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St. Anthony's Catholic Church, 44 M. L Sultan Road, Durban Central, Greyville, Durban (2026)

05/06/2026

“WITHOUT THE SUNDAY EUCHARIST WE CANNOT LIVE” (Corpus Christi)

1 A famous person may be remembered by a statue or a painting. A beloved deceased may be remembered by his/her photo. The night before Jesus died, at the Last Supper, Jesus did not just leave us some symbol of himself but he left us his VERY SELF. He said about the blessed bread, “This IS (not ‘symbolises’) my Body” and about the blessed wine, “This IS (not ‘symbolises’) my Blood”. Through his ‘’Real Presence’’ in the Eucharist Jesus remains forever present to us.
2 Matthew, Mark and Luke describe the Last Supper in four key words: ‘’TAKE…BLESS…BREAK…GIVE’’. Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. He says, ‘’DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME” (Lk 22:19). Ever since, the Church has obeyed this command by faithfully offering HOLY MASS. The priest, in the Person of Christ, ‘takes’ the bread and wine at the Offertory; he ‘blesses’ it at the Consecration when it becomes the Body and Blood of our Lord; he ‘breaks’ the bread during the Lamb of God; then he 'gives’ (distributes) the Eucharist to the people. So we obey the command to ‘’do this in memory of me'’ by celebrating Holy Mass - offering ourselves, joined to Christ, the Lamb of God, to the Father, for the salvation of the world.
3 Secondly, we obey Jesus’ command to “do this in memory of me” by our own LIVES OF SELF-GIVING, by saying in effect to our neighbour what Jesus said before his sacrificial death, “This is my body given up for you…my blood poured out for you’’. Receiving the Lord into ourselves in Mass, we are sent forth as 'other Christs', to serve others as He did. "He [Jesus] laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren’’ (1 Jn 3:16).
4 In the year 304 in Abitene, North Africa, 49 Christians were arrested for breaking the Roman Emperor’s law prohibiting the Sunday Eucharist. When interrogated, a certain Emeritus replied famously: “WITHOUT THE SUNDAY EUCHARIST WE CANNOT LIVE”. They were prepared to die physically, knowing that without the Sunday Eucharist they would in any case die spiritually.
5 These 49 brave martyrs put to shame those of us who miss Sunday Mass or come half-heartedly. “For these Christians the Sunday Eucharist was not a commandment but an inner necessity. Without Him who sustains our lives, life itself is empty” (Pope Benedict). The Didascalia (an ancient Catechism) says, “Leave everything on the Lord’s Day and run diligently to your assembly… to hear the Word of Life and feed on the divine nourishment which lasts forever”.

30/05/2026

GOD IS A HOLY TRINITY

1 The Holy Trinity is the fundamental mystery of our Christian faith. It is the mystery of who God is in himself namely three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, He is not one-third of God. The Son, Jesus, is God, He is not one-third of God. And the Holy Spirit is God, not merely one-third of God. Each divine Person is God and yet they are the one God.
2 Our Christian life begins with our immersion, our baptism, into the Holy Trinity: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. The Sign of the Cross shows our belief in the Trinity as we pray: “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.
3 Only Christians say that “GOD IS LOVE” (1 Jn 4:8) - not just that God can act with love but that “God is love” in his very being. “God is love”. Therefore he cannot be ‘the Force’ or ‘Mother Nature’ or an unreachable Supreme Being - because that would preclude a relationship of love.
4 “God is love”. Therefore he cannot be a solitary figure (e.g. an isolated old man with a beard) because then he would have no-one to love. Love requires a lover and a beloved: the Father and the Son, as Christians know. From all eternity the Father is loving the Son, and the Son is loving the Father. And their mutual love is so intense as to be the eternal third Person, the Holy Spirit. “God is love”, the SELF-GIVING LOVE FLOWING ETERNALLY BETWEEN THE FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT.
5 Now LOVE cannot contain itself but OVERFLOWS. God’s love burst forth in his act of creation. Sadly, mankind rejected this love by sinning against his Creator. Nonetheless God’s love overflowed again in his TWO SENDINGS. Firstly, He sent his Son who makes visible to us the eternal, self-giving love flowing eternally within Himself. Secondly, He sent the Holy Spirit to fill us with this divine love.
6 So we SEE GOD’S LOVE in JESUS, especially Jesus CRUCIFIED. And we RECEIVE it through the HOLY SPIRIT: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). This happens in Baptism when the self-giving love flowing eternally between the three divine Persons begins to flow in us. Mind-boggling! Filled with God’s love, we in turn are called to POUR OURSELVES OUT IN LOVE for one another - just as the three divine Persons of the Holy Trinity are doing in eternity.
7 What is our final destiny? To be fully assumed into the eternal communion of love flowing between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - together with Our Lady, the saints, the angels, our beloved departed, and the great multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation. How do we prepare for this glorious destiny? By LOVING OTHERS - with the love we see on the Cross, the love which has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

22/05/2026

FILLED WITH GOD

1 Jesus spoke of his ‘going away’ and ‘return’. (Jn 14:3). He ‘goes away’ in his Ascension back to the Father. What about His ‘return’? He will return on the last day, at his “second coming”. However, even now he comes or RETURNS - THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT. That is why Jesus says, paradoxically, “it is to your advantage that I go away” (Jn 16:7). For if the Father is God outside us, and the Son God beside, the Spirit is God inside us: maximum intimacy and maximum love.
2 The coming of the Holy Spirit ‘inside us’ is celebrated at Pentecost, the climax of Christmas and Easter. Indeed the very reason for Christ’s coming on earth was to send the Spirit to sanctify us, to make us like God: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God’’. (CCC 460) Although not divine by nature, through the indwelling Spirit we become “sons in the Son”, participating in the same intimate relationship Jesus, the Son, has with the Father. This is mind-boggling!
3 The Spirit so transforms us in whom he dwells that we give up our own life to begin a completely new life. In the Spirit we are “born again” (Jn 3:3), a "new creation" (2 Cor 5:17), “children of the heavenly Father” (1 Jn 3:1), “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph 3:19), “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). It is not that we creatures can ever be equal to God but that the indwelling Holy Spirit conforms us more and more to Him.
4 We receive the Holy Spirit, the life of God, in BAPTISM - as pure, unmerited gift. However, this gift, like a seed, must be nurtured to bear fruit. How? Firstly, by consuming the very Body and Blood of our Lord in the Eucharist. Secondly, by receiving regularly the sacrament of Confession whereby we are cleansed of sin. Thirdly, by prayer, prayer which is not simply asking for ‘things’ but spending quiet time before the Lord who gradually conforms us to himself. And fourthly, by living at peace with others. St. Paul says we ‘grieve’ the Holy Spirit through our bitterness, anger and harsh words (cf. Eph 4:30-31).
5 Imagine a portrait becoming a live person or the musical notes of a script becoming a live performance. Similarly, the HOLY SPIRIT TRANSFORMS: transforms words into power; sterile orthodoxy into living truth; cowards into courageous Christians; the Christ of 2000 years ago into the living Lord of our life. You may know the Historical Christ, the Teacher Christ, the Saviour Christ. May you come to know the INDWELLING CHRIST by receiving afresh the Holy Spirit on this Pentecost Day. May you allow the Spirit to transform and divinise you until you can say with St. Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

15/05/2026

KINGS AND PRIESTS - ASCENSION

1 Jesus’ ascension is not his farewell to rest in retirement. No! He departs to be present in a new way. He departs our dimension of space and time so as to be INTIMATELY PRESENT to us in all of space and time.
2 “Seated at the right hand of the Father” (Creed) he now REIGNS WITH THE FATHER. An army general surveys a battle from high ground. Similarly, the ascended Lord, King of the universe, surveys and directs our earthly work of spreading his kingdom, empowering us by sending the Holy Spirit. He no longer acts as Jesus of Nazareth in his historical Body but now acts through his mystical Body, the Church ie through you and me. As his Body, His hands, His feet and His eyes, we extend His kingdom on earth: “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.
3 “CHRIST IS THE HEAD and WE ARE HIS BODY”. These words are not pretty poetry but describe a real, intimate union, effected especially through Baptism and the Eucharist. Even while on earth we are one with Him in heaven. “United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life of the risen Christ, but this life remains ‘hidden with Christ in God.’ (Col 3:3). The Father has already ‘raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Eph 2:6)” (CCC 1003)
And even while in heaven Jesus, our Head, is one with us, his Body, on earth. That is why the ascended Lord says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) and again says “As you did to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did to me” (Mt 25:40).
So the ascended Lord is not resting in retirement but reigning as King, the Head empowering us his Body to extend his kingdom on earth.
4 Secondly, the ascended Lord is OFFERING SACRIFICE AS PRIEST. Jesus made his perfect, once-for-all sacrifice to the Father on Calvary. He ascends to the Father with his glorified human body, still bearing its wounds, bringing his ‘once for all’ sacrifice of Calvary out of time into eternity. In the heavenly sanctuary he is continually offering himself to the Father in a bloodless sacrifice for the salvation of the world. With that same unquenchable love with which He offered himself for our salvation on the Cross, he now continually offers himself in the heavenly sanctuary to the Father for our salvation. How wonderfully consoling it is that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39).
5 WE PARTICIPATE in Christ’s eternal, heavenly sacrifice. How? Through the SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. Indeed the heart of the Mass is not to receive Holy Communion, however beneficial, but to offer sacrifice. Hence the focal point of every Catholic Church is the altar, the place of sacrifice. In Mass we offer ourselves to the Father, joined to Christ’s perfect sacrifice, for our sins and the sins of the world. We place on the altar of sacrifice our suffering, thanksgiving, fears, joys, work, prayers and entire lives. And this sacrifice of the Mass we live out by our daily LIVES OF SELF-GIVING to God and neighbour.
6 The ascended Lord is both King and Priest. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us participate in his Kingship by spreading his Kingdom on earth, and proclaiming the Good News. And let us participate in his Priesthood firstly, by offering the sacrifice of Mass, and secondly, by our daily lives of self-sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

08/05/2026

OVERWHELMED BY CHRIST

1 At Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter preached to the crowds about the death and resurrection of Jesus. “Cut to the heart”, the people asked, “What shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptised… for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." They were baptised and, “there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2: 37.38.41)
2 A certain pastor lamented, “Peter preached one sermon and 3000 converted. I have preached 3000 sermons and nobody has converted. Why?” The difference is the HOLY SPIRIT. The apostles had prayed in the upper room and received the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit empowered Peter to proclaim with conviction and courage, challenging the crowd to repent and receive new life in Christ.
3 His proclamation is an example of the “KERYGMA”, the preaching of the apostles, as recorded especially in Acts. The Kerygma is the foundation of all proclamation. It precedes and continually enlivens catechesis which in turn gradually unfolds and deepens the gospel kerygma (cf Catechesis Tradendae 25). “In catechesis…the kerygma… needs to be the centre of all evangelizing activity… that ‘Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.’ This first proclamation… we must announce… throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment” (Evangelii Gaudium 164).
4 Unlike the false gospel that ‘God loves you just as you are’, the kerygma has an urgency and cutting edge, piercing the heart (cf Acts 2:37).
It can be summarised as follows:-
1. God loves you. 2. You are a sinner 3. Jesus has saved you from sin by his death and resurrection 4. Repent without delay and believe the Gospel 5. Be Baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. 6. Be a member of the Church and live a new life in Christ in preparation for the coming judgement. 7. Proclaim the Good News.
5 The Kerygma is ‘’the initial, ardent proclamation by which a person is one day overwhelmed and brought to the decision to entrust himself to Jesus Christ by faith’’ (CT 25). It is the challenge to REPENT and enter into a loving, INTIMATE COMMUNION WITH GOD IN CHRIST: “accepting, by a PERSONAL DECISION, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple.” (Redemptoris Missio 46) This conversion is on-going and brings freedom from evil, sin and death, opening the way to new, eternal life.
6 Being a Christian is not simply following a moral code, being ‘’nice’’, or being “the best version of myself”. Instead it is encountering the Person of Christ, REPENTING AND ENTRUSTING ONESELF TO HIM AS LORD, and living in Him a NEW LIFE EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
7 What is the aim of a parish? Not to be a social club but a family living under the Lordship of Christ. Not to maximise the money or the number of people sitting in the pews but the number of souls entering salvation.
8 What makes a parish strong? Not the number of its councils, committees, workshops, publicity campaigns, pastoral plans, Facebook likes or social events but the POSITIVE RESPONSE of each parishioner TO THE KERYGMA. A strong parish is one whose members are on fire with the Holy Spirit, are transformed in Christ, have a deep, prayerful communion with the Lord, and who proclaim and live out wholeheartedly the gospel of love, joy and peace.

02/05/2026

TO SEE GOD (John 14:1-12)

1 Jesus has just foretold his betrayal by Judas, his denial by Peter, and his own death. Nonetheless, he encourages the disciples, “Let not your hearts be troubled… in my Father's house there are many dwelling places… when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself”. Jesus is referring to his resurrection, ascension, and final return to take his people to be with him.
2 A Jewish couple would be legally married on betrothal but would not live together. Instead the bridegroom would go off to his Father’s homestead to prepare a house for the bride. Thereafter, at the wedding ceremony, he would fetch his bride, bringing her into his Father’s home to consummate the marriage. The apostles should not be troubled at Jesus’ departure because he is their Bridegroom. AS BRIDEGROOM HE WILL RETURN TO TAKE HIS BRIDE (them, the Church) to himself INTO HIS FATHER’S HOUSE in heaven (cf B. Pitre in Jesus, the Bridegroom).
3 Jesus continues, “I am the way”. The way to where? Not to a Disneyland in the sky or a permanent stay in a luxurious hotel in the Bahamas. Instead Jesus is the way to life in the Trinity, to an indescribably wonderful, joyful, loving, eternal communion with the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit (cf 1 Cor 2:9).
4 Jesus continues, “I am the truth”. The numerous religions and cultures have fragments of the truth. But Jesus is the fulness of Truth, the Truth come in person.
5 Finally, Jesus says “I am the life.” The word Jesus uses for life is not bios which means biological/natural life. Instead he uses the word zóé which means supernatural life, eternal life, the life of the Trinity, the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To have bios, natural life, you need to eat good food, drink good drink, exercise, and keep yourself healthy. But to have zóé, the life of the world to come, the life of the Trinity, you need Jesus: to walk with him on the Way, to learn the fulness of Truth from him, and to live the Life that he lived.
6 Jesus continues, “no one comes to the Father but by me”. Jesus is the ONLY WAY TO ETERNAL LIFE IN THE TRINITY. What about those who were never exposed to the Gospel of Christ? They may achieve salvation by obeying their conscience and by a life of justice and mercy. However, even such souls will be saved through the redeeming work of Christ the Savior. (cf Lumen Gentium 16)
7 Philip says, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied”. He is asking Jesus for the vision of the unveiled face of God. But no man can see God and live, not even Moses (Ex 33:18-21) or Elijah (1 Kgs 19:11-13). Yet Jesus says astonishingly, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”. This is because the Father is in him and he in the Father, they being of one substance. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). As a son looks like his father, so Jesus, the Son of the Father, makes visible the life and love of the invisible God. TO SEE JESUS IS TO SEE GOD.

24/04/2026

I KNOW MY OWN AND MY OWN KNOW ME (John 10:1-18)

1 In biblical Palestine the sheepfold was a large stone enclosure with a single entrance to protect sheep from night predators. In the morning the gatekeeper would grant access to the different shepherds. Each shepherd would call his sheep out by name. Recognising his distinctive voice, the sheep would follow their own shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who knows each of us intimately. He CALLS US BY NAME to follow him out of sin and death into the green pastures of eternity.
The sheep, on hearing their shepherd’s voice, would follow him. Having heard Christ’s voice, we must then respond by following him: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jam 1:22).
2 Our noisy world bombards us with a myriad of competing voices. How can we recognise and follow the DISTINCTIVE VOICE OF JESUS, our Shepherd? Firstly, by PRAYER, by tuning out of social media and tuning in to the voice of our Lord. Jesus says, “I know my own and my own know me.’’ We ‘know’ him most deeply in intimate prayer - resting our heads on Jesus’ breast as did John, the beloved disciple, at the Last Supper.
3 We also hear the voice of Jesus, our Good Shepherd, through the CHURCH. It is dangerous for sheep to stray from the flock. Similarly, it is spiritually dangerous for a Christian to go it alone, to have a privatised ‘me and my Jesus and my bible’ faith. We need the Church - her Creed, catechism and sacraments. We must remain in her flock of 2.4 billion members worldwide, led by our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and his earthly shepherds: the Pope, bishops and priests. Indeed in every Mass we express our union with the Church by praying, “Remember, Lord, your Church, spread throughout the world… together with N. our Pope and N. our Bishop and all the clergy” (EP no.2).
4 We also recognise the voice of Christ our Shepherd by listening to his Word in Sacred Scripture, by reading the Catechism and sound spiritual books, and by following our conscience. “Conscience is man’s most secretive core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths”. (CCC 1776)
5 In Palestine the shepherd would sleep at the entrance to the sheepfold, literally laying his body on the line. Jesus, our brave Shepherd, won our salvation through laying down his life for his sheep. He calls us to a life of SELF-SACRIFICE, to suffer and die with him so as to rise with him. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil for you are with me” (Ps 23: 4). We fear not because in Baptism we have already died and risen with Christ. He, our brave Shepherd, entered into death, defeated it from within, trampled on it, rising out of it victoriously. May we, his humble flock, faithfully follow Him through suffering and death into the green pastures of eternity.

17/04/2026

“STAY WITH US” (Lk 24:13-35)

1 On Easter Sunday evening two disciples are walking to Emmaus, broken-hearted by the death of Jesus. They are joined by the risen Lord whom they do not recognise. He explains how the SCRIPTURES FORETOLD the SUFFERING, DEATH and RESURRECTION of the Christ. Obviously mesmerised, they said to him as they approached the village, ‘’STAY WITH US, it is evening and the day is now far spent.”
2 At table the mysterious guest becomes the host as he ‘’took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them”. These exact same four verbs (‘take’, ’bless’, ’break’, ’give’) St. Luke used to describe the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper three days earlier. So Jesus is re-enacting the Last Supper.
3 At the breaking of the bread “their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight.” Why does Jesus vanish, especially since they had asked him to stay with them? Well he does in fact stay with them, but in an unexpected way. He would STAY WITH THEM (and with all disciples until the end of time) IN THE BREAKING OF BREAD. And not just stay ‘with’ them but ‘in’ them: “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56). He will no longer be visible as Jesus of Nazareth (hence his vanishing) but seen with the eyes of faith under the appearance of bread and wine. Thus he can stay with everyone always and everywhere - in Emmaus, in Jerusalem, in Galilee, in Rome, in Africa etc.
4 Jesus engages with these Emmaus disciples in two movements. Firstly, he reads the Old Testament Scriptures, showing how they point to the Christ. Indeed “All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ” (CCC 134). This corresponds to the LITURGY OF THE WORD in Mass: the Scripture readings with the explanatory homily. Secondly, Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives them the bread. This corresponds to the LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST: ‘takes’ is the offertory, ‘blesses’ is the consecration, ‘breaks’ is the fraction at the Lamb of God, and ‘gives’ is the distribution of Holy Communion. The disciples were able to encounter Jesus in the breaking of bread only because they had first encountered him in the Scriptures as their hearts burnt within them. Indeed the liturgy of the Word and of the Eucharist form a fundamental unity: RECOGNISING JESUS in the SCRIPTURES (the Word) enables us to recognise him in the BREAKING OF BREAD (the Word made Flesh).
5 The two disciples immediately return to Jerusalem to TELL THE OTHERS of their encounter with the Risen Lord. Similarly, at the end of Mass, having encountered the Risen Lord in his Word and Sacrament, we are commissioned to “Go and announce the gospel of the Lord” to the whole world.

10/04/2026

ENCOUNTERING THE MERCIFUL LORD (Divine Mercy Sunday)

1 Just as we are born physically at birth, so we are ‘BORN AGAIN’ spiritually in Baptism, receiving divine life. Just as we grow physically, so we are strengthened spiritually in Confirmation by a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Just as we are nourished physically by food, so we are nourished spiritually by the food of the holy Eucharist.
2 Ezekiel had prophesied that water would gush forth from the Temple, bringing new life wherever it flowed (Ez 47:1-12). Jesus is the new Temple. From his pierced side on the Cross gushes water and blood (cf. Jn 19:34), symbolising the abundant, divine life we receive in Baptism and the Eucharist respectively.
From the side of Adam, as he slept, came forth his bride, Eve (Gen 2:21-22). From the side of the new Adam, Christ, ‘sleeping’ on the Cross, comes forth his bride, the Church, constituted by the sacraments of Baptism (water) and the Eucharist (blood) (cf. Jn 19:34).
3 When physical life is threatened by sickness, it is healed by a doctor. Similarly, when the divine life received in Baptism and the Eucharist is threatened by the poison of sin, it is healed by the divine doctor, Jesus, in the sacrament of Penance. This sacrament the Risen Lord instituted today, the eighth day of his resurrection. As at creation God had breathed life into Adam (Gen 2:7), so now the risen Lord breathes his life-giving Spirit over the apostles, the first priests, giving them his power to raise to new life those dead in sin, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (today’s gospel: Jn 20:22-23).
4 In the Divine Mercy picture, the red ray represents the EUCHARIST. The bluish-white ray represents BAPTISM. It also represents the sacrament of PENANCE, the ‘second Baptism’, which is for the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism. We are healed by the waters in Baptism and by the tears of repentance in the sacrament of Confession.
5 Our venial (small) sins are forgiven in Holy Mass. However, grave sins, to be forgiven, require the sacrament of Penance. Even if we have not sinned gravely, we should use this sacrament regularly. Firstly, it prevents our sins from becoming engrained and growing bigger. Secondly, it strengthens us to overcome sin in the future. And thirdly, the sacrament of Confession gives us certainty and peace of mind that our sins are forgiven. We are able to move on unhindered by our past, as we hear Christ saying through his priest the wonderfully assuring words, “I absolve you from your sins”.
6 The sacraments are not magic but are intimate encounters with the Lord. Receiving them in FAITH, we become more Christ-like, and are empowered to spread the love of God in our families, the Church, and the whole world.

04/04/2026

NEW LIFE IN THE RISEN LORD

1 On Holy Saturday night the old world died. On Easter Sunday morning Mary Magdalene arrived at the empty grave. It was the FIRST DAY OF THE NEW CREATION. At the first creation God had walked in the garden of Eden in the cool of the evening. Now Jesus walks in the garden at dawn, the dawn of the new creation.
2 The Baptismal font is traditionally octagonal ie eight-sided. Why eight? The first creation was completed in seven days. The eighth day, symbolising completed creation, is now the day of resurrection, the day of the new creation. In baptism we become this new creation.
3 A person rescued from drowning is resuscitated by receiving CPR. But Jesus did not return to the state he had before He died. No! He rose with a glorified body, never to die again: ‘’I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades’’ (Rev 1:18). 4 Jesus has risen into a totally new world. IN BAPTISM HE RAISES US UP WITH HIM INTO THIS NEW WORLD. “When we were baptised’’ says St. Paul, ‘’we went into the tomb with Christ and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead...we too might walk in newness of life’’ (Rom 6:4). Baptism has a double movement. Firstly, water is poured over the person, or he is immersed in it, symbolising death to his old life. Secondly, he is raised up out of the water, symbolising his entry into new, eternal life. He rises ‘born again’ as a new creation: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17).
5 Believers imitate their founder. But we Christians do not just imitate Christ - as someone ‘outside’ of us whom we follow after. No. Baptised into Christ, we are now one with him. We live ‘IN CHRIST’, participating in his divine life from the ‘inside’, “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). Christ himself tells us to abide in him like the branches of the vine which gives them life (cf Jn 14:4-5).
6 In Christ we can and must truly love our heavenly Father, truly love our neighbour, pray for and forgive our enemies, overcome our sins, and carry our cross - until, by God’s grace, we enter the fulness of God’s glory. Let us live this new life in the risen Lord. It is the source of our happiness on earth, and it overflows into the ineffable happiness of life with God in eternity.

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