Lent: Week Two

After Mass this week I found my daughter in the front of church, arms submerged in the baptismal font.  She was excitedly pushing her arms deep into the water and splashing them back up.  Part of me thought to admonish her for playing so irreverently in the holy water, but then I realized she was being reverent.  Think about it.  Through our baptism, we become one with Christ in his life, death and resurrection.  Madeline moved through that water to share her joy of life with every person in the church at that time.  When we live our Christian lives out of our baptismal call, shouldn’t we radiate Madeline’s same wonder and joy?

In a strange way, Sunday’s first reading talks about the joy of living Christian life.  At the beginning of the story, we are horrified as God asks Abraham to bring Isaac to the mountain as a sacrifice.  As a parent, the pain of loosing a child is incomprehensible, and yet Abraham obeys.  Imagine his joy when he is able to save Isaac from the sacrificial table and sacrifice the ram instead.  As Christians, we believe that Jesus put himself in our place so that we can celebrate life in an even greater way than Abraham celebrated Isaac’s saved life.

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