Under Water

Today we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord called Feast of Dinkha. The word means to shine or sunshine.

We take this day to reflect on our own lives as baptized Christians.

Baptism, signifies the death and resurrection of Jesus. Whoever dies with Jesus will surely rise with him.

The way it is symbolized is that when one goes down into the water, it represents them going into the grave. And when one breaks through the water, it represents Jesus rising from the dead, bringing us from death to life. The great invitation to all humanity.

In our daily lives, we are not only called to be baptized but to live this out in our everyday life.

What this comes to mean is that we are constantly dying to ourselves. Dying to sin. This would be represented as we go into the water. This has a cleansing effect. What could happen sometimes is that we could feel like after going under, it feels a while for us to rise again and get that breath of fresh air.

Maybe this last year felt like that moment. Where we might have been underwater.

Maybe feeling like we are drowning.

Or maybe that we forgot how to swim. And out of breath.

Wondering when we will be delivered out of the water and up to the surface and into fresh air.

Through our baptism, Christ brings us in the waters of baptism, to ensure us that the moments we are under water are allowed by God. During our life. Feeling out of breath. That’s allowed by God.

Those are the moments he wants to make us greater saints.

Those are the moments where we can decide to offer our lives entirely to Jesus in faith knowing that with our cooperation, he will bring us out of sin and death.

Not only now, but at his second coming he will call us out of our graves and help us to share in the joy of all the saints and angels in heaven.

But doing this doesn’t deliver from the life in and around the water. It makes us at peace while in it.

Being relaxed under the water helps you hold your breath longer. When you are stressed, afraid, and lose your peace, you lose breath faster.

To do this, we renew and promise to live out these baptism promises.

#1 Reject the devil.

Rejecting Sin.

All his works.

All his empty promises.

And believe in Jesus and the Church he has made us part of.

May we remember Jesus who breathed on his disciples giving them authority to forgives sins. May we, the church, receive this new breath of life as we carry out the demands of God peacefully, breathing easy and resting in his hands.