Who's the holiest person in the room?

It's me!

Grace was baptized this morning at the 8:00 AM Mass at our parish. She did fine, but I cried tears of joy!

One thing that people always take note of after a child is baptized is the smell of the chrism that they are anointed with. I have been smelling the chrism all day today, and everything that she has been in contact with, from her car seat to my bed and my shirt, carries the faint aroma of it.

And isn't that the way we are supposed to be?

2 Corinthians 2:15 states that "we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." The beauty of the sacraments is that Our Lord uses tangible things -- water, oil, fragrance, candlelight, etc -- not only to impart grace, but to make visible for us spiritual realities.

And what are those spiritual realities?

Grace has now been made a child of God, has had original sin washed away, and has been indelibly marked by the Holy Spirit. She is now a new creation, and just as she is carrying the aroma of the chrism everywhere, and leaving a "mark" wherever she goes, so we are to do that too.

While I can't seem to get my words out and explain it well, it has been eye-opening for me to see just how easily contact with her "spreads." One person holds her, which marks their clothing, and then they carry the aroma of it wherever they go.

Contact with us should do the same. People should be changed for the better for having been around us. We are called to be the "aroma of Christ," spreading the fragrance of Him everywhere.

May God make it so.