were baptized into His death?
We were indeed buried with Him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might have newness of life.”
— St. Paul to the Romans, 6:3-4
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Our Christian faith involves a striking and often perplexing paradox: only by dying do we experience life. This is counter-intuitive and difficult to accept. Yet, for the believer, death is not the end of life. As St. Therese of Lisieux, who suffered great physical and spiritual pain, wrote shortly before her death at the age of 24, “I am not dying, I am entering life.” This young mystic grasped an elemental truth about our Christian faith.
In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are immersed into water, signifying our burial into Jesus’death, from which we rise up by resurrection with Him as a new creature (CCC 1214). The power of sin is destroyed through Jesus’ death, and at baptism, we die to our old, sinful way of life. Those who are baptized wear a white garment, signaling that we have “put on” Christ. It announces that we are configured to and belong to Christ. It gives witness to our faith that we will rise with Him (CCC 1243).
However, this “putting on Christ” and sharing in His death is not confined to our baptism. We know that if we are to follow Jesus, we must also share in His suffering and carry His cross daily. Jesus said the cross was a condition for discipleship: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 16:24-25). In practice, this is a difficult saying, for all of us. In the fifteenth century, Thomas à Kempis in “The Imitation of Christ,” wrote,
Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but He has few bearers of His Cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire his tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but He finds few who will be with Him in His abstinence and fasting. All men would joy with Christ, but few will suffer anything for Christ. Many follow Him to the breaking of His bread, for their bodily refreshment, but few will follow Him to drink a draft of the chalice of His Passion. Many honor His miracles, but few will follow the shame of His Cross and His other ignominies. Many love Jesus as long as no adversity befalls them, and can praise and bless Him whenever they receive any benefits from Him, but if Jesus withdraws a little from them and forsakes them a bit, they soon fall into some great grumbling or excessive dejection or into open despair (Book II, 11).
In a special way, this penitential season of Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ suffering and death and to join our own suffering to His. Lent also invites us to turn away from our sinful way of life, to die to self-interest, and to walk more closely with Jesus, giving evidence of this through prayer, fasting, almsgiving.
This Lenten theme of experiencing death in order to have new life surely applies to our experience now as we together take on the work of revitalizing parish life and responding to the challenges confronting our Church. As we move forward with the reconfiguration of parishes in the diocese, we know that in many ways we, too, must die to self. We are a pilgrim people. And, like the Israelites who went without fish, vegetables, and herbs while in exile from Egypt (Num 11:4-6), we too must sometimes leave the familiar and the comfortable in order to follow God’s promise and to experience new life.
As we begin our Lenten journey, we recall that our baptism is a sacramental bond of unity. Through our baptism, we belong no longer to ourselves, but to Jesus, who died and rose for us. (CCC 1269) We are united to one another, to those of our own parishes, to those in other areas of the diocese, and to the People of God worldwide. Our focus is never narrow. It never points inward.
As Jesus reminds us, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (Jn 12:24) We pray that with God’s grace we will carry in us the life of Jesus, that we will suffer with Him, that we will make sacrifices in order to be fruitful, with the prayerful hope that if we have died with Christ, we also will live forever with Him.
May God bless you and your families.
Fraternally,
Most Reverend Joseph A. Galante, D.D., J.C.D.
Bishop of Camden