In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Baptism means commitment. In many many instances instances today, that commitment was made in our behalf. We may have joined in with a little shrill cry or two, but for some reason babies don't even do that now, they're so well behaved.
It really is amazing how few babies even whimper when you pour water on their heads. I don't know whether just plain insensitive or what. Maybe they've been drugged. But anyway, baptism is a commitment. And, as I say, we it was made in our name.
Yet, we are the ones who are supposed to live it. Now, the opening prayer today had a word in there, which I call to your attention because it says everything. Vocation. Vocation. Now, vocation simply means to be called.
That's all the word means. There's nothing mystical or spiritual or anything about it. The vocation to the priesthood is when some bishop says to you, come up here and I'll ordain you. I mean that just that way. And in the religious life, a vocation means that some legitimate superior says, look, I think you can make it.
Come on. We accept you. That's the vocation. At least that's the best interpretation I can see of. This call from God, you know, you can sit around a long time before you hear it.
And if you take a couple of drinks of Scotch, you can hear it quite quickly. And this is the way things work. So, we are all called, never mistake that. People talking about life having meaning. For a Christian to ask that question?
You see, the point is, when they say life has no meaning, what they're saying is, it doesn't have a meaning that I want. Now, right away, I think of the the man whose mass we had last week, the celebration of brother Andre Bessette, famous founder, originator, and guardian of the the Basilica Of Saint Joseph near Montreal. I think his present status is beatified. But the point is this, for forty years, remember that man was practically illiterate. He was looked upon as an eccentric.
He was looked upon, you know, as a half a a lunatic. Even by his confreres. He spent forty years of his life in a most menial way. Most menial way. And by menial, I mean on his on his hands and feet scrubbing floors.
The French around Montreal are not noted for uncleanliness. And when you have bare floors, they kept them polished. Anybody can bear Just to show you, a friend of mine just recently, very recently visited the Georgetown convent over there, the visitation convent on Old Georgetown Road, is now, I think, taken over by NIH. And they remarked about the marvelous condition of the floors. You know, every convent had floor that you could skate on.
Anyway, this man spent forty years of that running errands for the community, being a porter, doing all the odds and ends for forty years. And his health was never good, although he lived to be 91 years old. Now, and there's a scene that I just read last week about it was where somebody came into the It was a college of Notre Dame. They came in to have a conference with him because he had gotten a reputation for for working wonders. So, this person came to hear hear brother Andre is down there scrubbing the floor.
Somebody says something about being cured of arthritis or rheumatism or something. He looks up and says, go ahead and walk out. Then he's kept scrubbing his floor. The person walked out. But he kept scrubbing the floors.
Now, after forty years of that, when he was nearly 65 years old or more, he finally became guardian of this church that was starting on the way be to this huge Basilica Of Saint Joseph, which he started with simply going out and putting a statue up in the niche of a wall. That's how it started. He had no vision of a basilica. And yet, when he died at the age of 91, that basilica, it was well, it was it wasn't finished by a long shot, but it was well on the way. A tremendous church that I'm sure many of you have seen it.
Had he any idea where for forty years of scrubbing the floor that he was being called to be a guardian of a basilica? You see, the trouble is he saw more than the floor. Now, even if you're president of The United States, if you're premier of Russia or any job you have, it reduces itself to a lot of monotony. Don't make any mistake about it. Things are glamorous for the most part from the outside.
We all know that you don't have to be at 91 years old to know this. But the trouble is we don't appreciate the job we're called to do. We would so much rather be doing something else. This is the tough thing. And I remember what Benedict the fifteenth said in regard to John Neumann, Bishop of of Philadelphia.
They refused to beatify him because they said the church insisted you I'm repeating myself, but I can't repeat this too often. The church says you have to practice virtue to an heroic extent to be a saint. That is a canonized saint. And they said, what is what's John Neumann done? This little old shrimp, five feet four, couldn't even speak English well.
You know what Benedict the fifteenth said? That anybody I'm not this is not a quotation. But he said, anyone who practices the simplest things of life in the way of their vocation, their God given vocation, constantly. There's the word, constantly. Despite the difficulties of life, they are practicing virtue heroically.
Could anything more simple be said, and yet so profoundly true. Profoundly true. Foundly true. There is nothing insignificant about your lives. Whether it's being spent in a wheelchair, whether it's being spent in an office, whether it's being spent beside a lathe or a machine, or working on the roads, or working in the home, wherever wherever are you are you doing what you're called to do?
Now, some people say, well, I don't know what I'm called to do. I I pray God every day that I will know my calling. Well, in most instances, all they'd have to do would would be to look around and their calling is right at their feet. Right at their feet in many instances. And I'm not exaggerating.
The only thing is they don't want to see that. That's not what they want to be called to. And when I say they, I mean all of us. I will all of us. It even comes down to this little simple thing like making a telephone call or writing a letter.
We know we should do it, but we'll say I'll do it this afternoon. I'll do it when I have more time. I'll do it when I'm in a better mood. I'll do it when I feel more inspired. Oh, that's the baby.
That is the corker. But if you wait till you are inspired to do something, it never gets done. It's right there. Pick up the phone and make the call. Get your pen and or typewriter and write the letter.
And so, this word vocation folks, don't think that it's reserved to a religious or a priest or a brother. Yet, we are called. Each one of us is called by name, by name. We are not anonymous numbers to God almighty. We're individuals, individual human beings as our holy father never tires of saying, irrepeatable, irrepeatable, absolutely irrepeatable, unique in the eyes of God.
And we all have our calling. We've been given to it. And the symbol was that light, carry this light through your life. Take this garment and carry it through your life and sew it. Well, most of us don't carry the light completely blazing, and we don't carry that garment on sullied.
We try. And when it needs cleaning, we clean it. And when the candle gets a little bit cloudy or dim, and the wick needs repair, we do it. That's the story of the Christian life. Our Christ fell three times on the stations of the cross.
There's nothing in the New Testament about his falling. Why do you think that came into into the Christian consciousness? And so, let us today, as we celebrate the baptism of Christ, that we celebrate our own baptism, our own calling to be Lucifer's carriers of light, the light of Jesus Christ into our daily lives. Name of the father, and the son, and holy spirit. Amen.