Heart of the Homily
Join us as we revisit Sunday’s Gospel and homily by Fr Vigoa, digging deeper into it’s message and how we can take it from the pew into the rest of our week. We hope “heart of the homily” podcast helps to transform and shape how you pray, think, live and love this week.
Heart of the Homily
Episode 044 - Podcast | How Baptism Breaks The Past And Claims The Future
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We open the Baptism of the Lord with Matthew’s Gospel, then draw a bold line from Jean Valjean’s mercy moment to the font. We challenge cultural habits that reduce baptism to tradition and show how identity as beloved sons and daughters fuels mission.
• Meaning of Jesus’ baptism as mission and revelation of the Trinity
• Mercy in Les Misérables as a living image of rebirth
• Baptism as adoption and full inheritance in Christ
• Grafted into the Body of Christ, not just “being nice”
• Why parents must know the why of baptism
• Moving from rite of passage to lived identity
• How to unwrap baptism through prayer, Scripture, and community
• Letting the Father’s delight reorder worth and relationships
• Practical checks for thoughts, words, and deeds
• Annual practice of celebrating your baptism date
Find your baptism date and consider celebrating it yearly.!
Thank you for listening! Visit us at www.saintaugustinechurch.org
Welcome And Feast Day Setup
SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to Heart of the Homily Podcast. My name is Michelle Lopez, and I'm here with Father Rigoba, who's our host. How's it going, Michelle? Good. Happy. I was gonna say Monday, but it is Tuesday. Happy Tuesday.
SPEAKER_02Happy Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01Um, excited for our conversation today because this is one of my favorite feast days.
SPEAKER_02You know, I was when I was driving over here, I was saying, you know, this is Michelle's podcast.
Reading The Baptism Of Jesus
SPEAKER_01No, no. Um, that's not how we prepped, Father. So I don't know, I don't know. Okay. But um, but yeah, so this weekend we celebrated the end of Christmas. So Sunday was still Christmas, right? That's right. And it's the baptism of the Lord. So so beautiful because Jesus' baptism teaches us so much about ours. Um, so I thought I'd start off by actually sharing about the gospel. It's short and sweet. So I'll read it from um from the gospel of Matthew, and then we'll break open your homily, which was very beautiful and powerful. Um, and I think had some great challenges to it of really um asking if we know what baptism is and are we living it ourselves. Right. So um a lot to chat about. Okay, so this is from the Holy Gospel of Matthew, chapter three. Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized baptized by him. John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me. Jesus said to him in reply, Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed it. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water, and behold, the heavens were open for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_02Powerful.
SPEAKER_01Powerful and beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Beautiful.
SPEAKER_01So, Father, you're you actually started with another powerful story in your homily. Um, so maybe we can open up by sharing. How did you kind of connect those? I thought it was very well done and um and striking the um the connection that you made looking at Well, I was always uh taken by Victor Hugo's novel of Le Metzrobles.
SPEAKER_02I I read it in high school. We had this incredible English lit teacher who just loved classics, and we read a lot during that year, and um she just broke it open. But it was more of she was trying to teach us through English literature. Like, what is the novel trying to address at that time? And I I would I never forgot the lessons that she taught. And it was basically that Victor Hugo was addressing 19th century France. It was like a moral indictment on what was happening in France. It was um the way the the prisons, the the legal system, the way that society treated the poor. Um, and so that was I always it just always stuck with me. And and then later on, um the way that that whole Jean Valjean, that whole scene, and and I mentioned that anomaly, how it it just turns on that one moment when the police drag him back to the bishop's house. All right, let's see if you're he gave you this. All right, we're gonna see if he really, in fact, gave this to you. And also the movie, I've seen the movie. I don't know if you've seen the movie of the movies, it's very powerful, it's very well done. Um, where he's standing there and he's looking at the bishop, like, what is it? My whole life depends on the words that are gonna come out of this man's mouth. And he's probably super upset that I just stole his silver and I left in the middle of the night. Um, so I can almost all this is going through his mind, and it's in that precise moment where he is saying, It's all done for me. Uh uh losing my freedom, I'm losing everything. I'm going to jail maybe forever. Um and the bishop says, Oh, I'm so glad you came back. Oh my gosh. Here, I I you left the two candlesticks. Here they are. Yes, police officer, I gave this to him. What an act of mercy.
SPEAKER_01Act of mercy. Yeah. That changed.
Baptism Beyond Tradition
SPEAKER_02Complete act of mercy. And that's what I was trying to say. If you want to understand what baptism does, there's a literary idea, a literary image that's very easy to understand. If you really dive into the to the book or to the movie, it helps you and on on a you know, on a on a level where you can understand what baptism did for you on that day.
SPEAKER_01Well, that rebirth. That rebirth connected to that where because of this act of because of him encountering mercy so powerfully and also knowing his own weakness and sinfulness.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Like that mercy gave him this rebirth into a life of of virtue, of goodness, of generosity to others. It kind of um I love the the tie because I think sometimes we're very familiar with baptism that it's like, oh yeah, baptism is great, but like how we encountered the mercy of what baptism is that sets us off in a different direction of how we live life with generosity, with mercy towards others, towards um the goodness of God and and mission. So it's great.
Identity As Adopted Sons And Daughters
SPEAKER_02And I was trying to say in the homily that it's you can't see baptism as a rite of passage or this is our family tradition. We've all been baptized, so you're gonna be baptized, and hey, the baby's born. When are we gonna baptize the baby? Because that's just what we do. We're Catholics. But do you understand what baptism is? Do you understand what baptism did? Um, and so that's what that's what I tried to do this weekend because and and also too, a lot of people want to know well, why was Jesus baptized? Why did Jesus need to be baptized? And I've I've preached on that before. I think last year that's what I preached on. Um but I felt this year the the more urgent question was do we really truly understand what baptism does? That baptism changes what we are, right? Um I mean, I I've always when I think of baptism, I think of you, Michelle, because you are one of the first persons that I maybe the only person I've ever met that really makes baptism such an important part of who you are. Like I remember, no, I don't celebrate my birth my birthday, I celebrate the day of my baptism, which I love that, right? Uh a lot of people don't do that. Um, but I love it why because you're you're you're living something that I tell parents when I baptize their kids. I say the most important day of this kid is the day of their baptism. And you celebrate the day of your birth baptism.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's not that I don't like my birthday. I love my birthday. Right, of course. But um, so I celebrate my birthday, but then I celebrate my baptism day. It's the bigger deal. It's it's the one that changed everything about who I am and where I'm heading, like with the whole of my life and also my destiny. And I think um, but also for for me, celebrating my baptism day has been um the place where I check in with God the Father every year. I kind of look back at like what this past year has been, you know, and living my life for him and um and just being able to rejoice at his goodness and faithfulness. And then it's also like a time where I'm like, okay, well, you know, what do I desire? How do how do I desire to grow with you, Lord, this year? So it's also like a check-in moment, recognizing that um faith is something that you have to be intentional about of growing. But also it's a day to celebrate, like that it's a gift. Like the gift of baptism is nothing I can earn. Like I've gotten the best identity card in the world, which is a daughter of God the Father, and that can't be taken from me. But that identity gives me the direction, the lens through which to see myself, my life, the world, and like that everything's such a gift. Like God Father loves me and takes care of me and provides for me. Um, and it changes, yeah, it changes who I am.
SPEAKER_02But you live it, and and it's not just words, like you're saying some beautiful things there. But what I want, and if the people that are watching or listening to us, if they know you, you know that this is something that you incarnate, this is something that you live. But a question that I have for you is you teach the baptism class for parents and godparents. What is what is something that that surprises you in that class with people who are maybe listening to some of the materials, the church teachings for the first time. What surprises you?
SPEAKER_01I think what surprises me is um many parents and godparents come in there knowing that it's something good, right? But they don't know why. They don't know the why of baptism.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Teaching Parents The Why Of Baptism
SPEAKER_01And also how um it transforms everything. That it's foundational, but you know, especially in the catechism, it talks about like baptism is the roots, it's the roots of the whole organic spiritual life. And so, like, if we don't understand baptism, then everything that's built upon baptism is gonna be a little shaky.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Like that baptism gives a foundation piece. And I think what surprises me is um I try to I try to make baptism come to the life, not just in like a catechetical way, but in the heart. And really in that class, it's we learn the facts of baptism, but a lot of what I focus on is like those facts have to come into the heart and the way that you see the world. So, yes, like we become children of God, but do you know that you are a son of God, a daughter of God? Like, is that the way you see yourself? Right. You know, so I try to like connect it to um that baptism is a gift that has to be enwrapped, and you have to do it for yourself first before you're able to do it for your children.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um I love that. That's you are a son, you are a daughter, an adopted son or adopted daughter of the father. And that's not to say that second class. No, you are you're inheriting full sonship with the father, uh, with the son and the father. And it that was an important point that I wanted to make. Jesus is son by nature. We are son, daughter by adoption. And I I talked a little bit about that. And there were people, I there were two parents and one girl who came up to me after mass saying, Thank you for explaining that. I have adopted children. And then the one girl says, I'm adopted. And what you said today meant so much to me. I was like, wow.
SPEAKER_01That's such a such a clarifying thing. Because sometimes when you hear adopted, you know, it's I don't know, there's like a second grade or second grade, you're not second grade. But then also they there's such a background to that that they don't understand, which you know, in the Jewish culture, like when you adoption that happened, like there's no difference between adoption and blood. Like you became that, you know? Yes. I think um it's a powerful clarification. Um, and then also an invitation to know, like, I I just love um like we're given everything, but like the father waits for us to want it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, so in baptism, we're given like everything we need, but the father is like waiting for us to unwrap it and waiting for us. He's basically saying, like, do you want to be my daughter? Do you want to be my son?
SPEAKER_02And there's the whole freedom.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And I think a lot of um, like in that baptism class, we talk a lot about that, where many times like we haven't answered him yet. You know, we have the gift, but we've never we've never unwrapped it.
SPEAKER_02So many people don't. And I think that that was the the main thing of the homily this weekend was do we really understand what happened? And are we unpacking that gift, this magnificent gift that like Saint Gregory Venicentian says, it's a magnificent gift, and it's even it's called a grace because it's given to those who who are guilty.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And that was Jean Baljean at the bishop's door, guilty there, waiting. What do you what's the bishop gonna say? And and that's all of us at the baptismal font. Right? Yeah.
Grafted Into Christ’s Body
SPEAKER_01Um but Yeah, and I think with that too, the um baptism is about like sonship, daughtership. A lot of people, even when they come into class, it's like, oh no, I I know it's because I want them to be washed away of original sin. That's good. But like for what? For what I think that's the whole thing is like we start where like, oh, because original sin, like of course we want that washed away, but just as important is the for what of that. It's for relationship, you know, for that identity card of being beloved son and daughter, um, for communion with God the Father. And I think that for what piece is missing many times where we know baptism is good, we know it's a washing away of this, but the for what and and basically for the prize in which it r gives us, you know, like the for the gift that's given to us, we might not ever, you know, go to the bank to receive it. We might not cash it out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I I may I what I said in the Homeland was that we know that baptism uh destroys sin, right? And but one of the most important parts of this is that we're grafted onto the body of Christ. We're grafted into Christ. And I love that image of if you see a living human body, right? You know maybe the anatomy well or or the physiology of a body. We're that living cell within that body. Because I like how do you understand that I'm grafted into Christ or I'm into Christ? Well, think of a living cell. How many cells does a body have? Like a living cell inside that body of Christ. Um and it's important, and also something you were mentioning earlier, the this whole idea of the importance of understanding who I am, that I am a son, that I am a daughter of the of the father. And and if I if I know that I that I belong, that I'm his, that I don't beg like an orphan. Right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And many people we live like that. We live begging like if we're orphans.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and with it with a distrust of the father that he really cares for us. Children who belong, right? Right. And I think that's the imitation of our baptism is going back to like the foundation, which is like, do we know that God is a good father? Do we know that he's actually out for our good and our our needs?
The Father’s Delight Before We Achieve
SPEAKER_02Um he doesn't just forgive us, he adopts us.
SPEAKER_01Right. It takes us in, takes us in, um, calls us his own. And I think, you know, it's it's it's foundational, but it's key because it goes back to that childlike faith that is essential, you know, to entering to the gates of heaven. But like that childlikeness to know that um no matter our age, that's the core of our identity as a son or daughter of God the Father first, before any other identity comes, you know, even before being a sister or brother for others, or to be a spouse of someone or a mother and father. Like those are all identities that build upon that foundational piece of being secure in your sonship or daughtership. And that security, I think, is what where people are tested. Like, are we secure and knowing that God is love, that God is providing for us, that we have nothing to fear? And if we can run to God the Father with our fears, with our sins, with our weaknesses, and and know that he's going to receive us and is out for our good, then it's gonna free us to take on these other roles with like a freedom, but not a neediness. And I think that's where the tension is sometimes is if we're insecure in that core identity. You see it in the way that we play out the other roles.
SPEAKER_02It's it's easy to fall into that too. It's easy to forget, it's easy to allow uh the noise, the distractions, the stress of life to beat us down in such a way that we forget our identity. We forget uh, and I see it too a lot of times in in couples, like married couples, who if you only understand who you are as a husband, as a wife, and that your role or your your your sonship or your daughtership is first your relationship with God. And if that's a solid relationship and and understanding everything that you just laid out, which is beautiful, if you get to that place of freedom, then every other relationship in your life falls into place as wife, as husband, as father, uh uh brother, whatever it is, all those other relationships fall into place because that first identity of who I am is is so important and needs to be uh it needs to be foundational in the sense that I know it for a fact. I know it to the core of who I am. Because if I don't know who I am, then it there there's gonna be a huge problem in in how I live my life or with everyone else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02And that's a confusion that we're having today, 20 in 2026 in our society.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of people think they are what they do, right?
SPEAKER_02And I think or they are what the mistakes they've made or the sins that they've had, or uh no, you're not.
Why Jesus Was Baptized
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And even where baptism falls in the story of Jesus, it's before he does anything. You know, that God the Father says, You are my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. Well pleased about he hasn't done anything, you know? Like, but I think it's so striking, but also really challenging to us because literally, like, that's where I think the challenge is is like God loves us, not because we're doing everything right or because like we've earned his love. But the truth of God's love is like he loves us because we simply exist. Like we are his masterpiece, you know, that he thought into loved into creation, um, loved into existence and he delights that we exist, which is what families, you know, when uh mom and dad have, or like parents have uh a children, which is why the baptism class I think is so such a great moment because they're experiencing a little piece of the father's heart at that moment, right? Where they have a newborn baby and they're like, I love this baby. And like, but the baby's not doing anything, you know. The baby's like, if anything, the baby's just making messes, you know. But like the love that's being, you know, coming from the heart, welling from the heart is a small taste of literally like God's heart for us. We're like that the father's love being delighted in like because we exist, you know, and if we can experience that profound love and like allow ourselves to, then we have our baptismal identity becomes restored. And it and that freedom and that healing begins to happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and people, some again, not judging, but have not had that experience.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's something to ask for.
The Trinity Revealed At The Jordan
SPEAKER_02And it's something to ask for, it's something to live again, it's something to live by, it's something to really make a conscious decision to wrestle with it and try to understand how do I fit in all this? How do I see this? How how does how how do I um to the core of who I am um live this? Um but I I do want to address the the whole why did why was Jesus baptized in the first place? I I think that's important. I think some people left the church maybe wanting to know. And we have to establish right away the church teaches in a very clear way that Jesus is sinless, right? So um he goes into the waters of the Jordan um not for forgiveness of sins, but I and what the church teaches also too is to um for mission, right? So his whole let me be baptized, allow this, he says, for all righteousness is for mission. And uh Saint Augustine says that he allows himself to be baptized to purify the waters.
SPEAKER_01I love that.
SPEAKER_02I love that. That's my favorite, favorite understanding of any of the church doctors where he's saying that he allows himself to be baptized to. Cleanse those waters.
SPEAKER_01Of the whole world. Of the whole world. Like they study that that's actually real. Yeah. Like the Jordan River and how it also, like it literally goes into the ocean that goes into the world.
SPEAKER_02Yes. They have studied this.
SPEAKER_01It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02And it makes a lot of sense. But also, too, there's a lot of talk. You and you've heard this of how Jesus in in solidarity, where he teaches us everything that Jesus did from being from the moment that he's here and that moment of his public ministry, what is he doing? He's pointing to the Father. How does he point to the Father? His life points us to the Father. His life points to eternal life. I will be baptized, not because I need it, but because I need to show you the way. This is the way. And also taking on all the sins of the world, right? So Jesus takes on all those sins and is he dives into those waters. Um and I and I I love that image where it's do what I do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's pointing to his the death that will happen and the rising that will happen.
SPEAKER_02The death and the new birthday.
SPEAKER_01There's like beauty and brilliance to even you know him being baptized and how he did, and it being a different baptism than ours, but the first step of us understanding and unpacking his command to baptize later.
Mercy That Restores Dignity And Mission
SPEAKER_02Also true to um this whole uh revelation of the Trinity there at the baptism of Jesus, which is powerful. It's the Father speaks, the Son is revealed, um, the Spirit descends. And I I think that that's the first public uh Trinitarian revelation uh in in salvation history.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it being just an affirmation of his identity.
SPEAKER_02Again, it's the you said it, it's the affirmation of the identity, identity that I belong to, identity that I am grafted into. I am grafted into that relationship, that Trinitarian relationship. I am grafted into it at baptism. And something that I said at at the homily, which I believe a whole I believe and it's that the love that you were talking about. It's this outpouring of we don't even can't even understand parents when they have the newborn baby, when they have uh this little creature that they they they have in their house now that they they they say, Oh my gosh, I love this little baby so much. That's only just a little bit about what God loves us, right? You you you explained it really well. And and what I said was that at baptism, we hear, we don't hear, but the father is also saying, This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased. You haven't done anything yet, you're just a baby, probably making a mess at your house and crying and keeping your parents up alive, uh uh awake at night, but I love you. There will only be one of you for all eternity. Right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's at the heart of the gospel message that I feel like people don't always hear. Because I think sometimes it's it's thinking that they have to earn God's love. Like, okay, well, I mean, I know the rules and I probably broke them, so you know, God probably doesn't is mad at me if anything. Right. Where it's like it's very transactional. Yeah. And but at the heart of our baptism is is is that is that we're loved because God has willed us into existence out of love.
SPEAKER_00Out of love.
SPEAKER_01And that love, just like that story from um the movie that you're talking about, it's that encounter with that love of mercy that actually changes our life and our response.
SPEAKER_02Think about it. He he encounters mercy and love.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
From Nice To Christian: Belonging To Christ
SPEAKER_02Unmerited, free gift. Bishop doesn't owe him anything. If anything, the bishop should be upset with him. Like, dude, I just I let you in my house, fed you nice warm bed, and you repay me by betraying me. You sneak out and and and steal my stuff. So he had every right to be upset with him and say, I don't want to put you in jail, but why did you do that to me? I was very nice and kind to you. No, God doesn't treat us like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And you're right, absolutely right. That that Jean Valjean has this encounter with love, with mercy. So yeah, he leaves the house that night with silver in his pocket or in his bag, but he leaves with a desire to be better, to understand what is that, what is that mercy, what did that mercy just do to me? It was so radical that it it changes his life forever.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it I think it gave him like this dig dignity back. It gave him his dignity.
SPEAKER_02Restore dignity, restored him to the core.
SPEAKER_01And then he became like Christ. Right. And the way that he started living his life. And again, it wasn't forced, it wasn't because he wanted to follow rules, it was from the inside out. And I think that's the grace of baptism is when it's engaged, it naturally starts transforming.
Unwrapping Baptism Through A Lived Faith
SPEAKER_02And that's a good point. He became another Christ, right? And a lot of people think that, and I mentioned this in the homily, is saying, well, being a Christian is is not just being kind and courteous. Being a Christian is not just uh being well-intentioned and helping someone. Those are great attributes, and everyone should do that. And that those are some Christian uh, but what I was trying to say is that people of goodwill, they could be atheists, it could be people can be morally nice and generous, doesn't mean that they're Christian, but what separates you from being Christian is I am grafted onto the body of Christ at that moment of my baptism. And it separates me from everyone else in the sense that I belong to him. I am his, I am the beloved son, the beloved daughter of the Father. And that's what that's what being Christian is all about. Being grafted onto the body of Christ. I I talked at the homily about how a lot of people, uh, like a lot of coaches and and football players are uh sharing about sharing their faith and and and reporters are saying, what was that all about? That is amazing. And let me give glory to God first. And and you have some guys, some some footballers saying, all glory to Jesus Christ, my savior, or because of my redeemer. Well, they're not saying, oh, because I did good things or because I'm a good football player, or uh none of that. They're saying who I am today is because of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I've been grafted on. They don't say this, but that's right. That would be that maging theology football players. And I'd be like, wow. Um, maybe they take some theology classes. But um yeah, it's it's it's powerful what we're seeing. I think there is a change and a shift in in what's going on in society today. People are taking their faith a little bit more serious. I think that people are hungry for truth and for goodness and to live uh with integrity. And also, too, I think there's a lot more out there, more content for people to uh to listen to and align themselves with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and to be challenged, I think, to grow and to begin to really unpack um what their faith really means for them. Father, what would you what would your thoughts be or like recommendation be for someone that might be listening? And um what does it mean that maybe we haven't unwrapped our baptism? Or what does it mean that maybe we might be baptized but not evangelized?
SPEAKER_02Could you maybe share a little bit about like how that Yeah, I I think that that is that was the core of the whole homily is we we see we treat baptism as a rite of passage or a family tradition. Is this who we are? So we just baptize, we we baptize uh as Catholics. But how do we unwrap it? Is it's coming to understand who I am in light of my baptism. And to unwrap that is to take it slow and to understand my faith, coming into uh to know my faith. A lot of the stuff that we've been talking about for so long, it's uh joining a Bible study, being an active in a ministry, uh coming to Mass faithfully every single Sunday, listen to the homilies, listen to the scriptures, ask the right questions, because all of that is gonna ultimately lead you to a desire to know more. Why? Because there's a truth that lies outside of you. And that truth of the capital T is Jesus Christ. And so when I come to know him, right, um, and serve him and love him, then it just opens up like a door. It's so clear of what happened to me on the day of my baptism. This this gift that was given to me that I didn't deserve, I didn't merit, um, just completely free. I begin to understand it. But if you're not living the life of the faith, if you're not living a life in the church, you're not gonna understand it. Somebody, somebody could understand, somebody could give you the most beautiful definition, someone could give you an amazing explanation, or even listening to this podcast, and they're like, that sounds nice. But unless you're living it, struggling with it, trying to apply it in your life, being structured, being disciplined in in every aspect of your walk with Christ and your discipleship, you're not gonna understand what we're talking about. You're not gonna understand what it means to unpack my baptism. And it goes back to identity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Words, Deeds, Thoughts Aligned To Identity
SPEAKER_02Who do you belong to? What is your life about? And so it goes back to really living the faith. Once you start living the faith, then you're gonna be able to really understand what it means to unpack uh baptism. Look, Jean Valjean received that grace, right? He put it into practice. He decided at that very moment, I am not gonna be the same guy that I was before. I have been reborn. And you see it in the movie, he changes his life completely, right? And so it is through the process of this transformation, a process of living day in, day out, of decisions that you make to say, I don't want to be that way anymore. Why because grace makes it impossible for me to return to my old life? Why because I've been reborn. But it's only in that walk that I can really understand what my baptism did.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And like you were saying, even with the example of his life, you know, in words and deeds and in thoughts, you know, those are the things that became transformed to align to the truth of the baptism, the truth to being a son or daughter, the father, the truth of the new person that he was, you know, walking into becoming. And I think that's a that's a great invitation for for us is we want to know the facts of baptism, but then it's like, how are we seeing that being lived out in our words, deeds, and especially our thoughts? Absolutely. Being able to really um help allow our baptism to influence the way that we see the world, to see ourselves, to see God and to see all circumstances.
Practical Steps And A Concrete Challenge
SPEAKER_02Be accountable, be accountable to yourself, be accountable to your spouse, uh live truth. Have this great desire to say, what does it all mean? Get up, don't be lazy, do the hard work, struggle, ask the right questions, show up. And if you do, slowly you start unpacking it and slowly you figure out and you start to see that wow, I am living the gifts of my baptism. I am a new creation in in the Lord. It's not that we struggle to be good Christians, it's not that's not the struggle. The struggle is that we're not doing our part. Yeah, we're we're too comfortable.
SPEAKER_01Well, even unwrapping, right? Like if God has given the gift, like it's gonna require some work to unwrap it. Right.
SPEAKER_02To do our part in um Well, you were saying that earlier when when you're you're giving your baptism class, it's like, how do I explain this to the parents to be able to unwrap it to its fullest potential?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it's all there. It's all there. It's not like we have to go anywhere else except to unwrap what's been already given through baptism.
SPEAKER_02Everything you need, you already have.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So we are out of time, and this has been a wonderful conversation. And one challenge for our list listeners is um find your baptism date. What date were you baptized, and maybe consider the tradition of celebrating it in some way or putting it on the calendar to acknowledge um that that is a day in which um you heard in your heart that you are a daughter, a son of the father. And yeah.
SPEAKER_02So if you see me after mass, or if you see me out and about, I mean you just shout out a date like May 13th.
SPEAKER_01I like that. I like that.
SPEAKER_02It's code that you're listening to our podcast.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. Or just check us checking the date.
SPEAKER_02Or share with me your baptismal date. I would love to know uh when you were baptized. Thanks, Michelle, for a great show and for all that you do for St. Augustine's and for uh this podcast. And thanks to Miami Miami Community News and uh for all who make this podcast possible for Emily behind the scenes. And uh we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, Father. Great.