baptism ... salazar

Today as we celebrate the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, God does to ____ what God has done to Mary in the womb of her mother St. Anne.  This is the reason why this place in the church is also called the womb for this is where our children in the parish are given their second birth, this is where they become not just the sons and daughters of their mothers and fathers, not just the son of ____ and ___ Salazar, but the son/daughter of God, a brother and sister of Jesus, a child of Mary, a brethren to every man and woman on earth.

Baptism may be a short sacrament but it means everything to every person.  Allow me to explain why.

I have been assigned in the seminary for almost 20 years now, and my work regardless of my already many designations – prefect, spiritual director, director and rector, would always involve peering into the upbringing of the person.  We are what we are right now because of the upbringing we received from our parents, or should I also include, we are what we are today because of the lack of it.  At issue many times is first the issue of self-concept or the self-image, answering the question who am I, what do I know about myself and what do I think others know about me, how do others look at me. 

Another thing at issue is self-esteem – how I look at myself, what is my attitude toward myself, answering the self-evaluation question am I good enough?

And yet many times we adults define them beginning at their birth by what they do.  Who they are becomes what they do; how good they are becomes what we expect them to do or to become.  And so self-concept becomes what the adults think I should become.  Self-esteem becomes what adults like about me.  And so affirmation becomes external, love become conditional, acceptance becomes qualified.  You are good if... you are a star if... I love you if....

So one has to be a ballerina, the other has to be the best swimmer, the other has to be the top of the class, the other has to be a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer and everything others expect them to be.

I am not saying that these are in themselves bad.  I am not labelling these the result of bad parenting.  I believe I am not qualified to say that.  But I would just like to present to you a contrast. 

You know, God is different.  God is different.  In baptism in particular God is different.  St. Paul would say, God loved us even while we were yet unlovable.  In the book of Genesis God looked at everything that he created and he pronounced them very good.  Even before man did something, he was already very good.  When Jeremiah argued before God that he was not qualified for anything which God is asking him to do, God told him, Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you, so do not be afraid for I am always with you.

What I am presenting is the most basic affirmation which everyone of us must have and it is also the affirmation of last appeal when all else fails.  Let us not pretend.  We are older now, I have fifty years of experience in the world.  Some of you here have more.  And we all know what it is and how it is out there.  We fail in many ways and when our self-esteem and self-concept is dependent on the externals, on what we do, on what others think about us, on what others expect from us, then we will have a very hard time in life.  We must acquire this core belief, this deeper self-concept which nobody can steal from us, which nobody can take always from us, that no matter what we are loved, that no matter what we are very good, no matter what we are the apple of God's eyes – even if all else fails.  Teach that. Don't fail to teach this to your child.  Baptism is the kiss of God to this child.  It spells the difference between the beast transformed by beauty's love and first kiss in the beauty and the beast, and between the creature so unloved even by its creator Dr. Victor Frankenstein and became the monster that he is now known as Frankenstein's.

Value your baptism – it is God's first kiss, it is God's first hug.  It is enduring love, enduring affirmation, constant and true, even if all else fails.