Paschal Three Days III - The Great Vigil - Rom 6.3-11 Baptism as a Matter of Corpse
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
On this night of the passover of our Lord from death to life, we embrace in faith the god who has inhabited the world and now inhabits eternity, the habitation of God. Tradition compels us to recognise that we in Holy Baptism, are buried with Christ and raised with Christ to the anticipation of newness of life. We are made children of God as Abraham and his children were made; children of the promise. So throughout the ages God has worked the promise of new life in the most desperate of times and the sacrament of Baptism has met us and honoured us to be a part of the people of God. In light of a new identity, we then appeal to heaven and other secondary considerations. If God is present in his promise and if God Himself creates faith, then certainly heaven or at least its foretaste is wherever its' foretaste is, or wherever we can smell heaven, there is God.
To live in the covenant of Holy Baptism, is to live a new life that comes to us through the promise to Abraham fulfilled in Jesus. To live a Eucharistic life in receiving the Lord's Supper is to discern the Body of Christ, the new life in which we are nourished. The Body is a reality discerned among us and in the world. In the breaking of the bread we discern that Christ is accompanying us on the way.
Sacramental misuse comes down to our illusory dividing of Christ's Body, according to our own inclinations. This person isn't worth, this person isn't worthy to be brought in towards my humble opinion. For the Body of Christ is a testimony for God's love for all the world. Often when we decided for ourselves that God doesn't have enough love for someone else, we could be believing that he doesn't have enough love for me either And then there is the temptation and the sin which needs forgiveness and the newness of life in the Sacrament.
That gift has been given to us in Baptism, as faith brings us to as much union with Christ as we can know on this side of the grave. But united with Christ in his death and burial, we're united with One Who has cleared the barrier of death - knocked it over actually - so that death is dead and powerless. It's a matter of corpse for the baptised that we are raised from the dead and the only corpse to be seen is death. So the promise of our Baptism brings about the neatest thing about death's destruction - we are alive for God already in Christ Jesus. We can turn all of our Body and all of its' members as "weapons to do right." Being alive for God - where resurrection is the reality of God - who can imagine what could be with such Spirit's power?
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
On this night of the passover of our Lord from death to life, we embrace in faith the god who has inhabited the world and now inhabits eternity, the habitation of God. Tradition compels us to recognise that we in Holy Baptism, are buried with Christ and raised with Christ to the anticipation of newness of life. We are made children of God as Abraham and his children were made; children of the promise. So throughout the ages God has worked the promise of new life in the most desperate of times and the sacrament of Baptism has met us and honoured us to be a part of the people of God. In light of a new identity, we then appeal to heaven and other secondary considerations. If God is present in his promise and if God Himself creates faith, then certainly heaven or at least its foretaste is wherever its' foretaste is, or wherever we can smell heaven, there is God.
To live in the covenant of Holy Baptism, is to live a new life that comes to us through the promise to Abraham fulfilled in Jesus. To live a Eucharistic life in receiving the Lord's Supper is to discern the Body of Christ, the new life in which we are nourished. The Body is a reality discerned among us and in the world. In the breaking of the bread we discern that Christ is accompanying us on the way.
Sacramental misuse comes down to our illusory dividing of Christ's Body, according to our own inclinations. This person isn't worth, this person isn't worthy to be brought in towards my humble opinion. For the Body of Christ is a testimony for God's love for all the world. Often when we decided for ourselves that God doesn't have enough love for someone else, we could be believing that he doesn't have enough love for me either And then there is the temptation and the sin which needs forgiveness and the newness of life in the Sacrament.
That gift has been given to us in Baptism, as faith brings us to as much union with Christ as we can know on this side of the grave. But united with Christ in his death and burial, we're united with One Who has cleared the barrier of death - knocked it over actually - so that death is dead and powerless. It's a matter of corpse for the baptised that we are raised from the dead and the only corpse to be seen is death. So the promise of our Baptism brings about the neatest thing about death's destruction - we are alive for God already in Christ Jesus. We can turn all of our Body and all of its' members as "weapons to do right." Being alive for God - where resurrection is the reality of God - who can imagine what could be with such Spirit's power?
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
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