Reflections in Ordinary Time

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 26, 2005

Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were 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 walk in newness of life.

Romans 6: 3-4

Starting Over

My computer has several very useful features that I wish I had on myself. I can't even count the number of times a day I wish I could click Undo on myself. Sometimes when I have to make decisions I could use a pop-up feature that asks Are you sure? I could really use functions such as Cancel, Delete, and System Restore. I wish I had an ESC key on me. And when I get myself into a really big mess, it would be nice to be able to Ctrl+Alt+Delete and do Shut Down and Restart.

But a human life is much more complicated than a computer. No computer will ever be developed that can handle all the programming God has put into each of us. And although God provides very good technical support, our system doesn't always work well. But God provides a feature that is better than anything the software companies will ever come up with. It is called Baptism, and we can download it for free.

We tend to think of baptism as a ritual that happened sometime in the past. Those of us who were raised in traditions that practice infant baptism know about ours only by hearsay. But baptism is more than a ritual, more than an event recorded in a church registry and noted on a certificate. It is a sacrament, which means it transcends the distinction between historical time and eternal life. It didn't happen just once; it is ongoing.

Our baptism is a continual dying and rising, a continual starting over. Through our baptism we become sharers in the death and resurrection of Jesus. And because Jesus bridged the divide between time and eternity, between the human and the divine, we too, though still rooted in this world for a time, are already reaching out to eternal life.

Through our baptism we are no longer burdened by our personal histories. We can put our sins behind us, forget about everything that has happened, and start over. Every time we recite the Creed, we profess to believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. That is one belief we should put into practice.

Most of us do not use our Start Over feature nearly as often as we should. Our operating system is bogged down because we have too much of our past stored in our memory. We don't need most of it. We would do better if we sent a lot of it our recycle bin.

Today would be a good day to start over, to be restored to the state of grace, to be a completely new person, and to walk with God in newness of life.

Father, you call your children to walk in the light of Christ. Free us from darkness and keep us in the radiance of your truth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.

- from the mass for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time