The death of baptism; 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Homily
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
1 August 2010

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I visited the Truman home in Independence, MO this week. President Truman died in Independence in 1972, his wife the first lady Bess 10 years later, in the home owned originally by Bess' family. Since 1982 the 'summer white house' of the Trumans has been handed over to the national historical society. You can go in and see where the President, who left office with 30 percent approval rating but now ranks 5th in many polls of the most important presidencies in history, lived out his final days quietly. A simple kitchen and screened in porch where Harry took his coffee, read his papers, and did his own dishes are part of the tour. The man who made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan lived out his years quietly, receiving few guests, in Independence, Missouri, living much like you and me.

Vanity of vanities, says Quoheleth, all is vanity. Everything that a man accomplishes, eventually fades away. All his possessions must be left to others who did not earn them and may not deserve them. The psalmist says that the most significant man is like the changing grass that quickly fades. In a religion, Christianity, which promises life in abundance, there is a lot of meditation on death. Ecclesiastes is one of the most often quoted books of the Bible, despite its negativity and conclusion that all is vanity. Catholics show up in droves every year to get ashes, and they volunteer enthusiastically to be reminded that they are dust and to dust they will return. A favorite psalm verse of mine is today's 'Lord, make us know the shortness of our lives, that we may gain wisdom of heart.' Christianity is a religion that promises victory over death, but this victory is won not by avoiding death, but by meditating upon it deeply, by learning about the enemy as it were, by keeping death daily before our eyes, and by choosing death before it chooses us.

Baptism itself, with all its symbols of life including candles, new garments and perfumes, is a celebration of new birth only insofar as it is also a true entering into death. St. Paul reminds the Colossians that death is not something that lies ahead of them, but something that lies behind them. He reminds them that they have died, that they are already dead, buried with Christ in baptism, and so free to stop counting the days they have left, and free to stop counting the ways that they can add to this life that is already over. St. Paul reminds the Colossians that because of their baptism, they are free to move away from sin, and to focus their lives on the things that are above. For the Christian, this must remain true everyday, that death is not something in the future, it is something in the past. That is why a true Christian should always be growing younger, not older, in his heart, and experience the freedom of being detached from this world in that way that Christ teaches his disciples to be.

The death that has been chosen for every Christian in baptism, and the death that we continue to choose in the renewal of that sacrament, is an altogether unique choosing in the history of philosophy and religion. It is not the same as a spiritual resignation that all life is suffering, so we must seek the peace that comes from no longer expecting anything out of this life. It is not the same as admitting with materialists that we are not that big of a deal, only a blip in the exchange of matter and energy in the cosmos, and so we must ignore as fantasy any desire for a relationship with the eternal. It is much more than the good bet baptism is sometimes caricatured to be, a magic trick of lowering expectations in this world in order to get more in the next. No, a Christian choosing death is quite different from these other spritualities and ideologies that are chosen by many around us, with whatever understanding of free will they are able to muster. A Christian choosing death in baptism is our use of a free will that is most apparent to us to respond to a love that we have received. A Christian choosing to die allows himself to be chosen by Christ who first loved Him and gave His life for him. Because Christ has died for me, I choose to die with Him, trusting in His love for me and in His promises that love and life are stronger than sin and death. Because Christ died for me, I have chosen to die with Him, and my life is no longer my own. It has been purchased, and at a price, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

This kind of death freely chosen in turn frees a Christian to grow younger even as he ages, as he knows the fear of death to be something conquered in the past and in the present, not something to be magically avoided in the future. The death of baptism frees the Christian to love the things of this world not less, but more, as he realizes that nothing can belong to a person who is already dead, for a person who has died with Christ has already left all his possessions to others. A Christian dead in baptism has been given the same relationship to the things of this world that God Himself has, a relationship not of needing them for anything, especially not for our self-esteem, but of enjoying them as gifts, and as revelations of the goodness, love and glory of God. Again, giving away our possessions is not so much in the future for us as Christians as something we have already done in the past, and this giving away, this charity, is the hallmark of a Christian life. What is more, a focus on charity frees the Christian to enjoy the providence and goodness of God in the things of the world, without ever putting pressure on anything in this world to provide a happiness that it cannot and should not ever provide. A Christian is able to move in the world grabbing nothing for himself, neither fearing death, but instead looking for ways to imitate the love of Christ, and looking forward to the revelation of his life that is the fruit of His love, to his life that is hidden with Christ in God.