Baptism figures large in our Easter liturgy. During the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday is the ideal time for baptism. We are reminded that in baptism we died with Christ to the old life of sin and rose with him to a new life of grace (Romans 6, 3). We renew our baptismal promises and restate our commitment to stand with Christ and to be motivated with his values in our daily lives. We remind ourselves that we stand for all that is right and good, just and true; we are people of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. In a word, we put God first and love and appreciate ourselves and others as God’s ‘work of art’.

As followers of Christ we are challenged to spread his message in today’s world. ‘By this all will know that you are my disciples - that you love one another as I have loved you’ (John 13, 34-5). What is in question is self-sacrificing, self-giving love after the example of Christ himself, ‘tough’ love, if you like, the kind that takes difficult, principled decisions when necessary and makes sacrifices as required; the kind that is steadfast and faithful in good times and in bad. Pope Benedict is reported to have told the newly created cardinals to ‘see to it that the Church’s solicitude for the poor and needy challenges the world with a powerful statement on the civilising power of love’. We, too, might take these words to heart and allow them to influence our thinking and our attitudes toward those in our society who may be underprivileged, neglected, unloved and marginalised, rather than ‘cherished’ equally as befits God’s beloved sons and daughters.