Is our spirituality public or private?

Today’s feast celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.  The Lord’s baptism inaugurates his public ministry.  As Jesus was baptized, the Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Him.  And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.

On the day he was baptized, Jesus went down into the muddy Jordan River a private person.  He came up out of the water ready to begin His life of ministry.  He became a public person.  In Baptism, he was missioned by His heavenly Father to teach, to heal, to forgive, to love, to save us from our sins, and to give us share in His Risen Life.  In Baptism, Jesus began his journey to Jerusalem – the place where he was to suffer, to die, and to rise to new life.

As we think the public ministry of Jesus as beginning with His baptism, who do we think of when we think of public people?  Probably the people in the headlines or are on television – leaders of nations, CEO’s, actors, sports heroes.  Or on a more local level, the town supervisor, business leaders, pastor, teachers, and coaches.

Part of what goes with being a public person is accountability and leadership.  It’s taking responsibility when one sees a task that needs doing, a niche that needs filling

Please note:  the event that marked the beginning of Jesus’ public life was baptism.

On this feast, we are also invited to reflect on the meaning of our own baptism.  The message is we baptized are public people.   We receive the life of Christ Jesus in Baptism.  We become members of the community of the baptism, members of the Catholic Church, specifically members of the Church of the Holy Spirit St. Joseph's.  And we are missioned to witness to the love of Jesus in the way we live our lives.  We are the Body of Christ.  We are no longer private persons with a private spirituality between myself and God.  We become a member of the Church whose responsibility is to be the visible presence of Jesus in the world.

In Baptism, we are missioned to continue the public ministry of Jesus.  Yes, all the baptized are to be transparent, accountable, and take leadership in witnessing to the love of Jesus in our parish community.

An important connection I would like to make for you is our spirituality of stewardship in our parish life is our participation in the public ministry of the community of the baptized.  As stewards of the Church of the Holy Spirit, we are all to be transparent, accountable, and embrace leadership in the life of the parish.

I ask you to resist the temptation of thinking I am not going to get involved in the Church until the Church gets its act together – regardless of whether you think the Church is doing too much or too little.  If we take that attitude, then we are not accepting the grace given to us at Baptism.  We are the leaders of the Church.  The grace of God is given to all the baptized to be leaders in bearing witness to the love of Jesus in our community.

In a spirituality of stewardship, we are missioned as the disciples of Jesus to witness to the love of Jesus.  As we all know, love is the first requirement of the disciples of Jesus.  That love is expressed in action – the stewardship action of the gift of our time, talent, and treasure. 

The gift of time is our prayer life.  Do I make time for prayer in the course of the day?  May I share the wisdom of my mother taught to me about 65 years ago:  “If you are too busy, you are too busy.”  I wish you could have all meant my Irish mother:  There were no excuses for not making a little time in the course of the day for prayer.

The gift of talent is sharing a bit of your God-given talent in the service of your parish community.  The stewardship commitment card lists a variety of ways for you to participate.  It is inspiring to me to see so many parishioners involved in the liturgical ministries, in the catechetical ministries, in the social life of the parish, in youth ministry, in our service ministries, in our parish council, finance council, leadership teams and so forth.  Thank you, thank you for what you do.   I would also want to give you a nudge there is plenty of room for more parishioners to be involved.

The gift of our treasure is also very much part of our spirituality of stewardship.  What we do with our finances is very much part of our spirituality.  We are called to be generous givers in support of our parish and of our diocese in the CMA.  

Most of us were baptized as infants many moons ago.  But as is true in the sacrament of marriage, the grace of the sacrament of marriage is not just for the one hour ceremony at the beginning of your married life;   rather the grace of the sacrament of marriage is for better and for worse for all the days of your life.

So too, the grace of baptism is lifelong.  We are always and forever the community of the baptized.  We are always and forever public persons missioned to give witness to the love of Jesus in our lives.  A sobering, accountability question to be asked of each of us is:  Would we be convicted in a court of law for being Christian?  Is it obvious by the way we live our lives that we are the disciples of Jesus?  Is it obvious by how we live that we believe that love is the first requirement of being a Christian?

In today’s Gospel, after the baptism of Jesus, a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son: with you I am well pleased.”    As we pray over these words, may we ask ourselves:  What actions of ours this past week is our heavenly Father well pleased with?