ON THE HORIZON OF THE MILLENNIUM

Love is something real. We can experience it. But it's not a physical object that we can hand someone a piece of. So we give gifts - flowers or candy perhaps; we say the words; we embrace. That's the way it has to be. We are physical beings, living in a physical world, and we communicate in a physical way. These physical expressions of love are not the same as love itself, but they are all we have.

Jesus used physical signs to convey love too. He especially used touch and words; he laughed, and he wept. And he is still using physical signs today - the signs of the sacraments. Sacraments bring about what they symbolize. Thus the ritual of baptism symbolizes the soul being cleansed of original sin at the same time that God is making that cleansing happen.

But, just as our own limited signs of love cannot keep a relationship going without reciprocation on the part of the gifted one(s), a sacrament's great potential can only be turned into actuality if we do our part. And that's the hard part. It means taking a risk. It means trusting. It means not only having faith, but being willing to "keep the faith," no matter what.

Taking the Plunge The word "baptism" means "a plunging." When we are baptized, we plunge into the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Jesus even called his passion and death a baptism: "I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!" (LK 12:50).

Baptism confers the very character of Christ. It is permanent and irrevocable, a once-and-for-always sacrament. It is the sign of salvation given to us by Christ to bring us into the kingdom of God (Jn 3:5). It gives the baptized a share in Christ's priesthood, and the power, therefore, to worship. That is why baptism is the first sacrament, before which no other sacraments can be celebrated.

Saint Paul emphasized that baptism was the beginning of a deep and vital union with the risen Lord (Rom 6:4-11). The baptized person lives "in Christ," and since all the roads Jesus traveled led to Jerusalem and the cross, so too it must be for the Christian. There are no shortcuts to resurrection.

One who is plunged into the baptismal waters emergs a new creature with a new life. This new life is the Holy Spirit, who makes a home in us and gives us the power not only to know God but to do all that God requires. Christ's invitation to baptism is one of universal and limitless love, therefore open to all, infants and children as well as adults. But being baptized is only the beginning of faith.