Jan. 9, 2011: Baptism of the Lord

Anapra, Mexico (near Juarez)

Click to hear audio homily

Many of you have heard the term, baptism by fire? It means an introductory or initiating experience that is a great challenge or an ordeal. Can you jog your memory now and recall an event or experience that you believe was a baptism by fire? The one that I can remember is when I first thought about becoming a missionary priest. An Irish religious order was inviting those who were interested in priesthood to fly to El Paso to experience a life of a missionary priest. After arriving in El Paso, a missionary priest and I drove into the border crossing across the Rio Grande to Juarez, Mexico. His mission house was in a dusty shanty town called Anapra.

It was a shock to see how the rest of the world lives. Living as an engineer for a few years, I lived a comfortable life. In my world if it was cold, I turned on the heater, and if I wanted a good meal, I simply opened up a well-stocked refrigerator or drove out to a restaurant. All these we consider as bare necessities here in United States. So it was a shock to see how people's homes were made of cinder blocks, wooden pallets, and discarded materials from the area dump. There was no insulation in these makeshift homes, so in summer it was hot, and in the winter it was cold. When I arrived there it was winter, and many homes were heated with a propane cooking stove. The priest took me into one of the homes where a grandmother was looking after a 5 year-old grandson. Her hair was matted from not washing for a long time. The room was filled with a foul odor. The priest offered the grandmother a warm embrace as we left. I, on the other hand, hesitated because of the smell and her matted hair. I finally offered my hand for a handshake. As I was leaving, I thought to myself, where can I go and wash my hands?

Aside from feeling shameful that I could not embrace that grandmother, another image burned in my memory: her 5-year old grandson. He was so happy basking in his grandmother's love. Never mind that he lived on a dirt floor with no TV, with toys picked up from a trash heap. From our perspective, this 5-year old was a deprived child, who could use more toys, who could eat better meals than a straight diet of corn tortillas and beans--the cheapest food they could afford. Yet I saw a child who was happy as the beloved of his grandmother. Perhaps this is the lesson that Jesus wanted to teach us when he arrived in a small town of Bethlehem, in a stable where there was no electricity, heat, or food. While deprived materially, he was happy basking in the warmth of the love of his mom and dad. In their arms, Jesus knew and felt that he was the beloved of his parents.

A family living in Juarez, Mexico

As I meet people in counseling and in confessions, I am convinced of Mother Teresa's insight about love in the families. She said the following in her Nobel Prize speech in 1979:

"I never forget an opportunity I had in visiting a home where they had all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them in an institution and forgotten maybe. And I went there, and I saw in that home they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking towards the door. And I did not see a single one with their smile on their face. And I turned to the Sister and I asked: How is that? How is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not smiling? I am so used to see the smile on our people [in India], even the dying one smile, and she said: This is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten, and see- this is where love comes. That poverty comes right there in our own home, even neglect of love. Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried, and these are difficult days for everybody. Are we there, are we there to receive them, is the mother there to receive the child?"

What Jesus wants us to hear from today's Gospel is the voice of the Father who speaks to each one of us daily, "You are my beloved son [daughter] with whom I am well pleased."No material comfort or material things can substitute what each of our hearts desires--to hear and to know that we are beloved. When we know that we are the beloved of the Father, we can begin to see that others are the beloved of the Father as well. If we realize this, we will realize that the Heavenly Father desires us to be His instruments of love. As I recall the day of my baptism by fire to love that smelly grandmother in a shanty home in Juarez, Mexico, I realize now that God would have given me the courage to embrace that grandmother if I had asked Him. Likewise, Heavenly Father will give all of us the courage to love, if we ask Him.