Napoleon at the baptismal font

There’s really no sense in saying, “I’m interested in Christ, but only a little bit, please.” You gotta go all in.

So where do Napoleon and his crown-grabbing ways fit it? Well, I have seen a good number of Catholics who strongly identify with Catholicism and are heavily involved with other Catholics. The drive and hunger is there. But as soon as it comes time to kneel and accept something good and meaningful from God, they don’t just gleefully, joyfully go for it. Instead, they grab it out of his hands and bestow it on themselves.

Read the rest of my latest for The Catholic Weekly.

Image: Marie-Victoire Jaquotot [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons)

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4 thoughts on “Napoleon at the baptismal font”

  1. I recently read about Napoleon’s coronation. There’s something fascinating about him even though he seemed to be an arrogant jerk and tried to keep the Church under his thumb.

    Per baptismal water: As I was going into Mass yesterday, there was a young man standing at the Church’s baptismal large marble font (which isn’t in the church proper, but an enclosed gallery between the church and the hall). He was a young black man with a backpack, evidently one of the the community college students walking from class. As I put my hand in to get some water to bless myself, he put his hands in and scooped water onto his curly head, saying I’m sorry. It’s hot out there.” (It was an unusually hot day.) I just smiled and agreed. It was just available water to him and the church was a cool respite from the heat.

  2. This is great! In the same vein, as a new convert seated next to a priest at a dinner party, I learned that the fastest way to clear a room of Catholics is to audibly ask that priest for Confession. In my defense, we were starting to clear the table after the meal, but I still shake my head a bit when I think back.

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