In Baptism we are Called, Gifted, Sent

“Our Baptism sticks us together, and the Holy Spirit makes us rise,” so said Rev. Francis Bennett when he was giving a homily to the parishioners of Tairua, in the Coromandel.  He said we were like bits of flour lying around the kitchen bench, and our Baptism unites us like dough into the Body of Christ, and His spirit causes us to rise like bread.

Being “Fit for Mission” calls us, through our Baptism, to rise up and work together with our individual gifts for the growth of the Church.

Sr. Sian Owen reminded us that we are “sent forth” at the end of the Mass to be the Body of Christ in the world.  The Eucharist is the “source and the summit” of our activity.  For me this means that it energises us with the presence of the LORD through Holy Communion, to go out and be the very Body that we recognise when we say “Amen” to His presence.  It means that He is present, as long as the sacred species exist, and that is why He is reverenced in the Tabernacle, and why the red light burns to remind us of His presence.  If we recognise and honour Him in his Eucharistic presence, we will value His Eucharistic presence within us.  That is why we are asked by the Catholic Church to prepare the temple of our body to receive Him “under our roof.”  We have the gift of Reconciliation to purify ourselves to be worthy of Him.  He calls us to leave the altar, and to go and make peace with everyone, then to return in peace to be part of His peace.

Having had the blessing of being able to be present at morning Mass for many years, I found that the scriptures and the homilies, particularly of Rev. Brian Kelly, did indeed call me to “go out” and as Jesus says in Mark 16: 15 “Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, he who does not believe will be condemned.”