Today for you, a photograph. It is the baptistery of Sacred Heart Church in Shadyside, Pennsylvania, where I received the Risen Life of Jesus Christ on 24 September, 1964. I was one day shy of four weeks old. My mom was 23, my dad 26. It was a Thursday; I doubt that there was a party, or even that very many people were there. My mom’s brother and his wife, my Uncle John and Aunt Ceci, were there to be my godparents; beyond that, I don’t know.
But I know what happened. I count on it every day; I count on having died with Christ and risen with Him to new life. I feed that life every day with His risen Body and Blood. Because of what I received that day, I can offer you that same Risen Body, that same Precious Blood. I know what happened, and it happened right there.
We have a font here, too, and many are the souls over whom I have poured water so that Christ could wash them clean of every stain of sin, and fill them with His risen life. How long will it be before I see them again? Will they come before the Lord to feed the life that He has given them? Will they seek me, or another priest, to cleanse them of the stains of sin that they allow to blot their baptismal purity?
Are you aware of the life that is within you, and of how and when and even where you received it? Have you obtained that life for your children, and nurtured it to maturity? Will your children feed and live that life, and obtain it for your grandchildren, and nurture it in them? Today Saint Paul reminds us of the seriousness of this question:
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor 15:12, 16-20)
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor 15:12, 16-20)
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. What do you hope for your children and grandchildren, in Christ?
I have the life of the Risen Lord in me, and He makes that known every day of my life, because Christ is risen, truly He is risen. And so am I, because my parents obtained that life for me. I hand on to you what I myself have received.(cf 1 Cor 15:3) Will you hand it on as well?
Monsignor Smith
