Crucified and Raised!

Romans 6:3-4

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Baptism, whether we realize it or not and whether we like it or not, does something to us. It is not a mere ritual, not a mere symbol, not a mere splash of water on the forehead. In baptism, we die with Christ and rise with him. A real metaphysical and miraculous event takes place that changes us forever. We receive the life of grace, the Holy Trinity, who comes to live in us and change us into “little Christs”. Merely because the rite looks ordinary, or trumpets do not sound, or the earth does not shake, we should not be deceived. The average baptism in your average parish on an average Sunday morning is a greater miracle filled with greater power than the parting of the Red Sea. It is what Jesus died on the cross and rose again to give us.