On Easter

Three sacraments: Baptism. The waters of baptism rush over my Easter hairstyle. The switch from the extraordinary means of salvation to the ordinary means is confusing. I am born anew and yet I had been born anew. It is like the move from the Old Testament to the New Testament in my person. Before I followed the cloud by day and the pillar by night. Now I have the Church as well. I'd been baptized into His body in a way before, and now I'm baptized into His whole body (into His Church with all the saints).

Confirmation. So soon; no fifty-day lag. The oil marked my grace for maturity almost as soon as I'd been "born." And sealed with oil--keeping my baptism sticking.

The Eucharist. Receiving the Eucharist is like a little Incarnation announced with lillies at Easter: God comes in His real presence to our bodies. As Rudolfo Anaya writes, "Don't go bite on God. ... I wondered how God must feel to go into Horse's [a young boy] stinking mouth." And again: "Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Bones [a young friend] jumped up and push his finger into his mouth. The host had stuck to the roof of his mouth. He was jabbing God with his finger, trying to free Him, choking on Him."

And bringing up the gifts--for the first time really being part of the body of Christ in that parish--serving as a representative for all of them in coming to the priest.