19 26, April, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au COMMENT let me urge you again: make this time of plague and quar- antine the occasion to dig the “Catholic paper” out of your records, find your baptismal certificate, and learn the date of your baptism. And then, with appropriate celebration, ponder just what happened to you that day. As the Catholic Church has understood it for two millen- nia, baptism is far, far more than a welcoming ritual: bap- tism effects a fundamental change in who we are, what we can “see,” and what we must do. Being born again by water and the Holy Spirit in bap- tism, we become far more than [fill in the name] of a cer- tain family, address, and na- tionality. We become living cells in the Mystical Body of Christ: members of the New Israel, the beloved community of the New Covenant, destined for eternal life at theThrone of Can affluent Catholicism survive? Discover the day you were born O n 29 April 1951, Fa- ther Thomas Love, SJ, baptised me in the Church of Sts Philip and James, near Johns Hopkins University in Balti- more. Family legend has it that I raised such a furor during the proceedings that my cousin Judy hid in a confessional. There are pictures of the christening, and a few years ago I found a lovely letter that Father Love (whom I never met) wrote me shortly after- wards. But I cannot say that I took the date of my baptism seri- ously until I was nudged into greater baptismal awareness in the 1980s. The first nudge involved working with evangelical Protestants, who typical- ly identified themselves to strangers at a meeting by say- ing, “I’m [so-and-so] and I was born again on [such-and- such a date].” That made me think about when, precisely, I had been born again; so 29 April began to loom larger in my mental calendar of Important Dates. The second nudge came fromwriting about John Paul II. During his pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979, the Pope went straight to the baptistry of his former parish church in Wadowice, knelt, and kissed the baptismal font. Why? Because, I realised, he knew that the day of his bap- tismwas the most import- ant day of his life: for it was the day that made his life in Christ, which he knew to be the deepest meaning of his life, possible. Ever since, I’ve been urg- ing fellow-Catholics to mark the day of their baptism. So Grace where the saints cele- brate what the Book of Reve- lation calls the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in the New Jeru- salem (Revelation 19:7, 21:2). We become the people in whom humanity’s greatest hopes, incapable of fulfill- ment by our own devices, will be realised. Having been cleansed in the waters of baptism and in- structed in the truths of faith, we can “see” the wonders God has done in history more clearly. Thus baptism, in a certain sense, sacramentally recreates the Easter experience of Mary Magdalene in the 20th chap- ter of John’s gospel. At first, Mary thinks the Risen Lord is a gardener. Then, after he calls her by name, she clings to his feet; but that is to cling to the past, to the Jesus who was, and so she is told, “Do not hold me” (John 20:17). Finally, Mary begins to comprehend that the Jesus she once knew, the Jesus be- neath whose cross she stood, had been raised to an entirely new dimension of human ex- istence – a life no longer shad- owed by death, a life beyond death. And so she became the first messenger of the Gospel as she made a radical act of faith before the other friends of Je- sus: “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18). Which brings us to what we, the baptised, must do. In baptism, we die with Christ, the Risen Lord who lives in the presence of God and amongst his brothers and sisters in the Church. That Jesus is present both in eternity and in history means that his brethren can live – in an anticipatory way, here and now – in the eterni- ty of God. That is a great gift. To be worthy of it means to share it. So we, the baptised, have also been commissioned. On the day of our baptism, each one of us was given a com- mission as a missionary dis- ciple. Each of us heard (on our own, as adults, or through our parents and grandparents, if we were infants or children) the Great Commission of Mat- thew 28:19: “Go…and make disciples of all nations.” Ev- eryone in the Church is a mis- sionary; everywhere we go is mission territory. To live that is to own the truth of our baptism in full. George Weigel is the Distin- guished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Centre in Washington I ’d like to build on what Christopher Wolter said in his column in last week’s issue. He is ex- actly right to point out that the shutdowns have been in- consistently applied across a range of industries, including churches. Like everyone else, I’ve been trying to balance liv- ing a normal life with trying to avoid spreading disease. I’ve worked from home, and ordered online, and bought takeaway, and done con- tact-free deliveries. I’ve coughed into tissues, washed my hands with soap, and used sanitiser. But I also went to the hairdresser (my choice) who remained open (their choice), and I spent around an hour there get- ting my hair washed, cut and dried. I had contact with two workers (who were also there by choice), including an im- mensely long chat with the hairdresser while she cut my hair. No moral or civil laws were broken. However, if I’d asked the same salon to tint my eyelash- es (about 20 minutes, and me mostly in complete silence), I’d have been breaking the law. And it has struck me that this same amount of contact - and much less time - could have been spent by having my Confession heard and receiv- ing Holy Communion outside of Mass. I think Christopher is right when he points out that we’ve given up the Mass pretty much without a fight. What’s worse, church leadership has told us to stop complaining, when they should be delight- ed that their people are hun- gry for God. I’ve had some interesting chats with priests about what they think will happen when the bans are lifted, and our churches re- open. Some have seen their You- Tube numbers rise and are optimistic that people will come back in greater num- bers. Others are more cautious and think that once people get used to the idea of staying home on Sunday, they’ll stay there more in future. Someone suggested to me that we could survive quite well as a Church without the Mass, like the Japanese Cath- olics did for two centuries. My response: we ain’t the Japanese Catholics. We’re affluent, lazy, well-fed, pam- pered, risk-averse and largely unbelieving. A closer historical example is the English Reformation, where most people – includ- ing clergy - decided to take the path of least resistance. We’ve already done that in the Church in Australia, and this current mess is sifting what’s left of us like wheat. I’ve also been watching the YouTube numbers for various parishes. There was a peak when all this started, but now it’s rapidly diminishing. It’s great that just over half a million people watched Eas- ter ceremonies on TV - but that’s all the practicing Catho- lics in Australia. The novelty quickly wears off, and the habits of going to Confession and attending Mass is easy to lose. Ask your nearest teenager about that one. It’s hard to keep that hun- ger alive when you’re being told to shush by the very peo- ple who should be stoking that hunger and encourag- ing you to come to the Lord. I hope we all stay hungry. Dr Philippa Martyr is a Perth-based historian, lec- turer and researcher. She can be contacted at: Philippa.
[email protected] Pope Francis baptises a child in 2014. PHOTO: CNS, L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO VIA REUTERS We shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Something’s verywrong here 1300 554 552 www.girafferemovals.com.au •
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