There was a time, back in the late 80's and early 90's, that I was a bit of a "gamer". Of course the system of choice back then was the original Nintendo, and then later the Super Nintendo.
I played Super Mario Brothers until my fingers were calloused! One of the best "Power Ups" in the game was the "1-UP" Green Mushroom, which gave you an extra life. Back then, that was a big deal! There was no "saving" your progress in Super Mario Brothers, so when your character died and you were out of "lives", that was the end. You started back at World 1-1, even though you were on 7-3. An extra life meant an extra chance at conquering the level.
Christ offers us new life in heaven. He was born on Christmas Day for a mission, a mission to die, and to rise. This was not a mission for the faint of heart...thankfully He was more than up to the task. Having faced His share of critics, Jesus allowed Himself to face more persecution, suffering, and even death in order to show us that there is always hope.
As we conclude the Christmas Season, we have another chance at this cycle of the Liturgical Year. Each year we go through the same celebrations, and each year we get a chance to understand them more and more, and to go deeper and deeper into the mysteries they contain.
Don't let this Liturgical Year come and go without learning something new! We've been through it several times during our lives (some of us more than others), and what is nice about it is that each time we begin it's a "new life", a chance to experience something new but at the same time familiar. Now we know better how Lent is going to be challenging for us, we know how rewarding it will be to celebrate Easter when we've made some honest sacrifices over the past few weeks of Lent, we know that it is rewarding when we can remember to celebrate the Holy Days and attend Mass on those days, we know that it will be more rewarding to celebrate Sunday Masses when we've already read over the readings before we've gotten there, and we know that as we finish this coming Liturgical Year how nice it will be to look back and see how much we've grown.
As we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we celebrate our own Baptism, a moment that we received new life in Christ. Our Baptism gave us the gift of eternal life, something that we will be able to experience in its fullness some day, but until that day comes, we need to engage every moment the Lord offers us to experience Him, in both word and in Sacrament.