Pastoral: You’ve been invited to give a talk to those recently initiated (baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist) at the Easter Vigil. The focus of your talk is on the meaning of these three sacraments for the rest of Christian life. Using what you learned from Danielou around these sacraments, what would you say?
What an absolute joyous occasion which I am sure that each person will not ever forget celebrating this day and hour of Sacramental Initiation! Yet, to remember the journey that has led each of you to this moment is one thing but to continually remember throughout your life the beautiful and powerful meaning of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist is entirely different endeavor altogether. I know that each person here has been wonderfully instructed and made powerfully aware of the sacraments and their blessings and so I will not revisit such things but instead focus on the importance of what all this means moving forward for all here.
I am reminded of the beautiful picture of the Church functioning like Noah’s ark from the book of Genesis. Yet, we see that unlike Noah’s ark, the Church does not just bring in men and women for the sole purpose of preserving them and protecting them as was the purpose of the ark. Protect and preserve, yes, but perhaps more importantly to transform each of them as well. This is the journey that began with each of your initiations. And as I am sure that each person understands, even though a person is baptized once and confirmed once, it does not mean that we do not continually need live out those sacraments each and every day of our lives. It is towards this point that I would like to expound on briefly.
Every person here will experience the power of Baptism nearly every single day of your lives if you are able to see it in such a manner. There will not be a day that goes by that the forces of darkness will not try to sway your mind into thinking that you do not truly belong to Christ and His Church. This is why Sacrament of Baptism is so powerful because it reminds you in the physical, what took place in the spiritual at that blessed moment. Just as Jean Danie Lou reminds each of us that “In the same way as Christ was truly crucified, truly buried, truly risen again, and as it has been granted to you in Baptism to be crucified with Him, buried with Him, risen again with Him in a certain imitation…and you also, when you came out of the pool of the sacred water, you received the anointing, the sacrament of that with which Christ was anointed, I mean to say, the Holy Spirit” (Danie Lou, The Bible and the Liturgy, pgs. 117-118). We now have the blessed hope that we belong to Christ and to Him alone and just as the Egyptians chased the Israelites only as far to the Red Sea before being swept away by those very waters, so Satan could only chase you as far as the baptismal fount before those cleansing waters sweeping him and the forces of darkness away. Now, this is the important point to drive home here. I implore you to not forget the powerful moment of Baptism that each of you experienced. When the forces of darkness try to dissuade you of your place and hope in Christ’s Church, you can come back to this point today and boldly declare that none of those evil forces have any claim to you or over you. Ever. You have been crucified and raised with Christ forever more!
It is the same with the Sacrament of Confirmation. As Baptism is the Sacrament of beginning, Confirmation is the Sacrament of those who are making progress and moving resolutely forward in Christ’s body. As you all know and have been dutifully taught; Confirmation is a sealing by the Holy Spirit. Now that each of you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, what does that mean moving forward? It means that each of you now has the Holy Spirit living in each of you and this great Counselor will be with you always. Never leaving you nor forsaking you as Christ Himself promised. Confirmation is a visible sign to your consecration as a Christian and with that the sharing in a more complete way in the mission of Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirt. But is a seal only a sign of protection? No, it is also a sign of authority and that of personal ownership the marks each of you as belonging solely and wholly to Jesus. This authority comes with the beckoning of our Lord to share and partake continually in His kingly, prophetic and priestly mission here on earth.
Now some may say the Eucharist is something that is quite clearly the Sacrament of Initiation that cannot be forgotten or only seen as an initial step into the Church since each person here will partake in the Eucharist moving forward regularly. Yet, I would caution that sentiment if it is to be found in anyone here because there are many in the Church that have knowingly or unknowingly “taken the Eucharist for granted”. The challenge for each person here is to continually see the blessedness and the power in the Eucharist. As with many things in life especially as humans, we can grow to take certain things in life for granted and unfortunately the Eucharist is not immune to this. There is no sacrament that is richer in symbolism and perhaps meaning. When we partake in the Eucharist, we are being nourished by Christ’s sacramental presence in the bread and wine. Additionally, there is this beautiful picture of each of us being simultaneously transported from earth to heaven to unite our voices with that of the angels during the Eucharist. Jean Danie Lou alludes to this when he states, “The Eucharistic liturgy is a participation in the heavenly liturgy and the dispositions of holy fear which should be possessed by those who participate in this liturgy” (Danie Lou, The Bible and the Liturgy, pg. 135). And he continues on a little later to remind us that “The Eucharist brings about the forgetfulness of past errors; it transports us into a new world; and this world is one of spiritual joy” (Danie Lou, The Bible and the Liturgy, pg. 185). It is through the Eucharist that each of us are bound more closely in love to all who are apart of the mystical Body of Christ.
In closing, I hope that each person here not only sees but makes a commitment to remember that each of the sacraments that each person has just participated in, is a perpetual sacrament to not only behold but partake in every single day of your lives. It is through each sacrament that Jesus Christ works through the Body of Christ and through them one enters fully into the life of the Church. My hope and plea to each of you today is to never lose sight of this fact. What we experience through all of the sacraments is so very precious and so my continual prayer for each of you today is that you will not only remember this for yourselves, but also to continually remind and encourage those beautiful brothers and sisters of ours in the wonderous mystical Body of Christ throughout each of your blessed lives.