At Wednesday’s Low Mass, the following words from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians lit up for me like an electric sign: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (2:20). If we’re honest, these words should give us great comfort and also disorient us profoundly. Only by hanging on to both visceral reactions can we truly understand the call of Christian Baptism.
Those words of Paul speak to the magnitude of Baptism. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Out with the “I” and in with the larger family of God. This is upsetting information to a culture of individualism, which has even pervaded the Church. I, for instance, can go online and buy anything I want without ever talking to another person. I can choose what to do with my things. I can tailor my various profiles, whether in Facebook or Google or LinkedIn to be all about me. I can decide what my “truth” is. I can set my own boundaries and tend to myself alone. I can, if I choose and put blinders on, go to church and let it be about me and tune out everyone else.
But to do any of that is to live against the grain of being a baptized Christian. When each of us is baptized, we become part of a larger family that we don’t choose. Indeed, the point is that we don’t have control over who’s in our family in Christ. When another person is baptized, then you and I become responsible for their spiritual and physical well-being. In this, we also don’t have control over those who become part of our family. This is why people were and still are offended (and try to render more palatable) Jesus’s words from Scripture about who his family is. When told that his mother and brothers are asking to speak with him, he says, “‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother’” (Matthew 12:48-50). It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
If we believe St. Paul that through baptism it’s no longer we who live but Christ in us, then the Church matters supremely. In a time and world in which “I” supersedes “we,” the Church has great importance. The Church is the heartbeat of our lives because she’s the spiritual organism, founded by Christ, in which we are schooled in letting Christ live in us. When we show up at church on any given Sunday, we can’t control who will also be there. We’re forced to sit shoulder to shoulder with others who irritate and annoy us, as well as with those (hopefully!) who bless us and give us strength and companionship. We’re invited to move with them from our comfortable(?) pews to the Communion rail, to receive the same Sacrament, to drink from the same cup, and to be strengthened in our fellowship with one another. In some sense, when we come to Church, “I” always takes second place to “we,” and while that may be uncomfortable to us, it’s the core of the Christian message.
When we’re sitting in the pew on Sunday, we share the sorrow of the grieving spouse, of the friend struggling to pay the bills, of the teenager bullied at school, and of the stranger to this country who is deeply afraid. When they sorrow, as Paul tells us, we should sorrow. But we rejoice with our pew companion who just got a new job, who aced a school test, who has a new grandchild, and who just moved into the cancer remission stage. Their joy is ours, too. In the Church, we’re summoned to renounce our selfishness, our need to control, our clinging to “our” possessions, and our ego, so that it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. At Good Shepherd, this sense of accountability to one another is present in both the pews and at coffee hour. Our Parish Visioning Conversation in just two weeks’ time will be one more opportunity to let Christ live in us. Who is my neighbor? How does my fellow parishioner hold me accountable, and how do I hold them accountable? How is my own salvation tied inextricably to theirs? These are foundational questions for our visioning conversation.
In our current times, the Church has enormous power if we heed Paul’s words. I urge you not to underestimate the potential of this power. But that power is rooted in an honest embrace of Paul’s words. If we believe that it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, then profound changes in our own lives for the welfare of all should be inevitable. Our family includes, then, the immigrant and refugee. Our family includes those who are vulnerable and radically different from us, not because we need to understand or judge their situation, but because Christ went to such people himself. And if he lives in us (and we have renounced the “I” within us), then we go to those people, too. We’re, indeed, their companions when they’re hurting. Our family includes all: people we don’t choose to be part of our family, regardless of political views, regardless of country of origin, regardless of economic status, and regardless of anything else that those outside the Church use to sow divisions.
If we’re not careful, the devil will turn members of Christ’s body against one another. He does it in small, subtle ways. Beware but be aware. And then, turn your back on him and turn to Christ, which is the central spiritual movement in Baptism. Turn to Christ and come to the Church, which will remind you of who you are as a baptized Christian or who you will be as a baptized Christian. Come and learn how to let Christ live in you. I need the Church. You need the Church. I need your presence in the Church on a weekly basis for the sake of my own soul. You need my weekly presence in the Church and the physical, in-person presence of your fellow Christians. We’re in the business of salvation together, for once we’re marked as Christ’s own forever, it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And if Christ truly lives in me and you, then imagine what we can do in the world in his name.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle