DRIVE THRU OR STAY IN?
Dear parishioners,
In reflecting about God’s wonderful life-giving Grace given to us in Baptism, I used the analogy of not small, medium, or extra-large to describe its dimension, but the new dimension of “Supersize”.
Supersize Grace means this Grace from God is ‘Super’ - above anything we can imagine or have by ourselves.
This week we will reflect that this Baptismal Grace can’t be experienced fully with a “drive thru”, “fast food” or “all by myself” attitude. Baptismal Grace calls us to stay with Jesus all day as we heard in the Gospel. Why stay all day? For we can experience ‘family and belonging’. And it also calls us to have time to share it with others. “Andrew went and told Peter.”
Pope Francis in his Wednesday Audience spoke of this beautifully in his Catechesis on Baptism.
“On receiving faith and Baptism, we Christians welcome the action of the Holy Spirit that leads us to confess Jesus Christ as Son of God and to call God “Abba,” Father! All of us baptized men and women … are called to live and transmit communion with the Trinity, because evangelization is an appeal to participation in the Trinitarian communion” (Final Document of Aparecida, n. 157).
No one is saved on his own. We are a community of believers, we are People of God and in this community we experience the beauty of sharing the experience of a love that precedes us all, but which at the same time asks us to be “channels” of grace for one another, despite our limitations and sins. The communal dimension is not just a “frame,” a “garnish,” but an integral part of Christian life, of witness and of evangelization. Christian faith is born and lives in the Church and, in Baptism, families and parishes celebrate the incorporation of a new member of Christ in His Body which is the Church.
So what is your attitude to your faith and God’s Gift of Grace- “drive thru”, “fast food”, “all by myself” or staying for family and belonging?
