Today is a special day in my life as it is the 29th
anniversary of my Baptism. 29
years ago the little pagan baby Ben was brought into God’s family. Growing up, my parents weren’t overly
religious, but every year we celebrated our Baptism anniversaries and this has
been a day I’ve celebrated ever since.
Indeed,
our Baptisms should be remembered and I encourage those of you with children,
or those of you who will be having children, to remember this practice. It is important to celebrate these
important moments in life. While
we don’t celebrate our conceptions (which would be a bit weird), we do
celebrate our births. Yet our
Baptism is arguably more important than our births because they are our
spiritual birth.
We
continue to read from the book of Acts, where we see the conversion of the
multitudes. These conversions were
driven by the desire to have people baptized. Indeed, the heart of evangelism—the spreading of the
Gospel—is to repent and be Baptized.
In
our own lives we probably know people who have not yet been baptized. How are you proclaiming the Gospel to
them? At the parish level we do this as we typically
baptize adults every year at the Easter Vigil and have several baptisms for
babies throughout the year.
We
thank God for the great gift of Baptism, and ask for the wisdom to preach the
Gospel in our lives that many more will be brought into God’s family.
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