4th Sunday of Easter - Repent and be Baptized, COVID edition

“Repent and be baptized”

Every single thing in our life, all the things that we used to do, and all the things we may soon be doing again - all of them need one of these two actions done to them.

Repent - turn your back on them. Do a 180, to face the right thing. Leave it in the dust. Scrap it. It is not of God or not what God asks of me specifically.

Be baptized - It needs to be consecrated to God. It is good in itself and is what God wants me to be spending myself on for one reason or another. Therefore I must do it. But I must do it for God. Given to God. Covered in prayer and discernment and guided by the wisdom of the Church.

Repent and be baptized. That is our whole life, before and after baptism.

We are called to make sacrifices for our faith, for this relationship.

But God did it first. This is one of the things Jesus is speaking of when He calls Himself the Good Shepherd. Every Good Shepherd is the first one out and the last one in. He led the way as a Good Shepherd. Jesus went through the gate of the cross. We must follow.

Sheep were kept overnight in caves. The shepherd would protect the sheep with his own life by laying down across the mouth of the cave. No wolves could come in without getting through him first. A good shepherd “lays down his life” for his sheep.

God did it first.

Now what are we going to do? Will we follow the voice of this good shepherd? Will we “repent” and “be baptized” in every single aspect of our life?

Will our new life on the other side of quarantine look identical to before? If so, we were either perfect before, or we didn’t grow. Clearly, things should be different for us.