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| Wednesday, August 20, 2008 |
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Reflections
By St Mary Administrator @ 8:40 AM :: 33 Views ::  :: Church News
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Life in Christ begins at once for the infant. Faith and its practice make the Christian, not just the ceremony. To confer baptism while skipping its consequences is a new religion. Call it Absurdism.
In the early church, there was conversion, instruction, and baptism. We have reversed that sequence, beginning with baptism of infants, offering years of instruction to some of the young, while hoping and praying for conversion, which may not follow.
The baby knows nothing of this. Yet, “Teach them to observe all things which I have commanded you” is our Lord’s demand on his disciples – and on parents. Mothers and fathers are to educate, instruct, and shape a saint. Holiness of life is Christ’s gospel command. To become holy, the child need only copy his parents, who teach the child of Jesus.
A parent who rejects the rules of the church lacks faith. It is wrong for such a father or mother to have a child baptized (outside danger of death). In denying the acts of religion, these people become a little less Christian from Sunday to Sunday and from one Easter to the next. Thus the adults show themselves unfit to witness too Christ in the lives of their children.
Such is one dilemma facing priest and parent when an infant is offered baptism. Clearly, for our Heavenly Father, baptism is a serious matter. Serving God and His Son means making the Lord and Savior know too others. For Catholic parents, this sharing begins with their own children.
Jesus asked Judas, “Do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” That question varies slightly in asking some parents: “Do you betray the Son of Man by a baptism which, for you, is an initiation for nothing?”
Meanwhile, there is the haunting question of a truly gentle, loving Pope: “Are you faithful to the promises of your baptism?” Now do you sense a priest’s pastoral burden in responding to a request “to have our baby baptized?”
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