Today is Monday of Holy Week, the most important week in the Christian calendar.  As Director of Evangelization and responsible for our parish family’s Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) it is not only a holy week, but a busy and stressful one, as well.  Our parish family is blessed to have 45 new adults and youths who will be receiving one or all of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist at the Great Easter Vigil Mass this Saturday night.  The 28 weeks we’ve been preparing them has been a true joy.  Now their preparation is over, and the preparation for orchestrating a beautiful, memorable, and flawless celebration is front and center.

As I began planning seating arrangements for Saturday night, I realized that today, March 30th, is the anniversary of my entrance into the Church.  Thirteen years ago this date, Saturday, March 30th, I was sitting right where these Elect and Candidates will be sitting this Saturday night.  My wife, children, parents, and many new friends were present to see me officially put an end to 56 years of secularism.  I was filled with anticipation, but not sure what to expect. 

During those years, I had not exactly been a golden boy.  There were many actions on my part about which I was none too proud.  As the priest poured the water over my head three times in the name of Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I truly felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.  The heavy burden of past sins I had come to regret were washed away by a stream of love.  This, I thought, is what they mean by “mercy”.

Receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation didn’t quite have the emotional impact as did my baptism.  I understood the anointing was an invisible sign of the graces being received which I would need to fully live and proclaim my faith, but I didn’t yet know what that would look like or how it would manifest itself in me.  Looking back, I hope I’ve done it justice by helping others draw closer to and follow Christ.

And then there was the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.  I still don’t know how to adequately describe the feeling of receiving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord that first time.  The best expression would be to simply say that I felt totally loved.  To know that two millennia ago, Jesus underwent His passion, death and resurrection out of love for my sake elicited a tremendous sense of gratitude; but the sudden realization that He had just sacrificed Himself again, and offered Himself to me so that I would have every grace I needed to live the life He would have me live, overwhelmed me with so much joy that I was brought to the point of tears.  I still feel that way at every Mass.

Today, as I celebrate the thirteenth anniversary of my “Re-Birthday”, I have two desires:  to do God’s will such that these 45 soon-to-be new or fully sacramentalized Catholics will also feel the love, joy, and peace that I felt when I was in their shoes just a few years ago; and that they will develop a loving relationship with Jesus such that they will want to share it with other people who need Him.

“My loving Jesus, thank You for the mercy and love You have shown me these 13 years since I came to know You.  Thank You for the grace to do Your will in helping others come to know You, too.  I pray for each of the adults and youths who will be entering the Church that they will stay true to their new faith, take seriously their obligation to live sacramentally, and to live Your commission to evangelize.  Amen.”

(My “Re-Birthday” was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

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