water, blood, spirit

Homily for Friday between Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord

8 January 2010

St. Lawrence Chapel

University of Kansas

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Among other things, John's writing about Christ coming in water, blood and Spirit should remind us of our Christian initiation. Through this initiation, we share in Christ's life completely. Through baptism, we die to ourselves that we might live for God, we die to sin that we might live in goodness. We are given the gift of eternal life at baptism, a life that is fed best by receiving the body and blood of Christ. From the sacrament of water, we proceed to the sacrament of Christ's blood, and we become even more intimately and inseparably bound to Him. It is then by the gift of the Spirit, given in its fullness at Confirmation, that we are able to live in the world without being overcome by it, neither by its death nor by its evil. Who indeed is the conquerer of the world, says St. John, but the one who shares fully, as we do by these three sacraments, in the life of Christ, who was not conquered by evil or death?

St. John seems to be addressing in his letter the doubts of those who believe in Jesus but who do not always experience their sharing in his eternal life. This is our normal experience as well. Evil and death seem closer and more real than the gift of eternal life. St. John addresses how difficult it is to know one's self as sharing fully in Jesus' victory of sin and death. It seems like the two of them are winning more victories against us. He reminds us that we have no little or remote attachment to our Lord however. We have the reality of our baptism, a sacrament renewed when we detach ourselves from sin in the sacrament of penance. We have the Eucharist ever with us, where Christ has promised to make himself fully present to us as surely as he has ever been present, whether in Bethlehem or at Calvary. We have in our Confirmation the fullness of God's spirit, which reminds us in every circumstance of our lives of who we are, and how we can live as true conquerers of the world. These are no small gifts - the water, the blood and the Spirit. Let us not live as if we have not received them. +m