lent is a gift.
His love is the greatest gift!
In his Angelus message on Jan. 19, the
Baptism of the Lord, Pope Benedict XVI
said: “Thus, I would like to encourage all
of the faithful to rediscover the beauty of
being baptized and belonging to the great
family of God, and to giving a joyous witness
to their own faith so that they might
bear the fruits of goodness and concord.”
John Fencik is the diocesan director of
Catholic Formation Services. He may be
reached at jfencik@diocesehelena.org.
Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 3, March 18, 2011.
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