The Shape of Baptism

For many people, Christmas is over. The Christmas trees that once adorned the corners and lit up the windows of houses have been picked up or packed away. Christmas carols that not long ago resounded through shopping malls and car radios have now yielded to elevator music or to today’s top hits. The Church, on the other hand, has continued to celebrate Christmas up to and including today’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Jesus came to the River Jordan to receive from John a baptism of repentance and conversion. Though Jesus had no need of repentance or conversion, he chose to place himself alongside sinners as a sign of solidarity. That’s one reason Jesus’ baptism gives meaning to our baptism, a meaning that has often been expressed in our baptismal fonts.

Throughout the centuries, baptismal fonts have come in an assortment of shapes and sizes and have helped to shape our beliefs about baptism:

“The font is a symbol of both tomb and womb; its power is the power of the triumphant cross; and baptism sets the Christian on the path to the life that will never end, the ‘eighth day’ of eternity where Christ's reign of peace and justice is celebrated.” Built of Living Stones

That’s why some of the earliest fonts were pools designed for immersion and built in the shape of a cross to symbolize that baptism is an immersion in the death and resurrection of Jesus. These pools often included three steps leading both into and out of the font to signify that the person would be baptized in the name of the Trinity. Other fonts were eight-sided, expressing the “eighth day,” or day of resurrection and re-creation.  Many fonts were shaped like either a tomb or a womb, symbolizing death and rebirth.  As infant baptism became more prominent, the size of fonts diminished.

No specific shape is required for a baptismal font being built today, but fonts must be able to accommodate the baptism of both infants and adults.  Fonts must be visible and accessible to all who enter the church and they must be located so that the entire assembly can easily participate in the celebration of baptism.

No matter what the size or shape of a baptismal font, when we bless ourselves with the water it contains, we remind ourselves that baptism shapes us into a holy people who celebrate God’s life-giving love, not just at Christmas, but all year.

Incense

One of the best parts of the holiday is the aroma that comes from the kitchen. The savory scents wafting     through the house help anticipate the feast that is to come.  Smells not only complement our holiday gatherings, they also enhance our worship. Scents like the balsam in the Sacred Chrism used recently to anoint our young people in the Sacrament of Confirmation appeal to our olfactory senses and become a fragrant symbol of the divine. One of the most common scents used in the liturgy is incense.

Since ancient times, incense has been burned for its perfume and used in worship. The sweet smell of incense came to symbolize an offering that was pleasing to God. The rising smoke became a sign that prayers were ascending to God.

There are several references to incense in scripture.  In the book of Exodus (chapter 30), Moses prepares an altar for burning incense as an offering to God. In Psalm 141, the psalmist prays, “Let my prayer come like incense before you,” and in the book of Revelation (chapter 5), a vision of heavenly liturgy includes bowls filled with incense “which are the prayers of the holy ones.”

Incense can be used at any liturgy but it is typically reserved for more solemn occasions. At a funeral, for example, the remains of the departed are incensed as a sign of respect.  During solemn exposition, the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance is incensed as a sign of adoration and praise for Christ.

On Sundays and Solemnities, incense leads the entrance procession into the church and is used to reverence the altar as a sign of respect for Christ whom the altar represents.  During the proclamation of the Gospel, incense is used to venerate the book of Gospels to show respect for the word of God and for Christ himself who is the incarnate Word. Incense is used again during the preparation of the gifts to reverence the bread, the wine, the priest and the people.

Among the gifts offered to the Christ child by the Magi was frankincense, a type of incense. Myrrh, gold and frankincense were considered gifts fit for a king.  May we, who are also honored with incense, recognize that not just our prayers, but our very selves are offered to God in an eternal sacrifice of praise.

A Sister of Mercy

From the time she was a little girl, Sister Valentina Sheridan knew she had a vocation to religious life.  She says the seeds for vocation were planted by her grandfather.  “Once a week, he would come and get me and we would visit the sick.  First we would go to the church next door, light a candle, and pray for the people we were about to visit.  Before we left the church, he would show me the poor box and we would put money in for the people who didn’t have what we had.”

Visiting the sick and caring for the poor have been at the heart of Sr. Val’s ministry as a Sister of Mercy. Inspired by the Mercy Sisters who taught her, she entered the convent when she graduated high school.  The Mercy Sisters motivated her to join that order because the nuns were “such joyous people, kind and open.”  She has integrated the mission of mercy into each facet of her ministry, which has spanned sixty years.

Born in Macon, Georgia, Sister Val came to Atlanta to work in education, as a teacher, principal and superintendent of schools in the Atlanta Archdiocese.  She came to St. Thomas Aquinas to work as a parish administrator from 1980-1990, a role she describes as “One of the best experiences I have had as a woman religious.” After pastoral appointments at St. Thomas Aquinas and Sacred Heart Church, Sister Val went to St. Joseph’s Hospital, a hospital that was founded by four Sisters of Mercy in 1880.  For the past twenty years, Sr. Val worked at St. Joseph’s first in pastoral care and then as Director of Mission Integration.

Though she retired from the hospital this fall, she can’t seem to stay away.  “There’s a spirit here that gives me life,” Sr. Val says, “I’m happier now than I’ve ever been.”  That’s what mercy does.  It brings life and joy. 

On this third Sunday of Advent as we celebrate Guadete (Latin for “rejoice”) Sunday, let us pray for hearts of mercy that lead to life and joy.

The Year of Mercy

The Jubilee Year of Mercy, as announced by Pope Francis is upon us.  The year begins this Tuesday, December 8, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and closes on November 20, 2016, on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

Jubilee years were observed by our Jewish ancestors every 50 years.  They were periods of forgiveness, when debts were pardoned and slaves were freed.

This Year of Mercy is also being used to encourage acts of reconciliation, solidarity and justice.   The Pope is offering indulgences--forgiveness of sin--to anyone who performs one of the traditional Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy.  “I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness encompassed by the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy,” the Pope wrote.

The works of mercy are acts of forgiveness and charity.   The Corporal Works of Mercy concern the material needs of others:

Corporal Works of Mercy

Feed the hungry

Give drink to the thirsty

Clothe the naked

Shelter the homeless

Visit the sick

Visit the imprisoned

Bury the dead.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy concern the spiritual needs of others:

Spiritual Works of Mercy

Instruct the ignorant

Counsel the doubtful

Admonish sinners

Bear wrongs patiently

Forgive offences willingly

Comfort the afflicted

Pray for the living and the dead.

Depictions of both the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy will hang in the narthex at St. Thomas Aquinas to remind us to practice acts of mercy at home, at school, at work, at church—wherever we are.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Year of Mercy begins on the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, and the issuing of its final document Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the World.  Let us pray that this Year of Mercy renews our baptismal call to be signs of God’s mercy in the world.

The Year of Luke

This weekend, we begin a new liturgical year. That means we will be hearing proclamations from the third of a three-year cycle of Scripture readings, also known as cycle C.  During this year, the gospel proclaimed is from the evangelist Luke. Luke is the only gospel writer who was not a Jew.  He was believed to be Greek and was writing primarily to a community of Gentiles. 

Perhaps because of his Gentile origin, and because he was well-traveled, Luke portrays a broadminded openness to all kinds of people.  He champions the downtrodden and those on the fringes of society. In Luke’s gospel it is the poor and insignificant, e.g., Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, and the lowly shepherds who are chosen to receive God’s favor. The first time Luke’s Jesus teaches in public, he acknowledges those who are at the heart of his mission and preaching:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Luke 4:14-19

In this passage, Jesus also announces a Jubilee year, a time of grace, forgiveness and freedom.  It is no coincidence that Pope Francis has declared this year as a Jubilee Year of Mercy, which begins December 8.  The Jubilee Year of Mercy coincides with the unfolding of Luke’s gospel, which is also known as the “Gospel of Mercy.”  Luke emphasizes the mercy of God with parables such as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and with stories of Jesus eating with sinners and rejects.  At every turn, Jesus was breaking bread with someone from the wrong side of town. This is one reason Luke’s gospel is known as the gospel of meals.  As Jim Dunning in Echoing God’s Word, says:  This gospel is like one, long progressive dinner. (Quoting Robert Karris) “Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.” The climax of all the meal stories in Luke is the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  The disciples, who fail to recognize Jesus, eventually have their eyes opened in the “breaking of the bread.” 

As we feast on Luke’s gospel this coming year, may we discover anew the God who prefers to dine with the broken and bruised, who keeps vigil until the lost have been found and who walks with us, step by step and hand in hand on our life’s journey.