Episode 043 - Homily | How Baptism Breaks The Past And Claims The Future (January 11, 2026)

In Victor's In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, there's a moment so decisive that the entire story turns on it.

Jean Valjean, you may remember, a man hardened by prison, injustice, and survival, is welcomed into the home of a Catholic bishop.

He's fed, he's given a bed, he's treated not as a criminal but as a man with dignity.

And yet still trapped in the instincts of his old life, Jean repays mercy with betrayal.

He steals the bishop's silver and disappears into the night.

When he is caught and dragged by back by the police, Jean knows exactly what awaits him.

Everything, his future, his freedom, his life depends on what the bishop will say next.

And then comes the miracle.

The bishop looks at Jean Valjean, not with fear, not with anger, but with the authority that only mercy possesses.

And he says, Oh yes, I gave him the silver.

In fact, I'm glad that he returned because I also gave him the silver candlesticks, but he forgot to take them.

In that very moment, Jean Valjean is not merely spared punishment, he is reborn.

Grace overwhelms judgment.

Mercy interrupts destiny.

And John walks out of that house a different man.

Not because he earned it, not because he deserved it, but because grace claimed him.

That moment, that moment is one of the closest literary images we have to understanding what baptism actually does.

Today the church celebrates the baptism of the Lord, the final feast of the Christmas season.

And while we often ask, why was Jesus baptized in the first place?

Why did he need baptism?

It's an important, rich, necessary question.

But the more urgent question for us today is this.

Do we know what happened to us when we were baptized?

Because if we truly understand or truly understood, we would never live the same way again.

Baptism is not a religious rite of passage.

It's not some family tradition that we do.

Baptism is an ontological rupture, a decisive break with the old creation and birth to a new one.

The church calls baptism vitale spiritualis yanu.

The door, the door to spiritual life.

It's not one sacrament among many, it is the sacrament that changes what you are.

I always remind parents on the day when they're baptizing their children, this today, on this baptism, is the most important day of this child's life.

Which brings us to a deceptively simple question.

What does it mean to be Christian?

Being a Christian does not mean being polite, does not mean being moral, does not mean well-intentioned.

Those things matter, don't get me wrong, but they're not uniquely Christian.

People of good will, believers, agnostics, even atheists can live generous ethical lives.

To be Christian is something far more radical.

To be a Christian is to be grafted on to Christ.

Jesus is the Son of God by nature.

He shares the Father's life eternally.

He is holy, sinless, and dwelling, it's the dwelling place of the Spirit.

And through baptism, something staggering happens.

You are inserted into his relationship with the Father.

And the church teaches without hesitation that in baptism, every sin is destroyed.

You are incorporated into the body of Christ not as a member of an organization, but as a living cell inside the body.

The Holy Spirit takes up residence in you.

You are adopted as a son or a daughter of the Father, and you become a co-heir with Christ to eternal life.

Now listen carefully, Jesus is son by nature.

We become son or daughter by adoption.

And adoption is not second-class sonship, it is full inheritance.

That's why Jesus then dares to say, Come, let us together pray to our Father, our Father.

St.

Gregory of Nesene said it plainly, baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift.

It is called a gift because it is given to those who bring nothing of their own.

It is a grace because it is given even to those who are guilty.

That's Jean Valjean at the bishop's door.

That's every one of us at the baptismal font.

And here's a part that should unsettle us.

Jean Valjean was not changed because he escaped punishment.

He was not changed because he walked away with silver.

He was changed because mercy demanded a response.

Baptism is not magic.

Grace is not passive.

Adoption carries obligation.

If baptism has grafted us into Christ, then his life must begin to appear in us.

How we love, how we forgive, how we live, that's the Christian way.

At the Jordan, the Father speaks, he says, You are my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.

Those words were spoken over you at your baptism.

And if that's true, then mediocrity is no longer an option.

Then sin is no longer compatible with your identity.

Then faith cannot remain private, dormant, or occasional.

Baptism does not simply forgive the past, it claims the future.

It calls you to holiness, it calls you to mission, it calls you to die to the old self and again and again begin new.

The tragedy is not that many Catholics struggle.

The tragedy is that many Catholics forget who they are and who they belong to.

They live as though baptism changed nothing.

But today, standing at the Jordan, the church says, Remember, I need you to remember.

Remember the grace you did not earn.

Remember the identity you did not choose, remember the inheritance you did not deserve, and then live accordingly.

Because when grace is truly received, lives change.

Jean Valjean never went back to being who he was.

Not because his past disappeared, but because it no longer defined him.

Mercy did not erase his history, it reclaimed it.

Grace did not deny his sin, it stripped it of its power.

And can't you see what that means for all of us?

We are not our sins.

We are not our mistakes, we are not our failures, we are not the names the enemy tries to convince us that we are.

Baptism declares something stronger.

Our identity is no longer written by our past, but by God's mercy.

Jean left the bishop's house carrying silver, but more importantly, he left carrying a new self.

We leave the baptismal font carrying something infinitely greater, the very life of Christ within us.

To be a Christian is to understand this.

To proclaim I belong to Jesus.

Have you noticed lately how football players and coaches are all proclaiming their love for Jesus?

Have you seen this?

This is what I'm talking about.

They're declaring a truth.

I am Christian.

I belong to Him.

I was grafted onto the body of Christ when I became a Christian at baptism.

That sets us apart.

So the question this feast leaves us with is not whether baptism worked.

The question is whether we are living as if it matters.

Because no one who truly encounters mercy remains unchanged.

No one adopted by the Father keeps living as an orphan.

No one grafted onto Christ can live small, guarded, half-hearted lives.

Jean Valjean never returned to his former life because grace made that return impossible.

Baptism has done the same thing for you.

And so, my brothers and sisters, how will you proclaim to the world that you belong to Christ?

How will you live?

The choice is yours.

Amen.