The Baptism Experience: Passing God's Love Through Baptism

One simple act creates an endless ripple where people passes it on and pays it forward. This is due to the interconnected nature of human beings – when we are happy, we influence the people around us to have a positive outlook in life. And when we show others a simple act of kindness, we influence them to also seize the opportunity to help others. Much like an act of kindness, sharing our faith also impacts those who we share our faith with. When we wholeheartedly declares our belief, people around us will also believe the positivity of Christian life. It is our mission as the church to share our faith and take part in proclaiming the word of the lord to further transform each of us and renew our society. Actively participating in a comprehensive approach of promulgating the gospel is what the Christians call the “integral evangelization.”

This integral evangelization was renewed in PCP II or the Second Plenary Council and it aims to change the ways of the church in the Philippines in line with the Second Vatican Council and the promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law. The Church leans on the poor and involves itself in the socio-economic activities. They organize event charities for the poor, housing projects, and medical missions, and yet people are saying that the church lacks involvement to the society. The Second Plenary Council seeks to transform the church to alleviate the challenges of the society by being faithful to its mission of integral evangelization. Integral evangelization suggests that instead of just being passive agents of the Church, we must go out to proclaim and live out the Gospel.

In Evangelii nuntiandi 22, Pope Paul VI stated that “there is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.” And in today’s climate, the Church is faced with a lot of challenges in promulgating the word of the Lord. In a Pastoral Letter Disciples of the Lord: Sharing the Vision by Archbishop Wuerl, he expressed the change in culture amongst the youth. There are a lot of conflicting beliefs and contrasting religion nowadays, and the contemporary culture shuts down information that do not interest them. In addition, today’s youth’s attention span is so short that one could barely keep themselves entertained with one paragraph, and thoughtful reflection requires rigorous process. Students are also so caught up that we spent most of our times focused solely on studying and working that we forget to at least visit and connect with God. It’s as if we don’t have time because we are busy concentrating on how we are going to get our material wealth. We are so fixated with the temporary things on Earth that we not only forget, but we avoid to make time with God in order to have an everlasting life. On top of the student’s study habits is that science disputes Christianity. We find scientific evidence to anything and everything that Jesus’ miraculous works and God’s creation seem so impossible to us. Because of our desire to answer everything, we start to doubt our faith causing us to commit sins. For this reason, the humankind are called to God’s love through baptism.

Baptism grants us new identity with Jesus sharing his calling and ministry. Baptism invites us to mission – it opens us to others, so that God may be in all. However, integral evangelization is easier said than done, but there are numerous ways on how to work on it and slowly integrate the true Christian way of life. A problem with this is that we only seek God when we are in need of his help, we see Him as a solution in times of struggle. One can start by being active in prayer, praying is not to be treated like a wishing well, a true Christian always prays not only when in need. Prayer is so important for it is a way for us to connect with the Lord in our most vulnerable state, stripped from all pretenses, to unite with the Lord who waits for us to open our hearts to him. Pope Francis said that one must not seek for a prayer that soothes out conscience, for our faith mustn’t get too comfortable. Together with this, we must attend mass regularly and connect with God; this isn’t about just being physically present but rather emotionally and spiritually immersed in receiving God. Another small step is to conduct a personal bible study, reading the bible even little by little can make a difference in understanding the word or gospel fully. But it is not enough that we only read the bible, it is important that we grasp what God is telling us through his words. It requires our full attention and not just reading with our eyes open and our hearts closed. Moreover, one can also try to talk to Christians that have more experience specifically those who are older, to be able to gain wisdom and knowledge not only about the gospel, but also about their experiences to God’s work. When one has fully grasped Christ’s teachings, one must be ready to share the word of the Lord with others and try challenging tasks such as joining groups within the local parish/church and be an active member of the group. We must then proclaim His word to our family and colleagues, participate in activities and charities led by the local parish, contribute to organized functions, and give back our blessings to others: giving food to the hungry and giving clothes to the unclad. Furthermore, we must aid in rediscovering the Christian vigor in us by adapting to the modern way of living to engage the youth.

The Lord attracts all kinds of people: poor and rich. But it is in us to choose which path to take, the narrow path that leads to holiness or the wide road that is perdition. For this reason, we must always love one another and let the love we give out create an endless ripple that binds Christians together. To be a true Christian is to embody Christ’s teachings. Whenever we have to do something, we would always think beforehand: is this what Jesus would do? So that more than His teachings, we would embody Him, Jesus himself. We must enthusiastically live a Christian way of life to encourage others to Christianity and show them how having God in the center of our lives can make a huge impact in the way we live and act. Today, we must start the small baby steps of getting to know God’s word, strengthen our religion, and soon aid others in proclaiming our faith. Let us live our Christian faith daily, for it is by living in Christ that we see his goodness daily.