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Twenty-Seventh Sunday of the Year
4 October 2009
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Sacraments of Christian Initiation lay the foundation for the entire Christian life, and the first of these is Holy Baptism, which is the gateway to the life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the life of grace. Through Baptism we are freed from all sin and born again of water and the Holy Spirit as children of God. Through Baptism we are made a new creation, and we become members of Christ and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Greek word baptizein means to plunge or to immerse, and whether we are literally immersed in water or the water is poured upon us, the water symbolizes the burial with Christ of the catechumen. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 5:3-4).
The Lord Jesus Himself made Baptism necessary for salvation (cf. John 3:5), and from the beginning the Church faithfully followed Our Lord’s Great Commission to teach His Gospel to all nations and baptize all who believe (cf. Matthew 28:16-20). In the first years of the Church’s life, most of those who were baptized were adults, but when the Gospel began to be accepted by great numbers of people, even infants and children were baptized. Infant baptism, which is an immemorial tradition of the Church, shows forth the absolutely free and unmerited grace of God leading to salvation, but the danger also exists that Christians will forget that Baptism is the sacrament of faith. But faith needs the community of believers, and it is only within the living faith of the Church that each of the faithful can come to believe. That is why infants and children can only be baptized when their parents and godparents (sacramental sponsors) give evidence of genuine Christian belief and practice.
The renewal of Christian faith and life for which we all long can be found in fidelity to the grace of our Baptism, when we were born again as a new creation. Find out when and where you were baptized, and keep that day as an annual feast of your conversion to Jesus Christ. Ponder carefully the promises of your Baptism and seek always to live in union with the Lord Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit with Whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Father Newman