On a house in London there is a plaque. It reads
“John Lennon 1940 - 1980 Musician and Songwriter lived here in 1968”
There is a real sense in which the house changed when that plaque went up. It ‘sealed’ the house as significant and different. And no matter who lives there now or what happens in that house, there is a special sense in which it will always be John Lennon’s house.
I thought about this at a recent parish baptism. It is always a significant event but what takes my breath away is when the child's forehead is signed with the symbol of the cross with holy oil. It is true that the candle and the holy water are all essential, but the cross on the forehead is mind popping.
The cross used to be a means of execution but it has been subsumed and transfigured into a sign of victory and new life. A symbol of the unconquerable love of the Master Carpenter. Once sealed with the sign of the cross and symbolically ‘drowned’ in the water of the font, the child can never be the same again. Victory and new life are now the babe’s.
It’s easy to miss the blue plaque in Maryleborne just as the sign of the cross at a baptism is easily missed. But these little things change us in ways that we will never know. John would have had no idea when he was living in London that the house would be so visited and gawped at.
And that was the lovely thing about this baptism. In the eyes of God this child will always be remembered, always honoured and always loved. The cross and its victory are always indelibly and inseparably ours.