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Across the Pastor’s Desk by Kurt Farrell

Christmas is now over, and in most of our churches we will be moving back to ordinary time. In the Catholic church and I believe in some other churches, this is the time when we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Jesus began his ministry by submitting to the baptism of John. Obviously Jesus had no need to be baptized because he was without sin; however, he was baptized for our sake, giving us an example to follow. As we begin this new year we can reflect upon our own need to submit our will to God. Just as sometimes we would rather suffer the pain of making many wrong turns before acknowledging that we do not know where we are going, and therefore ask someone for directions. We also spend a lot of wasted energy resisting God’s plan of our life, even though we know God knows what is best for us.

Baptism is what is best for us. Being baptized into Christ is more than just a ceremony, it means dying to our own way of living and giving in to God’s way of life. It means allowing our sinful and self-centered selves to be transformed into the image of the selfless Christ. As you begin this new year, instead of making new year’s resolutions, let us examine the areas of our lives that we have to give over completely to God, and take advantage of the Sacramental power of our baptism, to make the changes in our lives that are necessary in order to be completely comforted to the image of Christ.

Kurt Farrell is a priest at St. Theodore Catholic Church.