Meditation Forty-six, Third Week
of January 2004
Who Can Be Baptized?
Begin with prayer to the Holy
Spirit
Baptism implies a commitment to Christ as one’s
Savior, as well as a promise to follow His teaching, and belief in the whole
Christian faith. Each one who wishes to be baptized, therefore, must seriously
promise to fulfill the dictates of faith and love. It is understood that no one
is able faithfully and completely to fulfill these works of faith perfectly
because they are the ultimate goal of the whole Christian life. But poor
sinners that we are, we commit ourselves to obey the laws of Christ and the
Gospel as best we can. If sins are to be forgiven, they must be repented of.
This is why the rite of Baptism contains a rejection of evil and a profession
of faith. The rite of adult Baptism involves a long preparation and catechesis
in its various stages, making this need for conversion more obvious. We learn
much in our meditations when we go over the things to which we are committed by
Baptism.
We also learn something important from the
Baptism of children, the retarded, and the mentally ill. This is not recognized
by the denominations that require confessional Baptism—what we Catholics call
the Baptism of adults, with all the responsibilities listed above. Since before
the end of the persecutions in the early Church there are descriptions of the
Baptism of infants, that is, of children too young to make their commitment to
Christ themselves. The children’s parents or guardians spoke for them. The
important truth here is that Baptism does not depend absolutely on the
profession of faith. It does, however, with an adult or older child capable of consent
and commitment. Such a profession is a very good work. Our salvation is the
work of Christ. We show our loyalty in following His teaching through good
works. It is paradox that the very people who claim to deny the need for good
works require this one for Baptism. Of course a person mentally capable of a
commitment to Christ must make one, but salvation is essentially Christ’s work.
This is never more obvious than at the Baptism of an infant or a retarded
person. These same denominations also require that the minister of Baptism be a
committed evangelical Christian. In the early Church in the case of extreme
necessity (for example, a catechumen about to be martyred), a nonbaptized person could be requested to baptize if he or
she intended to do what Christ had commanded. The minister at Baptism simply
stands in for Jesus. It is He who baptizes; it is He who saves. And He saves us
by incorporating us into His divine life. This is the source of all hope for
eternal life.
Quotation for Meditation
From the Council of
“If anyone denies that infants newly born
from their mothers’ wombs are to be baptized,” even though they be born of
baptized parents, “or says they are baptized indeed for the remission of sins,
but that they derive nothing of original sin from Adam, which must be expiated
by the laver of regeneration” for the attainment of life everlasting, whence it
follows, that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins is
understood to be not true, but false: let him be anathema. For what the Apostle
has said: “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so
death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned (Rom. 5:12), is not to be
understood otherwise than as the Catholic Church spread everywhere has always
understood it. For by reason of this rule of faith from a tradition of the
apostles even infants, who could not as yet commit any sins of themselves, are
for this reason truly baptized for the remission of sins, so that in them there
may be washed away by regeneration, what they have contracted by generation.
“For unless a man be born again of water and the Holy
Ghost, he cannot enter into the
Quiet Time and
Then Discussion
Questions for Meditation
1. Do I understand why the
Church has always called for the Baptism of children and retarded people?
2. Have I thought about the fact
that Christ is the real person who baptizes?
3. Do I think of my commitments as one of the
baptized?
Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, how grateful we must
be to know that we are washed in the waters of Baptism, really the waters
sanctified by Your precious Blood. Help us each day,
each hour, to be faithful to You and to recognize You
always as Lord and Master, our brother, and our hope for eternal life. And let
the saving bath of Your divine charity wash over all I
know and over the whole human race. Amen.