Baptism: Celebration into God's Family

This week, I want to write about being a member of the largest family on earth – The Christian family. Baptism is the way in which we enter the family of God.

Like anything in life, there are different practices concerning Baptism. Catholics and most Protestant churches baptize babies, while others such as the Mormons and apostle Church baptizes as adults. I always found this difference quite interesting as it really explains how different Churches thinks our relationship with God is.

Contemporary Catholics spend a great deal of time preparing for their own or their child's Baptism. There are new clothes to buy, and classes to take, and godparents to select, all leading up to that moment at Mass when the waters of Baptism touch the new initiate. But Baptism-and all sacraments, for that matter-are much more than the moment of celebration.

The ritual of Baptism does not bring God's love into being as if that love did not exist before the ceremony. Baptism is the Church's way of celebrating and enacting the embrace of God who first loved us from the moment of our conception. Baptism celebrates a family's and a community's experience of that love in the baptized.

There are other life experiences-birth, death, washing, growing and so forth-that are celebrated in Baptism. The water represents life, death, cleansing and growth, and it recalls the floodwaters of Noah's day and the saving waters of the Red Sea parted by Moses. The candle symbolizes our status as an "Easter people" and signifies the way that the Church "passes the torch" of Christian commitment to those being baptized. The white garment represents the Church's belief that Baptism sets us free from Original Sin.

Obviously, infants cannot understand the change of allegiance, the putting off of the old and putting on of the new, the dying and rising, the new life, or the sharing in the life of Christ. However, the parents of those infants can understand and live those values and pass them on to their children. They can also experience the support of the community in living those ideals, and that is extremely important.

Infant Baptism only makes sense if parents are true Christian disciples. If they are not, then it makes little sense to initiate their children into a Church, which calls for a commitment to living the mission of Christ.
The Rite of Baptism for Children emphasizes the importance of faithfulness on the part of parents when it says to parents: In asking to have your children baptized, "you are accepting the responsibility of training them in the practice of the faith." That word practice is crucial; it calls for Christian modeling on the part of parents.

Children learn to be Christian by osmosis, by experiencing Christianity at home. The "domestic church" prepares children for the local and world Church. It is in the home, in the domestic church, that children first learn basic trust, which is the foundation of faith. Without the experience of faith, hope and commitment in the home, children will not be able to know and understand the larger Church.

There are many that do not have the faith that decides that a child should not be baptized. Some are disappointed if a child decides to be baptized later. Others decide that their children are not baptized because it has something to do with their faith. I think it’s a shame when children are not baptized as an infant. I think that it is a lovely celebration that a child is now part of God’s family. It is like we are forgetting a part of a child’s upbringing if he/she is not “officially” a part of God’s family. The argument that a child cannot decide is important for some but I think a child can decide when they are being confirmed if they want to be Christian or not.

Parents have a huge responsibility. It is not enough that we just splash some water over a child’s head. We also have to introduce the child to what it means being part of Gods family. My parents prayed with us, made sure that we attended Sunday school and Church. We had Bibles that we could read and Grandparents that supported the faith. This has given me the foundation of a faith. I don’t go to Church anymore, for reasons Ill explain later, but I do pray.

Baptism was one of the best presents my parents gave me.