By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Homily by Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Rite of Election at St. Mary Cathedral. Sunday, March 5, 2017.
Today’s Gospel tells us that the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert where he was tempted by the devil.
Because he was truly human, like us, Jesus was tempted; but unlike us he didn’t sin. But it is precisely because he shared in our struggle with temptations that we can share in his victory over sin, death and the devil. And this is what Baptism promises us – for if the wages of sin is death, in Baptism, we die with Christ to sin, so that freed from the snares of Satan, we can rise with him to new life.
Baptism then is a gift – the gift of life, everlasting life. But as a gift it must be accepted, it must be lived. Saint Pope John Paul II, wrote in his apostolic letter at the close of the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, Novo Millenio Ineunte: “To ask catechumens: do you wish to receive Baptism? means at the same time to ask them: do you wish to become holy?’ It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: Be perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect”.
De nuevo, para citar a San Juan Pablo II en Novo Millenio Ineunte, “si el Bautismo es una verdadera entrada en la santidad de Dios... sería un contrasentido contentarse con una vida mediocre, vivida según una ética minimalista y una religiosidad superficial”.
You may remember that old New Orleans’ jazz anthem: Oh when the saints, Oh when the saints go marching in, Oh when the saints go marching in, Oh I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in.
Well, today, you are enrolled in that number, the number of the elect, those chosen to become, in Christ, saints. By your enrollment in the book of the Elect, you are saying that you want to be holy.
The word “saint” simply means a “holy one”. In Haitian Creole, the language in which I preached in every day for almost twenty years, “saint” is translated: ‘Zanmi Bondye” – a friend of God. This is a beautiful, and I might add, a most appropriate, translation for the Saints are friends of God – and only one who is holy can claim to be a friend of God.
And that is what baptism makes of us: friends of God, reconciled to Him through the suffering death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, in whom we are baptized and through whom and through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit we entered into the holiness of God.
Sí, hoy, ustedes están inscritos en el libro de los elegidos, son escogidos para ser santos, para ser Zanmi Bondye, amigos de Dios. Y ahora, por supuesto, comienzan sus preparaciones finales, ahora comienza la experiencia del desierto. 40 días más para orar y ayunar, para hallar la fuerza para decir “no” a cualquier contrasentido que todavía quede en sus vidas que les impida aceptar el don del Bautismo, que les impida hacerse amigos de Dios.
To accept a gift of friendship implies a “yes” to the friend and a “no” to all that is incompatible with this friendship, to all that is incompatible with the life of God’s family, with true life in Christ. This is what is implied in the word “metanoia,” or conversion.
Conversion means a turning to and a turning from - a turning to the Lord and a turning from sin. But this does not end with Baptism; as Catholics, we believe that conversion is our life’s work. Our earthy pilgrimage must always be lived as a continuing turning to the Lord, and therefore a continuing turning away from sin. Thus among the first words of Jesus found in the gospels are these: “Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
At the Easter Vigil, you will make your profession of faith. And at Easter, all of us who have been baptized already will be also asked to renew that same profession of faith. That profession of faith based on the Apostles’ Creed is our “yes” to God. It is our pledge that– in spite of whatever trials and tribulations we may face – we will walk through this life as a friend of God, as a friend of Jesus and in the company of his friends that is his Catholic Church.
Now before you can say yes, you also have to say no to something. In the desert, Jesus says no to Satan and to his false promises of power, pleasure, and vain riches. And, of course, before you make that profession of faith on Holy Saturday evening, you will be asked to renounce Satan and all his works and all his empty promises.
For you, catechumens, Lent is a time of final preparations for that day, the day of your rebirth in Christ. Lent for you must resemble in some way the desert experience of Jesus. As Jesus prayed and fasted for 40 day, Lent must also be for us a time of prayer and fasting so that when Holy Saturday comes you will be ready to have your sins forgiven in the waters of Baptism. By your fasting and mortifications, you will learn – as all of us must learn - to say “no” to ourselves and to the sinful inclinations of our fallen human nature so that we might be more ready to “say yes” to God.
A medida que el día del Bautismo se aproxima – el día en que su conversión, su volverse a Dios y alejarse del pecado se hace solemne con los Ritos de Iniciación Cristiana, permanezcan inquebrantables en oración y sepan que sus hermanas y hermanos católicos están rezando por ustedes, y esperando, con gran alegría, su entrada en la Iglesia. Recuerden las palabras pronunciadas una y otra vez en las Escrituras y que nos fueron repetidas a nosotros con frecuencia por el Papa San Juan Pablo II: No teman. No tengan miedo de caminar por la vida como amigos de Dios.
Today, as you are numbered among the “elect”, be not afraid to walk on your life’s journey as zanmi Bondye – as Friends of God. Oh when the saints, Oh when the saints go marching in, Oh when the saints go marching in, Oh I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in.
