27th Sun OT-C’16
Respect Life Sunday Baptisms
Dear Isaac,
Congratulations! Today, October 2, 2016, you were baptized into the Body of Christ; you became a Roman Catholic. I have to tell you, there is a lot of craziness stirred up around the world today, but your Church is holding up a light in the darkness. Around the whole world today we Catholics are celebrating Respect Life Sunday… we are remembering everything around you and about you that we respect.
We respect your life, a life that began nine months before you saw the light of day. We are trying to help your future friends, future classmates, maybe even your future spouse or your future pastor through our Forty Days for Life campaign in downtown Louisville, praying our neighbors choose to not abort the life growing within them. (I know I will be getting out there myself over the coming weeks to pray.) We hold up your life as sacred.
We respect your family. As a Church we are working hard to influence our national policy to prevent families from being broken apart either by deportation, or abuse, or poverty. Just last weekend many of us walked in the park to raise awareness and money to feed the hungry. We hold up your family as sacred.
We respect your environment, the very air you breathe, the water you drink, and the soil with which you will one day make mud pies. Our current Pope, Francis, has preached to the whole world that your future is important enough to God that we must set aside our petty personal agendas and come together to address our world’s growing environmental crises. We hold up your environment as sacred.
And we respect your freedom, your God-given freedom to do the right. Whether it be those in our world today who would traffic in human slavery… (we actually have more humans trafficked around the world today, including right here in Louisville, than at any other time in our history), or it be the elements of our society that would restrict our religious freedom to only our worship on Sundays and not to how we choose to live our faith out in the world the rest of the week… as a Church we are working to ensure the freedom God wants all to enjoy. We hold up your freedom as sacred.
Isaac today you were given a lit candle of faith (I entrusted it to your parents and Godparents to be kept burning brightly until you could hold it yourself). You were entrusted with the light that is Jesus Christ; the light God the Father sent into our world to illuminate our path and dispel the darkness of sin and death. The same light we will be trying to shine this weekend on a wonderful program called The Little Way Pregnancy Resource Center with its baby bottle campaign. The other day I saw one of its billboards that read, “You’ve Got It In You!” and it made me think of you.
You’ve got it in you to make a difference in the world. You’ve got it in you to respect life, families, our environment, and religious freedom. You’ve got it in you because we have passed it on to you just as it has been passed on to each of us. Let your light shine! I know you are counting on all of us. Isaac, I am counting on you!
Sincerely Your Pastor in Jesus Christ, Fr. Jeff
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