What It Means To Be a Christian

As the rich brother takes upon himself the debts of his bankrupt brother, so our Lord takes upon himself all the discord and disharmonies and all the sins and all the guilt of man as if he himself were guilty. As gold is sucked into the furnace to have its dross burned away, so God takes human nature, and plunges it into Calvary to have our sins burned away. Or to change the figure: since sin is in the blood, Jesus poured out his blood for redemption, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.  And then on Easter Sunday he rises again with his glorified, sinless human nature. And this becomes the first note of the new creation, the beginning of the new symphony which will be played again and again by the divine conductor. How are the notes added? We are the other notes, if, like Mary, we really consent to be added to that first note. How do we become added? We become added by the sacrament of baptism by which each man dies to the old Adam and incorporates himself to the new Adam, Christ. All of these notes that are added to this first note constitute the new body of Christ and what is known as his mystical body, the Church. This is what it means to be a Christian.