The following is a transcript of Bishop Caggiano’s Sunday homily, given January 12 at St. Augustine
We have to make sure we don’t get hurt on this carpet. Boys and girls, why don’t you come up? Whoever wants to come up, come on up. And be careful on the edges of this carpet because it’s so cold, the carpet is like stuck. Come on up. Come around. Come around. Come around. Is there enough room? Come on, let’s… Yeah, perfect. Is there enough room? Come a little closer, boys and girls. Come just a little closer. I don’t want anybody to fall off the edge.
Good morning, boys and girls. We could do better than that. Good morning, boys and girls. Good morning. Much better. Boys and girls, today we celebrate a very important feast. Can anybody tell me what we are celebrating? Tell me. Today is the Christmas that night. Yes, Yes, Jesus was baptized. Who baptized Jesus? Tell me. St. John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist in the River Jordan.
Now, boys and girls, it is important for us and what the Lord does for us today, because there’s a very interesting problem, which chances are you have not yet thought of when it comes to the baptism of Jesus. I’m going to give you the problem and see if you can give me the answer.
You see, St. John was asking people who had sinned to repent, meaning to seek forgiveness of their sins through the baptism he was giving. This is the problem. Jesus had no sins. He is sinless because He is our God. Why did Jesus get baptized? You have an answer. Tell me. That’s how we get baptized, yes. Why do you think so you’re close? Anybody? Anybody out there? Tell me. A plus Did everyone hear that answer? So that Jesus could bless the waters to open the gift of baptism for us all. A plus. Excellent.
You see, boys and girls, today we celebrate the fact that through Jesus’s baptism, Jesus blesses the waters that you and I were baptized with. Now, do you remember your baptism? Chances are no, I certainly don’t because we were little babies. But do you know what happened to you at baptism? So give me an idea. What happened in baptism? Tell me. They put your head under the water. Right. They poured water.
See, in the old church, they actually put you in the water. But now we’re kinder now. Now we just pour water over your head. What happens to you? What happens to your soul? Are your sins forgiven? Yes. It’s originally “Are you washed clean in baptism”? Yes. What else happens? Who comes to visit you? The Holy Spirit. And does He come just for that day? Does He come just for a year? Does He come just for a few years? How long does He stay, the Holy spirit? How long? Forever in you because you are a temple of the Holy Spirit.
See this beautiful church is a temple of the Lord, and we We gather to celebrate the sacruments. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and He is always there to walk with you, to guide you, to protect you, to inspire you, to encourage you, to forgive you. God is always with you, boys and girls. If everybody you knew, turned their back on you, which, please God, will never happen, God will never do that because you’re living inside of you.
What else happens in baptism, boys and girls? More happens. God gives you three gifts, faith, hope, and charity, and they’re like little seeds planted in your soul. You and I go to religious education, which you love to do, don’t you? Oh, we could do better than that.
Don’t we love religious education? Yes, of course we do. And come to Mass every Sunday and pray every day so that those seeds are like water is added to them, they begin to grow so that you can come to know your faith. Who is Jesus? Who is the church? What does He want for you? What is His will to you, to also grow in hope. Because hope, boys and girls, reminds us that this life does not end.
But where are we going? If, please God, we have been good, where do we go after we die? To heaven. And of course, charity is love. Jesus loved us so much that He died for you, and He asks us to love one another. All of this happened to you and me in baptism.
What’s the lesson to be learned today? Is that all these gifts cannot be taken for granted. But as you grow older with the love of your parents and your catechists and those who will form you for all the opportunities you have to pray, to come to Mass, to receive the sacruments, to go to confession when you’re old enough to be confirmed, In all those ways, you allow the gifts I just described that Jesus begins to open up for us today, that they will allow you to grow into a woman or man of Holiness, of greatness, and one day enter eternal life.
My dear friends, the same is true for us. We are the great privilege to come into this sacred space because we have been washed clean, we have been baptized. We have become the adopted sons and daughters of God. To each of us has been given these great gifts, and we should never take them for granted. And when we fail, we should ask for forgiveness to be washed clean again, that we should never lose an opportunity to learn our faith in its fullness and beauty, to grow in the life of the spirit in prayer, here and in the quiet of our hearts, so that we too may receive the destiny of our baptism, which is a place made only for you and me in the glory of everlasting life.
Boys and girls, I have very bad news for you. You want to hear it? Today ends Christmas. I know. Now we go into ordinary time. Next week, when we are together, I will talk a little bit to you about what that means and why what the world considers ordinary, we as Christians consider extraordinary. Thank you for your attention, boys and girls. Off you go.
Back to your places. Be careful on the carpet, boys and girls. Good..
