Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

We must die with Christ!

These are scary but true words. Death in Christ makes up, in part, the core of Christian life, that we must die with Christ to live with Christ. Now, before you run out and think I am crazy, let us examine what this means and why it is so important. There are two points that I wish to make regarding dying with Christ. The first regards baptism, and the second confession.

St. Paul says, “Do you not realize that you who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?” Just as Jesus was buried in a tomb, we are buried in water. Jesus was raised to heaven; we were lifted from the water into new life. The death of Jesus freed us from our sins; our death, in baptism, frees us to live.

Now, this is counterintuitive. How can dying let us live? Death is a kind of ending. When one dies in the body, physical life and its future ends. A concrete example: when you quit a job, that life and future as that worker ends. Now, you have new possibilities. By dying with Christ in baptism, our fate of being separated from God ends. The future we had separated from God ends. It frees us for something new—eternal life. Death is a good thing.

But we do sin and sometimes gravely. Mortal sin separates our life and future from God. Confession becomes an act of death that brings life. It is a willingness to come to Jesus, say that you are not well, like the lepers, and that you need forgiveness. In confession, we must die to selfishness, pride, and fear. If we are willing to die with Christ in this act, we will live again. We become free.

Rejoice that you must die in Christ because now you can live with Christ forever.

Reflection by Fr. Etienne, OSB