Easter Day C

2016

Easter Day 2016

1. Happy Easter to each of you and to your families! We have a lot going on at St. James today: 1.
we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, 2. Little James and Kathleen will be baptized and 3.
Caroline will receive her first communions.
Right from the beginning of Christianity, the new members of the community were baptized and welcomed
into the church on Easter day. Jesus had died on Good Friday and was raised to a new life on Easter day.
Easter is the celebration of Jesus new life and the 2 children who will be baptized today will receive a new
life in Christ, and be reborn as Gods children.
The early church would baptize the new members by plunging them in a pool of water or in a river. They
would be totally submerged for a few seconds and then brought back out of the water.
The action of plunging people totally under water was a symbol of dying to a life of sin, and bringing them
up out of the water was a symbolic resurrection to a new life of virtue. So Baptism re-enacts and
commemorates Jesus 'death and resurrection, and that is why it was done at Easter
Nowadays, in our Church, in stead of plunging children under water (and scaring them to death) we simply
pour a little water on their foreheads. But the meaning is still the same: in Baptism they are reborn and
start a new life as Gods children, Christians, and also members of our little church,
Let us remember that the ceremony of Baptism is not a private matter concerning only these children and
their families. It is something that involves all of us. During the ceremony, we will renew our own Baptismal
covenant.
The baptismal covenant is a contract we have with God that commits us to live as Christians, to practice our
faith by loving God and our neighbors to respect the dignity of every human being and to strive for peace.

2. After the Baptism, we will continue the celebration of the Eucharist and, at communion, and
Caroline will receive her first communion:
In Baptism we are re-born as children of God, in the Eucharist we are fed as children of God The Eucharist is
food for our souls. When we receive communion, God comes inside us, to be with us, listen to our prayers
us and to give us strength.
The same Jesus who died on the cross and was raised from the dead is with us and becomes a part of our
life to give us the strength to follow him and imitate him

3. So, welcome and Happy Easter to all of you, new friends and old friends. Let us celebrate Jesus
resurrection and let us recommit ourselves to live as Christians: to love God with all our heart
and to love our neighbors as ourselves: Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed