Some people today tell us that we need to seek special talents and abilities for the Church to be successful. We are told that if we identify our spiritual gifts, then and only then can we use our talents to serve and to build the Church.
True spiritual gifts are indeed good and useful. Every good gift comes from the Father above. However, it is strange that so much attention and energy is spent seeking and identifying such things. Even then, it is hard to tell whether some of the so-called gifts that are found are really gifts from God at all. Even the genuine talents may suffer from too much attention upon them, as if our own abilities were the heart and soul of the Church, instead of Christ and Him crucified.
Should we not wonder whether there are other gifts from God more worthy of our attention?
This is especially true since many times people who seek their gifts are led in the wrong direction. Emotions may creep in with any self-assessment, leading to wrong answers. I may feel that my special gift is such-and-such, but in reality it is not. When we poke at the unrevealed will of God, more than likely we will be deceived.
Add to this the problem that flashy spiritual gifts like speaking in tongues or miraculous healing often prove to be fakes, even when performed by very sincere people.
How easy for the people of God to think that we must find the right gifts and abilities in order to build the Church. It is an error that is hard to detect. So we do not realize that we have shifted the focus away from Christ and His Word to ourselves. We easily make ourselves and what we achieve the center of the Church, rather than the grace of God.
But there is a true gift from God that is always true, and always reliable. God's will is always clear about this gift for us. This gift is in our midst, yet is often overlooked and quickly forgotten: The Holy Sacrament of Baptism. This is a great treasure beyond our comprehension, so full of precious value that we can never take it in. We can never appreciate Baptism as much as it deserves.
Do we remember how great are the blessings we received in this Sacrament? Perhaps we were too young to recall the actual event of our Baptism. Yet we know the promises of God in this water, and we can call to mind that we have received them by His grace.
In Baptism, the eternal and merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, washed us clean from all sins. In Baptism, He received us into the covenant of grace. In Baptism, God appointed us heirs of eternal life.
How great is the Lord's goodness that He found us before we could seek Him! He listened to our needs before we could pray for them. He opened the door to us before we could knock. His mercy exceeds all praise and all wonder in this great gift of water and the Word.
When we were Baptized into His holy Name, we were received into the heavenly family, made children of the Father, brothers of Christ, as His own Spirit rested upon us. For we have been purified from all our impurities. We have been reborn, and made new.
All this and more was done in the holy waters of Baptism. Everything that Christ the Savior earned by His most holy obedience, He put into these waters. Everything that He merited by the shedding of His precious Blood, He placed into the Font. He who is sprinkled with these holy waters is also sprinkled with the Blood of Christ. So we are whiter than snow in the sight of God.
Baptism is our guarantee and seal of the Holy Spirit. It is our entrance into the heavenly wedding banquet, and it is the wedding garment that we wear at the feast. It is the opening of the doors of Paradise.
All this is because Baptism is not merely the beginning of salvation. Baptism is the completion of salvation.
The power of Baptism is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. As His dead flesh was made alive, so we have been raised out of the death of sin. By the incredible power of God, Baptism was able to do what is impossible: to save us from hell and satan.
May all of us treasure this perfect gift. Here is water more precious than gold. Although there is no power in the water itself apart from the Word, yet God has closely joined this water to this Word in a holy union. And what God has joined together, let man not separate. Let no one think of Baptismal water as mere water, ever again, as if they could tear apart what God has united.
Instead, let us glory and boast in this holy water. Let us splash it in satan's face. Let us sprinkle it upon our sorrows, to turn them into joy. Let us drown our fleshly desires, and satisfy our thirsty faith. Let us dissolve and absolve our sins by returning to Baptismal grace in Confession. Let us soothe our burning consciences with this cool water by remembering that all sins are erased and washed away.
Water is life. How much more this Water of God that springs up to eternal life! Let us cling to God's water forever, because it is His life for us.
May the same God who wrote His Name upon us at the Font, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, preserve us in the one true faith to life everlasting. Amen.
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