Muhammad Ali was talking to a group of Harvard students in 1975. One of them asked for a poem. Ali simply said: “Me. We.” Make of it what you will. I choose to believe Ali was saying something profound, something we need to recognize today more than ever. Human beings are constituted in their humanity through relationships. To be is to be with and to be part of the lives of others. The first person plural pronoun – “we” – ought to be the foundation of our being in the world and our language, not the first person singular pronoun – “I”. The individualism that dominates our thinking and behaviour and governance in the West, is destructive. It is in conflict with our true natures as social beings.
The English poet, John Donne (1572-1631), summed it up nicely: “No man is an island,/ Entire of itself;/ Every man is a piece of the continent,/ A part of the main./ If a clod be washed away by the sea,/ Europe is the less,/ As well as if a promontory were:/ As well as if a manor of thy friend's/ Or of thine own were./ Any man's death diminishes me,/ Because I am involved in mankind./ And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;/ It tolls for thee.” Our health and well-being as individuals and as a society, depend on our ability to recover the experience of “being part of the main”.
Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. It is a celebration of the Loving Community that we call God. Our Gospel text is a brief and simple one – Matthew 28:16-20: “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. The original Greek word – baptizein – carries the notion of “immersion”. We human beings are made in the image and likeness of the Loving Community we call God. “Communion” belongs to us as something natural – “Me is We”. That is who and what we are as God’s creation. It is also our destiny – yet to be realized. The realization of that destiny is made possible through the Incarnation. God’s being in the flesh through Jesus of Nazareth and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit ensures the ultimate victory of life over death, love over hatred, goodness over evil, truth over the lie.
The command to “baptize” is then much more than a command to perform the sacramental act of pouring water in the name of the Father etc. When we “baptize” someone, we commit ourselves to enabling them to be “immersed” in that Loving Communion. Eventually, the whole world will be drawn into that Communion. As disciples now, we are called to be the place where that Loving Communion begins to become real for people.
Is “baptism” an event of the past or is it an active part of my life now? Do I see myself and others in terms of a Loving Communion or has my mind been turned away by individualism?
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