Greetings in Christ, all!
Last Saturday we joyfully celebrated the arrival and installation of our new baptismal font by both blessing the font and celebrating baptism of four children. The wait has been long, but we are pleased and blessed by what we now have. My homily last weekend reviewed the design of our church and font and I want to share that with you here:
The Church building is inspired by this passage from Hebrews:
“Since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us cast aside every encumbrance of sin, pressing forward with our eyes fixed on Jesus.”
When we enter the Church, we are surrounded by reminders of the Saints. There are statues in the gathering area, sanctuary, and nave. Built into our floor, wherever you see a cross on the floor, there is a medal of a Saint beneath. That’s the first part of the passage: Surrounded by the cloud of witnesses.
Second, we are to cast aside every encumbrance of sin. This is why the confessionals are right at the doors as we enter the Church. We cast aside our sins every chance we can and we choose to receive and give mercy.
At the front and center of our Church is Jesus on the cross, Jesus on the altar and Jesus in the tabernacle. This is where we fix our eyes as we press forward toward him.
When St. John saw a vision of Heaven, he heard that the angels there gaze at God and cry out “HOLY! HOLY! HOLY!” in response to Him. This is why we have the words “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus” on our stairs leading up to the altar. We remember that our celebration of the Mass is guiding us to heaven, step by step!
Beyond that, we have Jerusalem crosses all through our Church. Both the crosses and the stairs are here to remind us of our ultimate goal: Heaven. We strive to be there now and to get there someday.
There is a lot more to our Church construction and numerous symbols within it, but that is a brief look at the general concept and Scripture behind it.
Now, to our font: The font consists of three bowls with holy water flowing through all three. We did this because we wanted the construction of the font to reflect our baptism into the Trinity.
We believe that the trinity is three persons so perfect in love that they are one.
We believe that the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit are constantly emptying themselves into each other. Each member of the Trinity is constantly pouring out all their love into the other two. Each member of the Trinity is emptying themselves into the others in a dynamic of love and life: a dynamic that created the Universe and all within it.
This is the mystery into which we are baptized: the mystery of The Trinity.
This trinity revealed Itself to us through the Person of Jesus, who emptied Himself out for us on the cross. Thus, the baptismal font is built into a cross in the floor.
The font is located at the main entrance to the Church because our Christian journey begins in our baptism. Our pressing forward with our eyes fixed on Jesus begins with our baptism.
The font has three panels with one Scripture passage on it and a symbol on each panel. The symbols are replicas of the symbols in the windows in the sanctuary to the left of the rosary window. Those are the symbols for The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. A visual connection between what happens at the font and what happens at the altar. The connection is The Trinity into which we are baptized.
The Scripture passage on the font is from The Book of Revelation and reads:
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Down the middle of the great street of the city, on each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”
This verse is a part of St. John’s vision of Heaven: a tree and a river that work together to bear fruit and bring life and healing to the nations. This passage inspired us to build a font that looks a bit like a tree and a river together.
It is our sincerest prayer that we seize the grace given to us in baptism to bear fruit of life and healing for others.
This Church, this font, the ministry we do as a Church to the poor and for each other could not happen without your prayers, your financial sacrifice and your commitment. I bless you for being a part of this family and hope that together, we get to enjoy this font for years to come.
Thank you for letting me be your priest,
fjk