re-appreciating baptism - 2nd week easter tuesday

In his dialogue with Nicodemus who was a learned Jew and a member of the highest ruling body of the Jews, Jesus told him that to become a son or daughter of God is no longer determined by the flesh or by the lineage of Abraham, or by race. To become a son or daughter of God now depends on the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  To be reborn into becoming a son or daughter of God is dependent on the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives through water, that is through baptism.

The season of easter is always a reappreciation of our baptism which we received when most of us where still infants.  Many people have argued especially people from different religions that our baptism is invalid because we were infants then, unable to choose. But remember what Jesus said, the spirit blows where it pleases.  It means that baptism is an action of the Holy Spirit.  We have become sons and daughters of God by our baptism through the love and concern of our parents and the Christian community who did and facilitated everything so that we can be baptized.  As little children under their care our parents also did what was necessary so that we can live up to our being sons and daughters by our baptism – ginpasimba kita, gin-tudluan kita mangamuyo kag sang maayo kag kristiano nga mga pamatasan.  Now that we are adults it is now up to us to continue the kind of life that they taught us or live the way we want.  But that does not change the reality that all of us by our baptism are sons and daughters of God.  We may now have become sinners, we may have turn our backs to our catholic faith, we may no longer follow the teachings of the church but remember that by the action of the Holy Spirit in our live when we were baptized we are still until we die sons and daughters of God.  God does not take back his grace.  Pareho sang isa ka ginikanan.  Bisan mag-inano pa na ang bata mo, bisan magsupak sia sa imo, bata mo man na sia sa gihapon.  Magbalik sia batunon mo man na sia sa gihapon because he or she is your daughter and your son.  And that’s also the way God treats us by our baptism.

Last Easter Sunday we renewed our baptismal promises.  We renewed it by first rejecting evil – Do you reject sin so as to live as a child of God?  And we said Yes I do.  I promised to fight evil.  I promised to be as far as possible to things that would lead me to do evil things.  I promised that evil cannot defeat me without me making a fight.

And second we renewed our belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We pledge to submit to the teachings of the Son and the guidance of the Spirit in our lives, to do good, to practice the teachings of our Lord.  Let us appreciate once more our baptism. Let us value our baptism.  Every time you enter the church, every time you dip your fingers on Holy Water and make the sign of the cross, you are reminded of you baptism, that you are already born again, you are already a son and daughter of God, and all that waits to be done is to live it out.  God has already made his commitment to you in baptism, it is now up to us to live up to that commitment.