From Cradle to Grave: Living in the Eternal and Abiding Joy of Christ | Bishop Kevin
Last week powerfully renewed the meaning of baptism for me personally: I had the joy of baptizing our first grandchild, Chloe Allen, and six days later, presided at the memorial service of my brother-in-law George Richter.
Fr. John and Camila Allen watch their daughter Chloe being baptized and received into the Body of Christ at Christ our Hope Olympia, WA.
The gift of Baptism is not just a singular event that once over is soon forgotten. Let us reflect on what our early church fathers taught about baptism:
Tertullian in the 2nd century wrote “Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life.
St. Augustine said, “And what else is it to live happily,… except to know that one has something eternally.”
Living in eternal hope is possible because of the sacrificial death of Jesus and it is both ironic and miraculous what His sacrifice and agony on the cross two thousand years ago provides for us today and for eternity:
In the words of St. Ignatius Antioch: “I greet you in the blood of Jesus Christ, which is eternal and abiding joy.”
Eternal and abiding joy can never be taken from us for in our baptism we are anointed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever, even in the face of unpredictable pandemics. Between baptizing a child and commending an elder to God’s care, the words of this Baptismal prayer were especially moving to me:
Almighty and everlasting Father, in your great mercy you saved Noah and his family in the Ark from the destruction of the flood, prefiguring the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Look mercifully upon these your servants. Wash and sanctify them through your Holy Spirit, that they may be delivered from destruction and received into the Ark of Christ’s Church; and being steadfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in love, they may pass through the turbulent floods of this troublesome world and come into the land of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
What better gift have we been given then to be received into the ark of Christ for a peaceful passing through the turbulent floods of this troublesome world even unto the joy of eternal life? I pray that the power and Spirit of your own baptism be renewed in your hearts this seasons so that you may find strength in the eternal and abiding joy of Christ!
+Kevin