As a Roman Catholic Christian, April has been an intense month.
I have gathered with friends, in person and over messages, since we first awoke to news of Pope Francis’ death. It has not been lost on us that the Holy Father passed over from this life to eternal life on Easter Monday, the morning after he led the people of God in our central holiday as Christians: The annual celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
In the midst of our sadness at the passing of our spiritual father, who was a voice of conscience in a time that seems full of division and mistrust, there are still more signs of hope — beautiful ways in which Christ’s Resurrection and new life are palpable. We see these signs of new life not only in the abundance of the earth springing up all around us but also by witnessing the thousands of people around the world who, at Easter, were baptized into Christ’s death and therefore now have a share in his Resurrection.
Just one week ago, at my home community of Vashon’s St. John Vianney Catholic Church, we were blessed during the Easter Vigil in the holy night to celebrate the baptism and confirmation of four teenagers who each freely chose to become Catholic Christians. Every year, Catholics gather to keep vigil on that very night when “Christ broke the prison bars of death.” We recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises by professing the Creed and being sprinkled with holy water, the same water used for baptism.
This year, like so many Catholic parishes around the world, we were overjoyed to not simply renew our own baptismal covenant but to immerse into these same saving waters of rebirth these new Catholic Christians. These Easter days in our parish, we are especially full of joy, as we experience excitement and a sense of purpose akin to welcoming a newborn home.
Andrew Casad
Such outward signs of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, witnesses to the transformative power of the love of the Risen Lord in the lives of believers, are being poured out across our island Christian communities. On Easter Sunday morning at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, another teenager professed her faith in the same Resurrection and became a Christian. At Vashon Island Community Church eleven, new believers made that same commitment to faith and were baptized.
I find it so heartening that, in a time when some try to redefine Christian life for political ends, each of these people, through the grace poured out on them by the Holy Spirit, professed belief in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ — his conquest of the powers of death, destruction, sin, and division — and have chosen to enter into a new life with him. These young people who have become Christian after prayerful discernment are indeed signs of hope and new life.
The spiritual journey walked by teens and adults who choose to become Christian is a gradual process known since the days of the early Church as the catechumenate. In many ways this process precedes or transcends certain questions about baptism which, in recent centuries, have at times divided Christians.
But recent decades have brought further signs of hope. Tangible witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ at work in our world is given by Christians across our island who are “striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace … [professing] one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:3-6).
Even as we are saddened by the death of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, Christians rejoice in this Eastertide in the Resurrection, the victory over sin and death Jesus Christ has gained. And together we rejoice in these signs of new life, those men and women who are now sons and daughters of God, alleluia alleluia!
Andrew Casad is a member of the faith formation team at St. John Vianney Catholic Church.
Lucius “Benny” Benicio Navarro is baptized by Fr. David Mayovsky at St. John Vianney Catholic Church on Saturday, April 19. (Photograph courtesy of Arsenio Navarro.)
