Homily for 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 28, 2020

Rom 6: 3-4, 8-11

Holy Name of Jesus, Valhalla, N.Y.

“We who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Rom 6: 3).

Last week we began reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which is probably his most important writing, a profound theological reflection on sin and redemption, on our relationship with Jesus Christ.  We’ll be reading from it for 13 weeks—1/4 of the year!

Last week, Paul reflected on how sin came into the world thru deliberate human choice, how sin has poisoned all of us, and how God’s grace has come to deliver us by the free gift of Jesus Christ.

Today Paul shows how we are joined to Jesus Christ, how his grace comes upon us, and how we, then, are to live in his grace.

We receive grace—the divine life—when we’re baptized.  As Paul teaches in many places, we are saved by the cross of Christ, by his death and resurrection.  Today he shows us that we share in Christ’s death by our own death and burial with him in Baptism.

Most of the power of this symbolism is lost in our current baptismal practice, in which a little water is poured 3 times over an infant’s head.  In the early Church, and sometimes today with adults, the catechumen entered a baptismal pool and was fully immersed 3 times in the water.  The rite was so special that many of the old cathedrals in Europe, e.g., St. John Lateran in Rome and St. Mary in Florence, have separate, richly decorated buildings called baptistries.  In these pools or baths the catechumen was symbolically buried in the water—“buried with Christ” (6:4), buried as Christ had been in his tomb.

Then the newly baptized Christian rose from the water, like Christ rising from his tomb, “so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (6:4).

Our Baptism initiates us into the life of grace, the life of Jesus Christ.  It’s a promise that death will not lay a final hold on us because Christ has defeated death, as we heard from Paul last week.  Rather, as Jesus was raised from the tomb on Easter Day, so shall we who belong to him be raised from our graves on the Last Day, the day we speak of in the Creed, when Christ “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,” and we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

In his letter, Paul goes on to speak of the consequences of our dying with Christ in Baptism.  Christ “died to sin once and for all” (6:10).  In his human nature, Christ identified himself with us, paying the penalty for sin tho he was innocent of any personal sin.  So in rising he conquered not only death but sin, as well; he has redeemed us from Satan’s wicked grasp, restored us to friendship with God, restored us to the filial relationship with our Father that God intends.  Christ has died to sin—sin has no chance against him—and he died for all of us, for every human being who has sinned and desires to be forgiven and to live with God.

Then Paul delivers a punch line:  “You too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” (6:11).  Baptism into Christ’s life has consequences:  we must live like Jesus.  Sin is out!

Well, we all know that we haven’t tossed out sin completely.  We’re trying to do that; we must try to do that—to break every sinful habit of gossip and tearing down one another, of lying, of misusing our sexuality, of laziness, of prejudice, etc.  Sin can still separate us from Christ, can kill our eternal future.  So we must reach out to Christ every day for forgiveness, for the strength to make a fresh start on his way toward heaven.  We must pray.  We must celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation.  We must renew our commitment to Jesus every day, surrendering ourselves as best we can to him, so that we may be given eternal life (cf. Matt 10:39).