Oct. 11, 2009: 28th Sunday Ordinary (B)

The other day someone asked me Fr. Paul what is the most memorable experience as a priest? I can say that it is baptizing children. One of the most memorable baptism experience was last year when I was assigned to St. Aloysius. On the very first Sunday of my assignment, I was told to do four baptisms during mass. How many of you have seen baptism at St. Aloysius? In the middle of the mass, all the children from the pews are invited to surround the baptismal font in the back. On that Sunday around 25 children surrounded that font. I took my first infant, declared the words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," then took the infant to the front of the church. I took few steps up to the sanctuary and showed the infant to the entire congregation like in the movie, "Lion King," when the newborn lion cub Simba was held up in the air by a baboon for all to see. As I walked back to the baptismal font with my first Lion King infant I muttered, "They don't teach this in the seminary." And everyone laughed. Do you know how we practiced baptism in the seminary? We had a plastic doll--the kind which has the eye lids that open and shut depend on whether it's on its feet or lying down.This plastic baby didn't cry, did not complain if it was held the wrong way, nor did it drool. This idyllic plastic baptismal experience was shattered on one Sunday afternoon when I was doing a private baptism. And this real, living infant squirmed, screamed, drooled, and kicked its way into baptism. And I had a headache this big to prove it.

A couple of months ago, here at Our Lady of Mercy on one Saturday afternoon, I baptized a baby boy in the presence of his parents, uncles, aunts, mawmaw, and pawpaw. That infant boy was the ideal plastic doll who didn't scream or kick during baptism. At that baptism I asked his parents the following question: "You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him up to keep God's commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?" And the parents answered, "We do." Just besides the parents, there sitting on a wheelchair was his great grandmother whom I knew well. She was suffering from a recurrence of cancer. So here before me was a great mystery. This great grand mother many years ago at the altar on the wedding day answered the following question from a priest, "Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?" She said, "yes," and her openness to children that God planned give her had far more reaching consequences than she could imagine. She was now beholding her great grand son. How could she have foreseen that she would live long enough to hold generations of God's miraculous gift in her arms.

In today's gospel, a man runs up to Jesus to ask him a very pressing question. It's a question that all of us like to have an answer to. He asks, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Here you can feel his desire for life beyond death. He acknowledges that he will face death, and he acknowledges that there is life after death. But his desire was to know, 'Am I doing well everything that God is asking of me here on earth in order to go to heaven?' If we really want to know what God is asking of us to do, then may I remind those of us who are married, we already know what God is asking of us?

On Friday night I did a wedding, and during homily I asked the wedding guests what they remembered about their wedding day. So I asked them, "How many of you remember the date of your wedding?" "Place? Priest's name? Names of Best Man and Maid of Honor? Where you had your wedding reception? Where you went to honeymoon?" They did quite well on all these questions. Then I asked, "Do you remember what questions the priest asked you about your intention to marry?" No one knew. I asked, "Do you remember the words to your wedding vows?" No one knew. "Do you remember the words you said when you exchanged the rings?" No one knew. In attempt to make our wedding day the most memorable, we forgot what the wedding day was really all about. We focus what goes on right before the wedding vow and right after the wedding vow, but not on the wedding vow itself.

The three questions that priests asks regarding intentions are:
1) Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
2) Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?
3) Will you accept children lovingly from God and raise them according to the laws of Christ and his Church?

Particularly the last intention, have we been faithful to being open to God's gift of children? And this openness also means accepting God's teaching on contraception. If we are faithful to him in little things that we promised him, God is going to be faithful to us in big things.

This past Tuesday I visited the great grand mother of the infant that I baptized in a hospice. She was too weak to even make a sign of the cross for herself. She asked me to take her right hand to make the sign of the cross. Before I gave her the Last Rites, I told her, "You have been a faithful servant of Jesus here on earth. Please pray for this poor priest when you are in heaven with the Lord." She said, "I certainly will." I then pronounced these words of Last Rites to her, "I commend you, my dear sister, to almighty God, and entrust you to your Creator. May you return to him who formed you from the dust of the earth. May holy Mary, the angels, and all the saints come to meet you as you go forth from this life. May Christ who was crucified for you bring you freedom and peace. May he forgive all your sins, and set you among those he has chosen." She passed away the next day, with a serene peace and smile on her face. And you could hear Jesus say as he welcomed her, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!” Have we been faithful, like this great grand mother, to the little promises we made to the Lord on our wedding day?