As I write this message, I am on Day 4 of a 10-day pilgrimage to jubilee churches in Luzon, Philippines together with 25 friends from our Diocese. We are set to visit at least 20 churches (most are designated as jubilee churches), with more restaurants than churches because we eat at least 5 times a day! Seriously, I am thrilled to serve as chaplain for this particular pilgrimage which celebrates the first few weeks of the Jubilee of Hope launched by Pope Francis himself last December 24.

Providentially, this weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We are invited to reflect on this Sacrament as the day we belonged to God with an unbreakable bond. Baptism opens wide the doors of the Church – our spiritual family,  so that we can enter and become the sons and daughters of God. In this simple celebration of faith, God and our families and friends offered us the means of salvation, even as we were infants unknowingly participating in that most sacred ritual.

The model of our Baptism is none other than Jesus Himself. Though He did not need it to remove sins, since He was sinless, nor to establish a relationship with God, since He is one with Him from eternity, Jesus went through the humble gesture of being baptized like the rest of the people around John the Baptist. Why? The answer is simple: to identify Himself as the Son of God so that His mission could begin.

Maybe we do not remember our baptismal anniversary (mine is easy – December 25!), but whenever we pray the Creed, whenever we dip our fingers in the holy water font, whenever we are sprinkled with holy water – we recall our Baptism, the day we entered God’s family. It is not only a past event; it is a daily celebration.

This weekend, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we are called to live out our baptism: that moment when we truly became brothers and sisters in Christ, journeying together as pilgrims filled with hope!

I request for your prayers as the pilgrimage continues. Rest assured of mine.

Missing the parish and everyone already.