Today we hear about the paradox of what it means to be a Christian. On one hand we hear of the honour: "... in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized in to Christ have clothed yourself with Christ" (Gal 3: 26-27) while on the other we hear of the suffering: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Lk 9: 23) The cross is not a one off event. We are to take up the cross "daily." We not only journey with Jesus, in the sacred liturgy, from Galilee to Jerusalem and from there on to Christ the King but also in the minutiae of everyday life with all of its frustrations and failures. Thus, baptism is not one off event that has us somehow magically transformed rather it is an entry into a life, informed by and guided, in the Holy Spirit, that imposes now standard of what it means to love. Peter tells us: "Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Pet 1: 22-23) This gives us pledge not of temporal but heavenly glory that gives us the hope of a life that unites the whole of humanity in one great family with God s its Father: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave of free, there is no longer male nd female; for all of you re one in Christ Jesus. nd if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." (Gal 3: 28-29)
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