One of my duties here at St. David as the deacon is to meet with parents who are about to have their first child baptized. During this Pre-Jordan interview, I ask the parents to share with me their faith journey and where they are now in their faith. Sometimes they are reluctant to share because they haven’t really been practicing or their journey towards God has not always been easy or they have an atypical faith journey. They also almost always think their difficult path towards our Lord is specific to them and they wish they could have done better.
First, I tell them this, everyone struggles, and it is in the attempt where we can find our Savior. I use this analogy: The image of the mountain with God at the top is used throughout scripture so in order to get to God we have to climb. Climbing can be tough. There are also multiple paths we can take to the top of God’s Mountain. It almost always is never straight up. We go left. We go right. Sometimes we even fall back and have to start again. But know this. God has sent us a guide. This guide knows every path there is to God because he happens to be His Son. The reason why Jesus is such a good guide to the Father is because he has made the journey Himself. But even Jesus had help in His path and that help came from His earthly family, Mary and Joseph. We know from today’s Gospel even they struggled at times. It is in this very family dynamic, the parents bring their children to the Church.
At baptism, the parents make a commitment in front of God and the community that they will raise their child in our Catholic faith. Even the godparents make a commitment to hold the parent to that task. If the parents don’t make the journey toward the Father, it is very difficult for the child to ever do so. Mary and Joseph had the same responsibility. Jesus did not come into the world just to be Mary and Joseph’s child. Just the opposite. Mary and Joseph came into earthly existence to prepare this boy for His role as the adult son of the Father of all things and our Savior. This is the same for us. It is within the family that our faith is nurtured the most. It is not a coincidence that God sent His Son into a family to prepare Him.
Every family’s duty is to send their young children out from home when they are approaching adulthood. They can do this confidently and with faith in God and Jesus Christ when they are prepared in our very own Holy Families. The trek up the mountain is not as hard when we have the support of a family of faith from the beginning.
May Jesus live in your heart forever.
Deacon Chris.