Dear Editor, As Church we are enriched enormously through the gift that is the leadership and inspiration of Pope Francis. However, a gift is useless unless we accept, embrace and utilise it to the full.
In realising the fullness of that giftedness, we will be aware that Pope Francis himself points us to the giftedness of our Baptism and the joy of the Gospel.
Pope Francis has asked us, do we know the date of our Baptism? Most of us don’t! We know the date of our birth, the date of our marriages, ordinations and other important dates and we celebrate them but invariably we do not know the date of our Baptism and thus we do not celebrate our Baptism.
As a basis of renewing our faith and renewing our Church, should we not create a new ministry within our Church, being that of ‘Celebration of our Baptism’, so that we do not classify ourselves as laity or clergy but as the Baptised, which is Church?
Let our thinking be lateral rather than vertical in nature.
Let us celebrate as Church the various jubilees of our Baptism.
Let us see it as the most important celebration that we could possibly have.
Let our children and our children’s children see it as such and participate fully in it.
Let our Baptism be our right to live the Gospel and experience its joy.
Let our Baptism express itself in a participating community church where the various ministries of our Church are practised and shared out of right, through Baptism, and not practised as the remit of a few, validated by the utilitarian necessity arising from the shortage of priests.
Let our only validation for Church ministry be our Baptism and let it be the source of our empowerment, of our participation and of our collective being as Church.
Yours etc.,
John J. Lupton Snr.
Roscrea,
Co. Tipperary.
