By Father Alonzo Q. Cox
Since my ordination to the diaconate in 2009, I have had the great joy of celebrating the sacrament of baptism.
Baptisms are indeed a time of joy and celebration as families gather together to see their child become a new creation in Christ Jesus. There are, of course, many beautiful and moving images in the baptism liturgy, but there has always been one image that really brings me to tears.
Immediately after the child has been baptized, they are given a white garment. While the garment is being placed on the child, the priest or deacon says these powerful words: “You have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.”
New Creation
Through the saving waters of baptism, this child has become a new creation! The white garment is a sign of the child’s new life in Christ. In a particular way, this is the child’s first encounter with Christ, with friends and family to help the child grow as witnesses of the Lord.
St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading from his letter to the Galatians, that through baptism, we are all clothed with Christ. He says: “Through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 3:26-27).”
As in any garment that we wear, all are meant to see the image of Christ in and through us.
As Christians, we are to keep our eyes fixated on Jesus, which also includes the cross. It was on the cross that Jesus shed His blood out of pure love. It is from the cross on Calvary that we are all redeemed. For us to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and unreservedly, we must acknowledge the crosses in our own lives. Whether it is the cross of illness, suffering, pain or fear, Jesus asks us each and every day to take up our crosses and follow Him.
In the Gospel passage today, we hear how Jesus tells Peter that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected. Jesus knows that this indeed would lead Him to the cross. If we want to follow the Lord, we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily.
Each of us has been clothed with Christ. Jesus makes His dwelling within our very selves. We pray that the Lord will give us the strength and the courage that we need to be faithful heralds of the Gospel. In a particular way though, we pray for the strength to carry the crosses that life may place before us. We must always remember that from the sorrow of the cross, comes the joy of the resurrection.
At the beginning of the liturgy of baptism, the priest or deacon welcomes the child into the Christian community by tracing the sign of the cross on his or her forehead. The child is claimed for Christ our Savior by the sign of His Most Holy Cross.
Just as Peter proclaimed, may we – with that same fervor – profess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Readings for the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Zechariah 12: 10-11; 13: 1
Psalm 63: 2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Galatians 3: 26-29
Luke 9: 18-24
Father Alonzo Q. Cox is the pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and diocesan coordinator of ministry to African-American immigrants.