Finding Your Catholic (Bourne) Identity

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John 1:29-34

Many of you have probably seen the movie The Bourne Identity (1). The movie begins on a thrilling note as the protagonist, Jason Bourne is found barely alive, floating at sea. It is soon discovered that Bourne has no memory of who he is. In him we can witness firsthand what a terrible experience it is when someone loses their identity. Such a person is sad, restless and lacks peace and direction. At times we as Catholics can be like Jason Bourne. Even though we come to Church each Sunday, often times we are unsure about our mission. What is our main task as a Church? What is the most important job that we have been given to do? We risk losing our deepest identity. The gospel of today is a remedy against this. The example of John the Baptist is a strong reminder and example of what our identity is as a Church and individual disciples of Jesus.

Our identity as Catholics and the Church is that we are meant to lead other people to Jesus Christ. Our most important mission is to evangelize. John the Baptist is an example for us because his whole existence is like a signpost leading people to Jesus.  Especially since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has reminded herself many times that this fundamental identity. For example, in 1975, Pope Paul VI wrote the following with respect to Catholic identity:

Evangelization is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize. (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14)

We have just begun the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This annual event strives to further the Ecumenical Movement, which works to bring about greater unity among Christians. One of the important reasons why the Ecumenical Movement began was because of a growing realization among Christians that our disunity hindered our ability to fulfil our primary mission of Evangelization. The Ecumentical Movement in large part began among missionaries. For example, in India, Anglican missionaries would come to a village and share the gospel among those who had never heard of Jesus. Soon after, Catholics missionaries would come to the same village and explain that although the Anglicans were right about Jesus, they were the wrong Christian group to be part of. Of course, the same thing happened when Catholic missionaries arrived first. The Indian people, seeing this situation, would ask why they should become Christians if Christians themselves had such disunity. Divisions among Christians hindered our main mission of leading people closer to Jesus; it went against our primary identity as an evangelizing community.

In order to fulfil this mission, we must have a clear understanding of who Jesus is and what he does for us. Today there can be a lot of confusion on this question. In the Gospel we see that John the Baptist is very straightforward in announcing who Jesus is and what He does for us. Notice that John the Baptist is not saying, “look everyone, there is Jesus, a great teacher, a good guy, or a sage, moral leader”. No, John says, “behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”. Later on, He testifies that Jesus is the Son of God. In a few short statements, John the Baptist has proclaimed the core of the Gospel, which is often called the Kerygma, meaning  “the cry” or “the proclamation”. The Kerygma is something we should all know by heart. It explains very briefly who Jesus is and what He does for us. In four easy points, the Kerygma is as follows:

1. God created you for a relationship with him
2. Our relationship was broken through sin
3. Jesus - true God and true man - restores our relationship
4. We respond by inviting Christ to be the centre of our lives

In order to lead people to Jesus Christ, as did John the Baptist, we must have a clear understanding of who Jesus is and what He does for us.

More than knowing about Jesus, our relationship with Him must change our life.  There is a big difference between simply knowing about something and having that thing change your life. Let us take, for example, the relationship that different people have with the Vancouver Canucks. Compare the relationship that a sportswriter will have with the team to that of a die-hard fan. The sportswriter might know everything about the Canucks: the history of the franchise, the statistics on all the player and every possible detail about the team. This knowledge, however might not have any impact on the rest of the writer’s life. It is just a job. For a die-hard fans, the situation is completely different.  Their relationship with the team impacts all aspects of their life: how they spend their free-time, what they wear, what makes them happy (victories, not losses) and what they talk to other people about. When it comes to Jesus, we need to be like the die-hard fan. John the Baptist was such an individual. He knew about Jesus but this knowledge changed all aspects of his life.  Its not enough to know about Jesus, our relationship with Him must change us.

In order to complete our mission of bringing people to Jesus, we need to be able to articulate to others the difference He has made in our life. We, like John the Baptist, need to be able to testify about Jesus. When we are able to explain to others in an open and honest way the story of how God has worked in our life we are able to draw other people to follow Jesus. For a long time this was something that I struggled doing. During my time at University my friends would ask me questions similar to the following. Why are you Catholic and not some other religion? Why do you go to Church on Sunday? Who do you that think Jesus is? At the time, I struggled to answer these questions. Perhaps it was because I only a minimal relationship with Jesus back then. In order to better articulate our faith to others, we can begin by asking ourselves three questions:

1. When in my life did I make the personal, intentional choice to put Jesus in the center of my life? Or, when did I chose to follow Christ in a deeper way?
2. What was my life like before making this decision?
3. How has my life changed since I chose to make my relationship with Jesus a priority in my life?

When we are able to articulate to others the difference that Jesus has made in our life, we can better draw other into a relationship with Him.

Jason Bourne eventually re-discovers his identity. This revelation does not suddenly make his life easy. Quite the contrary, in fact. After finding out his identity, Bourne’s life becomes one challenging adventure. Knowing his identity, however, gives Bourne a sense of purpose, focus and peace. When we as Catholics remind ourselves of our identity, much the same thing happens. As individuals and communities we are given a clear focus and goal that unifies all our activities and energies. Today let us be reminded that our greatest mission is to be like John the Baptist. We are called to lead as many people as possible to know, love and serve Jesus Christ. This is our Catholic identity.

(1): Some ideas for this homily come from Catholic Christian Outreach’s Commission Study. In particular the Bourne Identity reference and the 4-point Kerygma.

Falling in Love makes all the difference

Recently I found this prayer fixed to a bulletin board at the back of the Church:

Nothing is more practical than

finding God, than

falling in Love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read, 

whom you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in Love, 

stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

This prayer is attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe S.J. (1907 - 1991). Prior to becoming the Superior General of the Society of Jesus (a.k.a. The Jesuits, the religious community of which Pope Francis is a member), Fr. Arrupe was a missionary, serving for many years in Japan. Incredibly, he was living in suburban Hiroshima when the city was devastated by an atomic bomb on August 6th, 1945. Though Fr. Arrupe and seven other Jesuits were within the blast zone, they all survived.

I first read Fr. Arrupe's prayer several years ago while on a month-long retreat in Mexico led by another Jesuit, this one spent the majority of his life serving in India. Since then I have loved this prayer. It always reminds me that Christianity is not, in the end, about ideas or even a way of acting but primarily about a relationship with Jesus. As Pope Benedict wrote:

Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. (Deus Caritas Est, 1)

I want my relationship with Jesus transforms all areas of my life. I can become discouraged when I see that this is not the case. I take great hope from Fr. Arrupe's prayer. It encourages me to focus on the most important thing. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

The most important day of your life

Matthew 3:13-17

What is the most important day of your life? Maybe it was the day you were born or the day you got married. Normally we celebrate these life changing events every year. We all celebrate our birthday year after year even though we become less straightforward with how old we are with each passing birthday. Married couples celebrate their anniversary yearly, even if husbands need the occasional reminder. We tend to celebrate the most important days in our life. Here’s a question: do you know the date of your baptism? Today we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. It is a perfect opportunity to both look at the significance of this event and remind ourselves of the importance of our own baptism. 

It can be very difficult to understand why Jesus was baptized. Try to picture this scene for a moment. You are in the desert, beside the river Jordan. You are surrounded on all sides by a great mass of people. One by one each person enters the river and approaches John the Baptist who immerses them into the water. What are these people doing? They have come to accept John’s baptism of repentance. In being baptized they are publically acknowledging that they are sinners. More than this, they are making the choice to change their ways and choose a new path for the future. How can Jesus be among this crowd? How can Jesus, who is without sin, repent? John the Baptist seems to grasp the problem and tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized, saying, “I need to be baptized by you and yet you are coming to me?”  At first glance it does not make any sense of Christ to be baptized by John the Baptist. 

The Baptism of Jesus makes sense when we begin to see it in the light of the Cross and Resurrection. Many of you will know that a few years ago, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote a wonderful book on Jesus of Nazareth. There he tackled the question of the significance of Jesus’ baptism. He explained it this way:

Looking at the event [of Jesus’ baptism] in light of the Cross and Resurrection, the Christian people realized what happened: Jesus loaded the burden of all mankind's guilt upon his shoulders; he bore it down into the depths of the Jordan. He inaugurated his public activity by stepping into the place of sinners. His inaugural gesture is an anticipation of the Cross.

Simply put, Jesus did not get baptized for Himself but for us. At His baptism, Jesus is embarking on His mission as the “Suffering Servant” who reconciles mankind to God, which we read about in the first letter from the prophet Isaiah. At His baptism, He took our sins on Himself and descended into the water, which is symbolic of His death. Afterwards He came out of the water – a symbol of the resurrection – He left behind our sins in the Jordan. The significance of Jesus’ baptism comes into focus when we view it through the lens of His Cross and Resurrection. 

When looked at this way, we better appreciate the fact that the Baptism of Jesus completes Christmas. It is with good reason that today’s feast concludes the Christmas season. Among the Doctors of the Church there is a famous expression used to describe the purpose of the Incarnation that says: “God became man to make men like God”. St. Thomas Aquinas expressed it this way:

The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.

The first part of this phrase, which speaks about God assuming our human nature, happened with the conception and later birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. The second part of the phrase, which speaks about us becoming like God, was made possible in large part by the Baptism of Jesus. Because Jesus was baptized, our own baptism has force and power. As one ancient theologian wrote:

For when the Saviour is washed all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages. (St. Maximus of Turin)

Our baptism is precisely the moment in our life when we “become like God”. At our baptism:

1. We are grafted onto Jesus Christ
2. We are filled with grace, the very life of God
3. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
4. We become forever a beloved Son or Daughter of God

God became man so that man could become like God. The baptism of Jesus is like the completion of Christmas.

Because our baptism is such a life-changing event, it is something that we should remember and celebrate. We all tend to celebrate well a baptism on the actual day of the event. Baptisms are usually accompanied by a big party and everybody gets dressed up – particularly the person getting baptized. A few years ago I spent some time in Tijuana, Mexico. In the chapels that I would visit, the people always had such beautiful celebrations for baptism, even though they did not have much money. In particular I remember vividly how one young boy was dressed at his baptism. He was of course dressed all in white, but his clothes were remarkable. He wore a small white tuxedo, complete with bow-tie. On the back of his tuxedo was embroidered in gold the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was even wearing white shoes with a silver decal of the Holy Spirit on them. The parents of this young boy definitely realized that something important was happening to their son at his baptism. Though we celebrate baptism on the day of the event, most of us probably do not remember and celebrate our own baptism as we would our birthday or wedding anniversary. I admit that while preparing this homily, I had to look up the day that I was baptized. Pope Francis has encouraged us to remember our baptism day and celebrate it each year. If we don’t, he said “we end up considering it merely as an event that took place in the past – and not even by our will, but rather by that of our parents.” Our baptism was one of the most important days of our life, it is the day that we became forever a beloved son or daughter or God. This is something we need to remember and celebrate.

Today, as is the custom of the Popes on the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, Pope Francis will baptize several children in the Sistine Chapel. Our own baptism, though not in such an incredible setting, is no less important. Today, I challenge each of us to follow the advice of Pope Francis by trying to celebrate in some way each year the day of our baptism. If you don’t know this day, find it out and write it in your calendar. We should never forget this life-changing day in which we were grafted onto Jesus and forever became a beloved son or daughter of God.