Yesterday I had a wonderful privilege
Of baptizing a little boy by the name of Cormac.
Now Cormac is the fourth generation of this family
That I’ve known ever since I was ordained a deacon.
Forty-two years ago.
I knew Cormac’s great grandparents very well.
They were in the parish community.
And they had a deep and a full faith.
They were there every Sunday
And they were there with their children.
And through that experience I came to know
The children as well.
And some of them became very good friends of mine.
In fact, one of them is on our board here,
At Mercy Home for Boys and Girls.
I baptized their children as well.
One of their daughters, third generation,
Has worked here at Mercy Home for Boys and Girls
And she worked here for a while.
And now is exploring a fuller career.
And yesterday I baptized her son
And her husband’s son Cormac.
Four generations.
And what a privilege that’s been for me.
What a privilege it is to participate
In the life of a family.
As I read the Gospel,
It’s all about what the Gospel is saying today.
It’s about a deep faith with firm roots
Planted strongly into the ground
And nurtured by faith, by hope, by love.
That’s what the Lord is encouraging us and inviting us
To have a strong faith that is rooted deeply in the ground.
The soil of his heart and of his love.
To be nourished by the Lord.
To come to know the Lord.
To spread the good news of being disciples of the Lord.
You know, faith is a wonderful gift
And it’s a gift from God.
There’s nothing we do to earn our faith.
It simply comes as gift from God.
And we’re invited to embrace that faith,
To nurture and nourish that faith,
And then to share that faith with others.
So that seed that is planted,
Talking four, five, six generations about this family
All the way back to Ireland and more.
It’s been nurtured over time.
I’m sure it had ups and downs in the genealogy of the family.
Every family has its ups and downs.
But they nurtured it over time.
It didn’t wither.
It didn’t dry up.
It didn’t get carried away by a bird.
It was a faith that was rooted in the love of Christ
And in the love of the Gospel
And is passed on from generation to generation.
We’re all called to do that.