Page 149 - Prayer Book

Ι Heard You…
149
sions and death! Biological birth through sexual reproduc-
tion grants a life enslaved to death. The person born
through sexual reproduction is condemned to die because
of this very mode of birth! Also, our biological birth is
something we did not freely choose. Our birth was im-
posed upon us—no one asked us if we wanted to be born!
Baptism, however, is the result of freedom. In Baptism,
we choose to be born! In Baptism, we are born as persons
because, through the Holy Spirit, we are born in Christ! We
are born as persons through the relationship between the
Son and the Father, in the name of Christ! In other words,
we are born as persons by putting on Christ, by being iden-
tified with Christ through the grace and power of the Ho-
ly Spirit! In the name of Christ, we plunge into the bound-
less ocean of the Love of God the Father! God the Father
Loves each one of us just as He Loves His Son, as He Loves
His Son, and as much as He Loves His Son!
Foretaste of Our True Personhood
in the Kingdom of God
This foretaste of our personhood in the Kingdom of
God, which begins with Baptism, is completed in the Mys-
tery of the Divine Eucharist! In the Eucharist, we experi-
ence the mystery of Life as Communion, which freely and
uniquely constitutes persons! Communion of Love! Love
that originates from the person of God the Father and,
through the Holy Spirit, becomes incarnate in Christ with-
in our personhood! A Communion of Love that makes
each person “one,” unique and irreplaceable, for it receives
“the identity and name from Christ Himself.”