Baptism of the Lord 11 th January2009

A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all who read St Joseph’s Bulletin including our many readers around the world by means of our website and may you and all those near and dear to you be blessed in many and various ways.

Our beautiful Crib that has been in our sanctuary to mark the Birth of Christ has been put away for another year. The lights have been disconnected and the decorations taken down. There is a danger that the impression may be given that the events for which we prepared over the weeks of Advent are also over and as it were ‘put away for another year’. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Baptism of Our Lord today is a strong reminder to us that the call to be a follower of Christ continues. We are called into the family of God and each of us becomes an ambassador for Christ. We don’t have an embassy, a flag or an anthem to identify us. But even when we seem helpless to influence world events – such as the present War in the homeland of Jesus – we can still make a difference.

In the 3 rd Century Cyprian of Carthage, an African Bishop and Martyr, wrote to his friend Donatus:

“It’s a bad world, Donatus, in which we live. But right in the middle of it I have discovered a quiet and holy group of people. They are people who have found a happiness that is a thousand times more joyful than all the pleasures of our sinful lives. These people are despised and persecuted, but it doesn’t matter to them. They are Christians, Donatus, and I am one of them”.

Called by name at our Baptism we become ‘one of them’! We are Christians because we have become part of the People of God. God created you and me in His image and likeness. Further, He has called us into the very life of the Trinity by making us sharers in the life of Jesus by our being baptised by the Holy Spirit.

Now God looks on us with the same love that He has for Jesus. We are that precious and that special. The challenge is to be worthy of this calling and not to disfigure the image of God in us by our sins. But there is more! Not only are we to keep away from sin but we are to be ambassadors for Christ. It is not always easy in the world today to do this. As Bishop Cyprian suggested in the 3 rd Century there is a lot to be made right in our world. There are wars, there is injustice, and there are all sorts of problems and challenges to be faced. The call to speak about Jesus and witness to His Love does not depend on our own ability.

When I feel afraid of the enormity of the tasks in 2009 facing St Joseph’s parish I am comforted by the certainty that together we will achieve more than we even dare to think. It is my hope that 2009 will see the Kingdom of God take even stronger roots among us. Much of this will be unseen but we will also be blessed with some visible traces of that Kingdom. Christian is our name and our privilege as we enter into this year of Our Lord 2009.

Aidan Troy, C.P. [Aodhán Ó Troighthigh]