Fr Billy Swan
If you were asked the question: ‘Are you baptised?’ Would you answer ‘Yes, I was baptised’ or would you answer ‘Yes, I am baptised?’ Which would be more correct? The answer ‘Yes, I was baptised’ is correct in the sense that our baptism happened on a specific date and time. But ‘Yes, I am baptised’ is the more complete answer. Using the present tense informs others and reminds ourselves that our baptism is much more than a historical event. It is and remains a defining truth of who we are and who we have become - disciples of Christ and as people whose lives have been united irreversibly to his life, death and resurrection because of our baptism. It means the Spirit of Christ has been poured into our hearts crying ‘Abba Father’ and therefore we have become co-heirs with Christ and beloved children of God whom we dare to call Father. In the words of Pope Francis: ‘Our baptism is not a formality! It is an act that touches the depths of our existence. A baptized child and an unbaptized child are not the same. A person who is baptized and a person who is not baptized are not the same. We, by Baptism, are immersed in that inexhaustible source of life which is the death of Jesus, the greatest act of love in all of history; and thanks to this love we can live a new life, no longer at the mercy of evil, of sin and of death, but in communion with God and with our brothers and sisters’ (8th Jan. 2014).
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