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from Robert Tyrała

Holy Baptism as a gift and duty!

2009-01-11

The fourth Letter before the 35th International Congress of Pueri Cantores
Holy Baptism as a gift and duty!
The Feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan Cracow, 11 January 2009

Dear Pueri Cantores,
When on the 9th of January I was privileged to listen to J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio as performed by Cracovian philharmonic musicians, I was specially captivated at this very moment by the chorale words of the last part of this masterpiece (certainly known to you all): I am standing at your manger, Jesus, my life; I come to give you what you have given to me. Take it! This is my spirit and my mind, my heart, my soul and my strength, take it all and be well pleased in it. I thought then that this prayer to Jesus on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord sounded very special. This historical fact which we are favoured to experience anew – the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan – resembles our own baptisms and our admittance to the Church community. These were the moments when our parents brought us or we came on our own to this spring of life. To the water which regenerates us through washing away our sins and giving a variety of grace, but above all, through opening us to salvation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mk 16:16). And here on this day we offer our Saviour the gift of: our spirit, mind, heart, soul and strength. Baptism is then a gift yet also our special duty to fulfil. For we receive gifts from our Lord but we also offer Him our own ones. What is the Sacrament of Baptism? What are our obligations stemming from it? What does it mean today to me as a member of the Pueri Cantores family ? On receiving this Holy Sacrament we have become God’s children. We have been chosen by God. Since our baptism day our perspective on life has completely changed. God has chosen us forever, for eternity. This is the most joyful news we have ever received. For as God’s children we are no longer enslaved to evil and the Original Sin. We have been taken into the Church family, God’s family to have been fully abode in God’s House. We have become God’s household members. Baptism is a grand Sacrament which through the external ablution of the body, performed with the prescribed form of words denotes invisible reality. The reality so necessary for us. all. We are anointed for the divine childness. Baptism is the only Sacrament indispensable to reach salvation. The Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord reminds us of and makes us ponder anew upon the fact of our own baptism and upon all consequences and duties deriving from it. If I have been baptised I must live a life of a child of light. Free from sin, rising from it, building constantly God’s Kingdom in myself, in my brothers and sisters. It is in my own surrounding where I live and work that I must be the witness of Baptism in the name of Jesus. I cannot stop on this way of constant fight for good in man. Even if evil is rife around me, I am to bring hope in me and in others. Baptism is the sacrament of purifying God’s grace, the sacrament of God’s fathering us into His children, the sacrament of revival and life, the sacrament of healing and saving us from nothingness of life. Christian, you have been baptised! Live in this light which has been brought into your heart by Jesus! We young Pueri Cantores are called to the life of light. Baptism sets the right course of life. Thus we should live in God’s full grace yet we should also help others in living this way. We cannot divest ourselves of this duty. For through Baptism conferred upon us we have become preachers of the Gospel. Having once received God’s gift, you cannot keep it only for yourself, but you should share it with the whole Christian family, and also with those who have not got to know Him yet. Each of you has been sent by Jesus so as, through your life, to testify to others that what He preached and what He lived with has a deep sense for us all. The sense which is meaningful for people all over the world. Baptism is the sacrament which unites all Christians: of the Eastern Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Churches. There is (…) one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all (Eph 4:4-6). It lies the foundations of our unity. It makes the starting point from which the sense of reconciliation and ecumenical dialogue should begin. This is the baptism which initiates possible and necessary dialogue and one common wish to find true unity accompanied with mutual respect and acceptance. In reality, validly conferred Baptism brings about an effective incorporation into Christ and makes all the baptized truly brothers and sisters in the Lord, regardless of their denomination…Baptism, therefore, constitutes the sacramental bond of unity existing among all who through it are reborn… Baptism is thus ordained toward a complete profession of faith, a complete incorporation into the system of salvation such as Christ himself willed it to be, and finally, toward a complete integration into Eucharistic communion (John Paul II, General Audience, 15 April 1998). That is why we all are going to pray for the unity of the Church during our Congress in Stockholm. We are going to pray as beautifully as we can, through our music flowing straight from our hearts. We are going to pray through singing for He who sings well, prays twice (St. Augustine). Therefore only today I ask you not to forget our prayer for making us more and more the instruments of peace and unity. Let us say this prayer as often as we can, may choristers intending to come to Stockholm pray before every rehearsal with St. Francis’ words. Joining with you in Spirit I also say this prayer repeatedly: "O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!

Fr. Robert Tyrała, PhD
Church Assistant of The International Federation of Pueri Cantores

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