This Sermon is prepared by

Rev.Fr.Peter Jayakanthan sss
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Corpus Christi Catholic Church,
Houston, Texas, US



ஞாயிறு மறையுரைகள்

மதிப்பிற்குரிய அருட்பணியாளர்களே, துறவிகளே, அருட் கன்னியரே, உங்கள் ஞாயிறு மறையுரைகளை எமது இணையத்தளத்தின் ஆன்மீக வலத்தில் பிரசுரித்து, ஆண்டவர் இயேசுவின் நற்செய்தியை எல்லோருக்கும் அறிவிக்க விரும்பினால், info@tamilcatholicnews.com என்ற எமது மின்னஞ்சலுக்கு உங்களுடைய ஆக்கங்களை அனுப்பிவைக்கவும். உங்கள் மறையுரைகள் உலகெங்கும் இருக்கும் அனைத்து தமிழ் உள்ளங்களையும் சென்றடையும்.



இதோ! ஓநாய்களிடையே ஆடுகளை அனுப்புவதைப்போல நான் உங்களை அனுப்புகிறேன். எனவே பாம்புகளைப்போல முன்மதி உடையவர்களாகவும் புறாக்களைப்போலக் கபடு அற்றவர்களாகவும் இருங்கள்.
(மத்தேயு 10:16)

நீங்கள் போய் எல்லா மக்களினத்தாரையும் சீடராக்குங்கள்; தந்தை, மகன், தூய ஆவியார் பெயரால் திருமுழுக்குக் கொடுங்கள். நான் உங்களுக்குக் கட்டளையிட்ட யாவையும் அவர்களும் கடைப்பிடிக்கும்படி கற்பியுங்கள். இதோ! உலக முடிவுவரை எந்நாளும் நான் உங்களுடன் இருக்கிறேன்
(மத்தேயு 28:19-20)

நீ அவற்றை உன் பிள்ளைகளின் உள்ளத்தில் பதியுமாறு சொல். உன் வீட்டில் இருக்கும்போதும், உன் வழிப்பயணத்தின் போதும், நீ படுக்கும்போது, எழும்போதும் அவற்றைப் பற்றிப் பேசு.
(இணைச்சட்டம் 6:7)








The Baptism of Our Lord

You are Beloved……. Never born again!!!

Is42:1-4, 6-7 Acts10:34-38, Mk1:7-11

Dear Sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus, I wish you a Great feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus to all, and May the Lord renew our Baptismal call and promises during this Eucharistic celebration. Today is the last Sunday of the great Christmas season, so we shall re-live the joy of Christmas today. We shall recall our Baptism and reaffirm the grace we received on that day as a beloved son and daughter of God. We shall ask ourselves whether we live out our beginnings in our life. What is my new beginning in 2015?

Johnny's Mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with their cat. He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work. After some time, she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water. She called out, "Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!" Johnny looked up at her and said, "He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

Ann said, I am going to be born again! Because, I was forced to be baptized without my knowledge as a baby; I did not know anything at all, so I am going to be baptized willingly in this denomination, I will be immersed like Jesus, this is going to be a true baptism. I am going to be born again. What will be your response to Ann? We hear many such expressions from people.

I am born again through real baptism in this new Christian community….I am no more Catholic.
I am converted through Baptism of immersion. I am born again…I was raised as a Catholic.
I embraced Jesus as Savior by being born again. My Catholic parents don’t like me doing this.
What will be our answer to these born again phrases or people’s claims about their ‘born again baptism’? There is only one birth. There is only one Baptism, there is only one faith, and there is only one Church. When People fail to realize their identity that they belong to God they seek and accept the form of worship according to their convenience. Some say I am still exploring my faith, I am still discovering my place in the community of faith. Even after long years being part of a Catholic family or Catholic surrounding, they have this identity crisis. You and I may be a cause for this struggle among the young and grown-up people….because; we might not have been living our baptismal call fully. We may fail to be witnesses our beloved-ness in our daily life. We shall renew our Baptismal call as we begin to be part of Jesus’ mission and witness. The feast of the Baptism of the Lord and the readings of today help us by offering the following affirmations:

You are (I am) a beloved son/daughter of God.
You possess the identity of Jesus Christ.
You are beginning to participate in the mission of Jesus.
You are beloved – never born again! Who introduced Baptism, either John the Baptist or Jesus? Neither John nor Jesus invented baptism. It had been practiced for centuries among the Jews as a ritual equivalent to our Confession. Until the fall of the Temple in 70 A.D., it was common for Jewish people to use a special pool called a MIKVEH -- literally a "collection of water" – as a means of spiritual cleansing, to remove spiritual impurity and sin. Men took this bath weekly on the eve of the Sabbath; women, monthly. Converts were also expected to take this bath before entering Judaism. The Orthodox Jews still retain the rite.

Jews and people entering Judaism received baptism by cleansing of water, but this ritual continued without any implication and change in their life. The Jews had the traditional belief that only the Gentiles who embraced Jewish religion needed the baptism of repentance, for, as God's chosen people, the Jewish race was holy. Through the invitation of John the Baptist, for the first time in Jewish history, they became aware of their sins and of their need for repentance. The affirmation of ‘you are my beloved son’ is a call to recognize that we are beloved by accepting to follow the path of Jesus through Baptism. All are baptized in Christ’s name. Beloved sons and daughters of God, empowered by the Spirit, we are to be similarly consumed with the ministry we have inherited from our brother, Jesus.

There The Father recognized and affirmed Jesus as His Beloved son. Here during our Baptism when the following words are said, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we are told that you are the beloved son/daughter of God. You become a child of God. Some of the parents at TCH, Texas Children Hospital, say, my baby is going for eight or ten long hours of surgery; I want my baby to be baptized so that my baby will be a beloved Child of God. This is a renewal of their faith….and I am renewing my faith. “We are born physically in a family through our flesh, we are part of spiritual family of Jesus through the affirmation, you are beloved in our baptism”: "Unless a man is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5) - St. Thomas Aquinas. Let us not forget that I am a beloved son/daughter of God.

You possess the identity of Christ: Many Fathers of the Church explain that Jesus received baptism to identify himself with his people. Jesus, by entering into the waters of the Jordan, is choosing to identify with the sinners, suffering and the ordinary. When we are sealed with the catechumen oil of salvation, we are sealed with the identity of Jesus. We belong to Jesus’ family and Kingdom. Baptism gives you a new identity. You have a name in the family of God, the name given to you when you are baptized. God calls you by name and uniquely identifies you in who you are. How many of us know the meaning of our Baptismal names? How many of us asked our parents, Grandparents or God-parents to know the meaning and reason of our names? Our name within baptism offers identity of Jesus; this means you have a self-concept, a self-identity to live and to bear witness.

You are a beginning: Baptism marks various beginnings. One of these is the call to begin and to participate in Jesus’ mission. Dipping, immersing and cleansing of the water not only symbolize cleansing from sins, it also strongly informs us about the waters of mission: The Deluge water showed the mission to Noah, Moses struck waters of life from the rock for the mission; The People of Israel crossed The Red Sea towards liberation to the new mission. So, the Baptismal water not only cleanses, purifies and forgives us but also makes us realize our mission today. Our word ‘baptize’ comes from the Greek word, baptize in, meaning to dip, immerse or wash (usually in water).

Baptism is the beginning step to plunge into ministry and mission. When the Chrism oil is placed on our head during Baptism we are called to begin and to participate the kingly, priestly and prophetic mission of Jesus. Jesus decides to enter into the lives of His people. Entering or immersing in the Jordan River signifies the entry of Jesus as He began to immerse in to the lives of the people. We enter into the membership of the Church through our Baptism. When we are baptized as infants, it becomes the responsibility of parents and God-parents to lead and guide the child to the mission of the church through their life witness. In my four years of Hospital ministry I have Baptized almost eighty babies; this is more than what I did in my five years of Parish ministry. Here the family longs for their child to become beloved, to possess Jesus’ identity and to participate with Jesus.

Most of us dipped the fingers of our right hands into the holy water font and blessed ourselves when we came into church today. Why? This blessing is supposed to remind us of our Baptism. And so when I bless myself with Holy Water, I should be thinking of the fact that I am a child of God; I am His Beloved that I have been made a member of God’s family and I have a mission today in this world-Amen.