Is this you final opportunity to accept Christ?

Is this your final opportunity to accept Christ?  

For someone who is in tune with Christ this question has no substance.  However, as we always hear ministers proclaiming warnings to all who will listen, no one knows when their final moment will occur.  Most people will continue with their everyday journey of buying, selling, eating and speaking to loved ones with no further thoughts of life or death.  A last moment of life has no more meaning for the average man or woman than flying off to the moon.  We have too much to do today and do not  consider this the day we find ourselves in Hospice.

A theme that may appear out of place just a couple of weeks before we all celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is just that where what this article is leading us to, but with the essence of what brought about this Sunday morning Freedom from death.

Bringing your child for baptism has a deeper meaning than water, words of acceptance, and a promise by parents and god-parents to adhere to the questions of belief.  Why do we need baptism?  Why did Christ go to Calvary?  Why do we seek reconciliation with a priest?  

The shortest response to the one reality that the Church is all about;  “Sin.”  We see a common connection of the waters of baptism and the water sprinkled on the coffin of a deceased loved one;   the cleansing of the effects that Sin brought about separating us from God.  At baptism we are already beginning the journey that will be our entrance into eternity with Almighty God, free from the scourge of Sin. The broken Body of Christ being lowered from the Cross on Good Friday is the payment for Sin.  Our adherence to the Holy Mass is celebrating our Sin’s removal.  

As a common shout of praise during the Doxology at Mass we give the glory and praise to our Father for his sending his Son to pay for the effects of Sin;  rejection of the Holy Trinity.

Another shout of why all this is occurring so close to Easter is the effects of Sin never being a forgotten entity that will disappear with a prayer or sacrifice.   The very understanding of what Sin is all about and we have a similar responsibility of its hold on humanity and must be held to its cause.  God loves us so much that he forgave this entity of Sin when his Son shed his Blood to become the element that would cleanse us from this evil called Sin.

Easter is real because each of us is guilty of the evil of sin, and yet as we see the empty Cross and the empty tomb, Sin no longer has a hold on us and we shall all rise ti be with Christ forever.  

Ralph B. Hathaway