WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:13.439 In Victor's In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, there's a moment so decisive that the entire story turns on it. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:27.120 Jean Valjean, you may remember, a man hardened by prison, injustice, and survival, is welcomed into the home of a Catholic bishop. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:35.920 He's fed, he's given a bed, he's treated not as a criminal but as a man with dignity. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:45.200 And yet still trapped in the instincts of his old life, Jean repays mercy with betrayal. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.039 He steals the bishop's silver and disappears into the night. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:01:01.439 When he is caught and dragged by back by the police, Jean knows exactly what awaits him. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:09.439 Everything, his future, his freedom, his life depends on what the bishop will say next. 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:13.680 And then comes the miracle. 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:25.439 The bishop looks at Jean Valjean, not with fear, not with anger, but with the authority that only mercy possesses. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:30.239 And he says, Oh yes, I gave him the silver. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:38.319 In fact, I'm glad that he returned because I also gave him the silver candlesticks, but he forgot to take them. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:48.480 In that very moment, Jean Valjean is not merely spared punishment, he is reborn. 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:52.879 Grace overwhelms judgment. 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:55.920 Mercy interrupts destiny. 00:01:56.719 --> 00:02:00.319 And John walks out of that house a different man. 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:08.400 Not because he earned it, not because he deserved it, but because grace claimed him. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:20.000 That moment, that moment is one of the closest literary images we have to understanding what baptism actually does. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:28.560 Today the church celebrates the baptism of the Lord, the final feast of the Christmas season. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:33.520 And while we often ask, why was Jesus baptized in the first place? 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:35.520 Why did he need baptism? 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.919 It's an important, rich, necessary question. 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:44.719 But the more urgent question for us today is this. 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:51.360 Do we know what happened to us when we were baptized? 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:59.360 Because if we truly understand or truly understood, we would never live the same way again. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.560 Baptism is not a religious rite of passage. 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:11.280 It's not some family tradition that we do. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:21.599 Baptism is an ontological rupture, a decisive break with the old creation and birth to a new one. 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:28.560 The church calls baptism vitale spiritualis yanu. 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.680 The door, the door to spiritual life. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:40.800 It's not one sacrament among many, it is the sacrament that changes what you are. 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:52.319 I always remind parents on the day when they're baptizing their children, this today, on this baptism, is the most important day of this child's life. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:57.120 Which brings us to a deceptively simple question. 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.000 What does it mean to be Christian? 00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:09.919 Being a Christian does not mean being polite, does not mean being moral, does not mean well-intentioned. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:15.840 Those things matter, don't get me wrong, but they're not uniquely Christian. 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:23.680 People of good will, believers, agnostics, even atheists can live generous ethical lives. 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.759 To be Christian is something far more radical. 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:32.240 To be a Christian is to be grafted on to Christ. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:35.839 Jesus is the Son of God by nature. 00:04:36.399 --> 00:04:39.360 He shares the Father's life eternally. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:45.920 He is holy, sinless, and dwelling, it's the dwelling place of the Spirit. 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:51.120 And through baptism, something staggering happens. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:55.920 You are inserted into his relationship with the Father. 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:04.000 And the church teaches without hesitation that in baptism, every sin is destroyed. 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:15.680 You are incorporated into the body of Christ not as a member of an organization, but as a living cell inside the body. 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:19.680 The Holy Spirit takes up residence in you. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:28.240 You are adopted as a son or a daughter of the Father, and you become a co-heir with Christ to eternal life. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:32.399 Now listen carefully, Jesus is son by nature. 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:37.279 We become son or daughter by adoption. 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:42.879 And adoption is not second-class sonship, it is full inheritance. 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:51.120 That's why Jesus then dares to say, Come, let us together pray to our Father, our Father. 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:52.480 St. 00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:58.879 Gregory of Nesene said it plainly, baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:04.319 It is called a gift because it is given to those who bring nothing of their own. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:09.040 It is a grace because it is given even to those who are guilty. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:13.519 That's Jean Valjean at the bishop's door. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:18.240 That's every one of us at the baptismal font. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:21.920 And here's a part that should unsettle us. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:27.439 Jean Valjean was not changed because he escaped punishment. 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:31.519 He was not changed because he walked away with silver. 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:35.519 He was changed because mercy demanded a response. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:38.879 Baptism is not magic. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.040 Grace is not passive. 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:43.759 Adoption carries obligation. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:51.600 If baptism has grafted us into Christ, then his life must begin to appear in us. 00:06:53.360 --> 00:07:00.160 How we love, how we forgive, how we live, that's the Christian way. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:08.480 At the Jordan, the Father speaks, he says, You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:12.240 Those words were spoken over you at your baptism. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:18.879 And if that's true, then mediocrity is no longer an option. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:24.079 Then sin is no longer compatible with your identity. 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:29.759 Then faith cannot remain private, dormant, or occasional. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:35.519 Baptism does not simply forgive the past, it claims the future. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:45.120 It calls you to holiness, it calls you to mission, it calls you to die to the old self and again and again begin new. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.519 The tragedy is not that many Catholics struggle. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:55.120 The tragedy is that many Catholics forget who they are and who they belong to. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.639 They live as though baptism changed nothing. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.519 But today, standing at the Jordan, the church says, Remember, I need you to remember. 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.480 Remember the grace you did not earn. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:19.680 Remember the identity you did not choose, remember the inheritance you did not deserve, and then live accordingly. 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:24.879 Because when grace is truly received, lives change. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:29.199 Jean Valjean never went back to being who he was. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:35.440 Not because his past disappeared, but because it no longer defined him. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.720 Mercy did not erase his history, it reclaimed it. 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:45.679 Grace did not deny his sin, it stripped it of its power. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.559 And can't you see what that means for all of us? 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.080 We are not our sins. 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:02.559 We are not our mistakes, we are not our failures, we are not the names the enemy tries to convince us that we are. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:06.000 Baptism declares something stronger. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:11.600 Our identity is no longer written by our past, but by God's mercy. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:19.360 Jean left the bishop's house carrying silver, but more importantly, he left carrying a new self. 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:26.799 We leave the baptismal font carrying something infinitely greater, the very life of Christ within us. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:30.159 To be a Christian is to understand this. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:34.240 To proclaim I belong to Jesus. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:41.120 Have you noticed lately how football players and coaches are all proclaiming their love for Jesus? 00:09:41.279 --> 00:09:42.559 Have you seen this? 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.519 This is what I'm talking about. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:47.919 They're declaring a truth. 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:49.279 I am Christian. 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:51.279 I belong to Him. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:56.799 I was grafted onto the body of Christ when I became a Christian at baptism. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:09:59.440 That sets us apart. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:06.480 So the question this feast leaves us with is not whether baptism worked. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:11.120 The question is whether we are living as if it matters. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:17.039 Because no one who truly encounters mercy remains unchanged. 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:22.639 No one adopted by the Father keeps living as an orphan. 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:29.440 No one grafted onto Christ can live small, guarded, half-hearted lives. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:37.840 Jean Valjean never returned to his former life because grace made that return impossible. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:41.519 Baptism has done the same thing for you. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:48.639 And so, my brothers and sisters, how will you proclaim to the world that you belong to Christ? 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:51.200 How will you live? 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:53.360 The choice is yours. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:54.480 Amen.