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Wednesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
Titus 3:1–7
Water gives life.
But water can also destroy.
We know this from floods.
When rivers overflow, houses are damaged, roads disappear, and whole towns can be covered with mud.
Then, when the waters go down, the work of cleaning, rebuilding, and beginning again starts.
Saint Paul speaks today about another kind of water.
The water of baptism.
He calls it:
“the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
Baptism is the beginning of a new life in Christ.
Through baptism, we are joined to Jesus.
We die with Him.
We are buried with Him.
We rise with Him to new life.
That means baptism is not decorative.
It is powerful.
It destroys the old slavery and begins a new creation.
Paul does not hide what the old life looked like.
He says that before Christ, we were foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaves to desires and pleasures, living in envy and hatred.
Sin does not only make us guilty.
It makes us less human.
It makes us slaves.
It turns the heart in on itself.
It makes people hate and be hated.
But then Paul says:
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us.”
This is the Gospel.
We are not saved by our own righteousness.
We are saved by the mercy of God given to us in Jesus Christ.
And this mercy reaches us through the bath of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says that the Holy Spirit was poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Not drop by drop.
Richly.
Abundantly.
God does not only wash the outside.
He gives a new heart.
He begins to change us from within.
This is why Christians baptize their children.
Some people ask:
Should we not wait until the child can choose?
But we do not wait to give a child life, love, food, language, or a home.
These are gifts given before the child understands them.
Baptism is also a gift.
It is the gift of belonging to Christ.
The gift of eternal life.
The gift of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of being welcomed into the family of God.
Later, the child must grow into this gift.
Faith must be taught.
Prayer must be learned.
The Gospel must be lived.
But the gift comes first.
That is how grace works.
So we can ask:
Am I living from my baptism?
Am I still returning to the old slavery?
Do I allow the Holy Spirit to renew my heart?
The water of baptism has touched our life.
Now our life must show that we belong to Christ.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Mark
Year of Mark - Get it from Amazon
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
(Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).