Last week we talked about our lives as Christians being hidden in Christ with God. Today we pick up the theme again, for the larger theme is what it means to live the new life Christ gives us.

Baptism is Paul's reference point for talking about life "hidden with Christ in God." A Christian's baptism is not unlike Jewish circumcision, Paul says. In baptism we are marked as Christians. This is a circumcision made without hands, the circumcision of Christ in which we are "buried with Him in baptism."

He then becomes our life. Giacomo Manzu, the artist friend of Pope John XXIII, sculpted the newest doors of St. Peter's in Rome. I remember seeing that magnificent piece of art. One door depicts a series of death scenes, "Death by Falling," "Death in War," and others. "Death by water" is…