Welcome to St. John the Baptist Church

Dear Parishioners!

I want to share this reflection with you:

The baptism of Jesus may seem odd to us. John called the people to repent and be baptized and then urged them to go and live good lives. The Savior of the world needs baptism? Yet, as John foretold, the power of the Spirit pours upon Jesus. He is the Beloved Son, or as Saint Paul says, the one “who gave himself for us, to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14). Before his ascension, Jesus appeared to his disciples or followers. John, he said, had baptized with water, but they “in a few days . . . will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). At Pentecost the power of the Spirit fills them. They become apostles—the ones sent forth with the Good News—healing, forgiving, binding up wounds, teaching, and preaching. We are disciples as we learn more about Christ, but also apostles. Saint Teresa of Ávila said:

Christ has no body now but yours,

no hands, no feet on earth but yours,

yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,

yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.