Sunday 25 (B-2006):
Baptism and Marriage
The “sacrament of baptism”: what does it mean?
Well, “baptism” means a “plunging”
or “immersion” in water.
Sacrament is an external sign which brings about
an internal grace which the sign itself symbolizes.
So, the sacrament of baptism is the external sign
(the ritual with water) which brings about the internal grace, or divine gift, of a spiritual cleansing, itself symbolized
by the water ritual.
That cleansing has two aspects: the removal of
sin and the conferral of communion with God and with all who are united to him, therefore, with the whole Church (militant,
suffering and triumphant).
What sin is removed? Original sin and any personal
sins the person may have. In the case of a child, there is only original sin.
What is original sin? It is the fully free and
conscious act of pride and disobedience by which our first parents, tempted by Satan, broke communion with God.
As the first parents and representatives of humanity
before God, their sin became the sin of all of humanity born from them.
Their abuse of personal freedom introduced a structural fault into human nature as such. It was the first, bitter lesson of how
the exercise of personal freedom always has its effects, good or bad, on everyone
else.
The structural fault I mentioned is the loss in
human nature of the life of communion with God, and its effects are suffering and death.
But God did not abandon mankind to the death it
brought on itself. God does not easily give up. He is the Hound of Heaven.
God, so to speak, brought history back to a new beginning, gave humanity a second chance. Where Adam failed at the instigation
of Eve, the new Adam, Christ, conquered with the help of the new Eve, Mary, who is in fact the symbol of the Church, of which
She is the greatest member, but which is grater than She.
Christ did not listen to Satan, but kept faith
with the Father and, by dying and rising, defeated Satan, corrected the structural fault caused by Adam, and thus liberated
humankind from the deception of sin and the destruction of death.
Adam was the father of humanity’s generation
from Eve. Christ is the father of humanity’s regeneration from the Church. What Adam lost, Christ won back. Christ has
replaced Adam as the representative of humanity before God.
There is one condition upon which each individual
human being can move from being a child of Adam to being a child of God. It is faith in Christ, a faith which, if true, leads
to the union of one’s whole being (spiritual and physical; past, present
and future) with Christ, a union which is initiated precisely by baptism.
Therefore in baptism, a human being is no longer
considered as being generated just by “Adam and Eve”, in the persons of their parents, but is regenerated, born
again of water and the Holy Spirit, as a child of the Father in union with Christ and the Church.
Christ has thus inaugurated a new dispensation,
a new order of creation, a new quality and a new meaning to human life. Human life must therefore have new priorities, new
goals, new values in keeping with its new destiny.
It is, however, true that that destiny is not
yet ours.
Baptism introduces
us into the life of God but is not as yet its fullness. That will only come on the last day if we have remained faithful.
Baptism does not, however, remove certain effects
of sin, such as suffering and physical mortality.
Another effect which remains is something the
Church calls “concupiscence”, which is an inclination to sin, but is not itself sin. It is easily understood by
remembering how much easier it is to commit a sin the second time. It is that “easierness” which is concupiscence;
it comes from the first sin and may lead to the second, unless one resists thru
the exercise of free will aided and abetted by divine grace.
Concupiscence, then, challenges us to fight against
sin. It is a trial which tests and strengthens our will to choose God over sin.
When parents bring their child to be baptized,
then, they do much more than honor a social custom or obey slavishly some rule of the Church which they might not understand!
Parents who deliberately do not baptize their
children, for whatever reason, keep them prisoners, at least in their early years, of the guilt of Adam and Eve.
They deny them birth into Christ’s own life,
their true birth, the birth for which they were born of those same parents.
Although difficult to admit, no child ultimately
belongs to its parents, but only to God. Parents are stewards of their children for a very short time. It is a stewardship
for which they are accountable to God.
That is why they must make a clear decision at
the beginning of their marriage (as the marriage ceremony itself requires) to raise the children God gives them according to the law of Christ and his Church.
This is a solemn trust, a religious duty; it is
one of the two major pillars of true Christian marriage, the other being their loving fidelity to one another “until
death doth them part.”
The bearing and educating of children, if and
when God grants them, is not a mere private preference, but a public vocation given by God in his divine plan for humanity
and for the Church.
This is also why we may speak of the Catholic
family as a domestic church, and not merely as some impersonal unit of society.
Being born into a Catholic family means birth
into the Church. Parents exercise a true priestly role for their children.
Unfortunately, the pressure on, especially young,
couples today is not to see themselves as consecrated by Christ for this vocation and mission in the Church.
At best, their link with the Church can be tenuous;
at worst their marriage can become selfish, closed and materialistic.
“Things” can take precedence over
relationships, and even relationships may become tarnished with aggressive individualism.
Children can become a commodity, of which one
can tire; they may then become a burden to be avoided or neglected or, tragically, even destroyed.
Instead children are to be welcomed with joy and
love as the personification of married love. To welcome a child in Jesus’ Name is to welcome Jesus himself. They are
Christ’s gift and challenge to parents to live out one fundamental component of the grace of their sacramental marriage.
Today, your child is truly blessed, because you
have understood the nature of your marriage vocation. You are to surrender your child to the Blessed Trinity in whose holy
Name he will be baptized. You are here to introduce your child into the family of the Church.
This day is not only a day of new life for your
child, but of renewed grace for your marriage and for the whole Church.
The Lord gives you this grace so that you may
teach your child to know and love the God who gave him new life; but also so that you may create ever more fully in your home
an atmosphere conducive both to the maturation of your own marriage and to that of your child’s baptismal life.
The decision you take today is fundamental and
momentous.
It also demands of you future decisions which
are coherent with it:
- decisions about how you prioritize God in your own personal and married
lives, in terms of work, play and above all sacramental worship and prayer;
- decisions about how best to nurture your child’s faith both
in terms of his membership of the worshipping community and in terms of the educational choices you make;
- decisions about how much authority you give to others over your child’s
life, behavior, mind, heart and soul.
Do not underestimate the magnitude of what you
are doing for your child today, or of the sublimity of the grace he receives.
If, until today, your child has surely been a
great treasure in your lives, from today on you must realize with increasing wonder and respect that he is so much more a
treasure to the Heart of Christ.
May that wonder reach deep into your own hearts
so that the trials and challenges of the future do not quench it.
For remember: your child looks into your eyes
searching for the visible presence and love of God, and it is your vocation, your mission and your glory not to disappoint
him!
Msgr.
Peter Magee
September
24th, 2006
Annunciation,
DC: 1.00 pm & 2.15 pm
