Recently I was speaking with a friend regarding baptism. She was expressing her confusion regarding her religious views and her dismay that her child is not baptized, if she even wants it, she is not sure how she feels.... I sat wondering about Our Lord's baptism in the Jordan river, about my own and then finally about a friend of mine who was received into the church at 30 yrs of age. As I thought about the differences and similarities of all these baptisms I heard my friend warning her child about the dangers of the light socket, the danger of the staircase, the knifes in the dishwasher he managed to get open and start unloading. I thought to myself , to her , with unclear beliefs that a baptism is no different than the loving warnings she was providing for her son right then. She would be protecting him spiritually, if in the end Christianity is right and if not, then no harm no foul, right? Well no, not really. Yes on paper fine, to the unsure " spiritual not religious" person a baptism is a safe bet, a net , a 401K of sorts. Yet to a Christian Catholic, a baptism is so much more. The Catholic Catechism says ;
ARTICLE 1 - THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
1213 Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua),[4] and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word."[5]
In my heart when I read that it is something I desperately want to be apart of. Baptism is the door way, it leads me to be able to receive the other sacraments which will lead me to learn about my faith and then to practice it and continue to learn and grow. It will lead me to Jesus, somewhere I desperately want to be. I have heard the same old story a million times, I don't want to choose for my child , I want them to be free and figure it out for themselves. This argument annoys me. We protect our children from electric shock, falling down stairs, cutting themselves but we do not want to protect them from the spiritual. It just doesn't makes sense to me. What do you think friends?
Good post, Shannon. Through Baptism, we become Christian. Baptism opens the gates of heaven to us. Without baptism, the gates of heaven are forever closed, thanks to Adam and Eve. The importance of the sacrament, in and of itself, can never be understated nor more misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteBaptism does not save... it is only a public show of obedience.
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