Getting a New Address
March 29, 2023
Fr. John Riccardo
In just ten short days, at the Easter Vigil, tens of thousands of men and women, all across the world, are going to change addresses. They’re going to move from the house of an abusive, debilitating tyrant into the home of a good Father.
They’re going to be baptized.
Few things can compare for me with baptizing an adult. Most of us standing in the font on that wondrous night are filled with a holy jealousy, as we watch men and women walk into the water one way and leave another. To be clear, infant baptism really does something too. But an adult walks into the font with decades of shame and sin, and walks out recreated, transformed, with a beaming smile the likes of which I’ve never seen on anyone else’s face.
St. Paul writes, “He has delivered [rescued] us from the dominion [lordship, authority, ruling power, force] of darkness [abode of evil spirits, blindness] and transferred [transplanted] us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption [freedom, liberation], the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14).
This actually happens when a person is baptized.
Baptism is like receiving a new “spiritual passport.” If we could see such a thing, the “passport” we entered the world with declared, “This child has no hope. They are bound by the kingdoms of Death and Sin. There is no escape.” This isn’t because God is some distant judge who must be appeased by enough good things to earn His love. This stark, harsh reality is our own doing. At the dawn of history in the Garden, our first parents fell for the deception of the enemy, and our race has been enslaved to powers we cannot defeat or escape from ever since.
This is why St. Peter, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, says to the religious leaders, “Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). In other words, no one but Jesus, the God-man, who has defeated the strong man, abolished Death, and become sin for us, can overthrow the powers that enslave this race. His passion and death, while oh so real, were also a trap into which Jesus was luring our enemy to enter. And he entered! And by the Lord's glorious resurrection from the dead, he has bound “the strong man,” dislodged Sin and Death, and made it possible for God’s project for the human race to get back on track. Now, with these powers overthrown, we are given back our lives, if you will. Now, reborn in baptism and forgiven our sins, we are able to direct our worship not to idols but to the only One truly deserving of it. Now, animated by the Holy Spirit, we are sent out on the mission entrusted to us as God’s sons and daughters to exercise dominion on this earth, until that day when the rightful King returns in glory and makes all things new.
As we draw near to The Great Week, then, Holy Week, let’s keep at the forefront of our prayers those soon to be rescued from the tyrant and moving into the Father’s house – for these are intense days of warfare from the enemy, who desperately tries to hold captive what does not belong to him. But let us also pray for one another. May the Holy Spirit help us to better understand what Jesus has done for us in the events soon to be celebrated. May He also help us to experience ever-more the freedom of the children of God. And may He mobilize us for mission out into this world with the love of Jesus animating our every thought, word and action.