It rained all day yesterday, melting a lot of our snow. It was 50 degrees when I walked this morning, evaporating the snow into cold fog, which you can see in the left background of this picture. This stream which I cross in my morning walks was swollen by the quick melting. A little cold for baptism, but maybe a reminder of the Jordan River and Jesus' baptism.
I found out midway through the week that we will be enrolling candidates for confirmation at Sunday's mass, so I changed the direction of the homily somewhat. I thought it would be good for the young candidates, and all of us for that matter, to hear addressed to ourselves the words that Jesus hears from God at his baptism: "You are my child. I love you. I am pleased with you." Like Jesus, through baptism we are named God's own.
Confirmation confirms our belonging to God. It enables us to become what we already are. The Holy Spirit is present to us completely. What is not complete is our surrender. Confirmation can help us surrender more completely to the Holy Spirit moving within us, urging us out to help others to hear the words that God speaks to Jesus and to us in our baptism. We are all God's own.
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