Pbro. José Juan Sánchez Jácome / ACN.- It is immediately noticeable that the word of God wants to ensure that we have learned the lesson well during this Christmas time; it wants to ensure that we do not waste what we have seen, what we have lived, what we have promised in the days of Christmas.
It would be a great waste if that beautiful feeling that the Child Jesus has made us feel, those promises we have dared to make, that vision of new life we have had during these days, were to fade and diminish due to the pressure we are already beginning to feel.
It is about starting this new year with enthusiasm and confidence, which we see as very difficult, but where we also consider who we are, how we have been called, and how we received the Holy Spirit on the day of our baptism.
After so many beautiful experiences we have lived on the occasion of the feasts of faith, it is good to ask ourselves how we are starting this new year, what attitude we have, and especially what we are betting on this year, because here is where things can change.
Modern trends lead us to bet on luck, on magical things, on superstitions, and on esoteric proposals. There are people who let themselves be carried away by these trends when channeling their good wishes for this year.
Other people bet more on calculations and forecasts, and depend a lot on how specialists outline the scenarios we have to face this year.
We Christians are invited not to bet on luck or exclusively on human forecasts, but to start this new year by trying to strengthen our Christian identity and remembering that our belonging to Christ is essential.
Our belonging to Christ is not something emotional; it is not that one simply says “I like Christ and his word,” “there are things with which I commune with him,” but our belonging to Christ is essential. That is why we have been baptized; that definitively changed our life, opened the doors of heaven for us, and placed seeds of eternity in our heart. Baptism is not a formality; it is an act that touches our existence deeply.
Pope Benedict XVI says: “Christian parents bring their children to the baptismal font, knowing that the life they have transmitted to them invokes a fullness, a salvation that only God can give.”
From the experience we have, we already know that evil does not respect truces or recoveries or moments of peace, because evil has no word of honor. What evil wants is to destroy that condition of children of God, that one renounce that fullness of life, so that we stop believing in all the potential we have as children of God.
The celebration of the baptism of the Lord Jesus reminds us of this potential. We have been baptized; it is not a matter that has remained in our childhood, it is not simply a sacrament to protect us due to our helplessness when we were children, but God took us as his children, God touched our life essentially.
I believe that the words that were said about Jesus at the moment of baptism are now said about each one of us: You are my beloved son, I have desired you, I have thought of you, in you I have placed all my trust. How much good it would do us to keep these words that God says to us in mind because we were baptized.
Pope John Paul II affirmed that: “Every man, upon being born, receives a human name. But even before that happens, he already possesses a divine name: the name by which God, the Father, knows and loves him from always and forever. No man is anonymous to God! In his eyes, all have the same value: all are different, but all equal, all called to be sons in the Son.”
We were baptized, the Lord has touched our life essentially. That is why when we are afraid and feel limited, as in these times, we must remember that we are children of God; He has taken us as his children, we must celebrate that, shout it, and give thanks because it has not been our merit, but the mercy of God has willed it so.
We know what our intellectual, moral, and academic potential is, but we do not always know our spiritual potential. It is necessary to trust in this spiritual potential because we have received the Spirit that cries out in our hearts, that wants to lead us to the fullness of life, that wants to manifest itself when this flesh seems so fragile and so weak to us.
We have had many congratulations on the occasion of these feasts, but today another congratulations is worthwhile: Congratulations on your baptism!, because we are children of God, because we are not alone, because we can cry out to heaven as children of God. In this way, let us give direction and begin to clear this difficult year by reaffirming our Christian identity and trying to activate our conscience as children of God.