My wife is a sponsor of one of the fifteen or so people who will be baptized Saturday night at our parish church. To have witnessed the journey the two of them have made through this year, a journey filled with struggles, is to witness a microcosm of the Pilgrim Church. Her sponsorship has been no ceremonial thing; it has been a real pilgrimage with a young woman coming to the Church, looking to pass over this weekend into the larger journey of us all to the Father through the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. What I have witnessed is a model for all of us who call ourselves Catholic. It is our work to help our brothers and sisters be with Christ on this life journey, and to allow ourselves to be helped as well when we need to be. This is living the Gospel, this is how the Holy Spirit works through the members of this Mystical Body. I have been able to see faith, hope and charity at work. Not only did I have a front row seat for this journey, I was invited to participate as well. When I asked the young catechumen if she had any questions about Catholicism, she took out a notebook, and we were off!
This is the work of the Church. This is evangelization and catechesis. Companions on the journey, giving to each other, learning from each other, travelling the road together, the road made clear through the acts of a loving God that we can all enter, or re-enter, starting tonight.
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