Baptism of Our Lord 1st SUN Ordinary Time
After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”
In Jesus’s time baptism was administered to adults and not to children, much less to infants. An adult who gets baptized makes a more conscious decision to embrace his belief. An infant who is baptized only realizes as an adult that his faith has been fed to him at a time when he couldn’t possible refuse. But John Bosco was brought by Mama Margaret to the church for baptism one day after he was born. Why is there this change in the practice of giving the sacrament of Baptism?
A young man who is afraid to lose his current fiancé is always tempted to marry her at the soonest time possible. Is it true for the church – is she afraid to lose a possible member if it delays baptism?
There is an advantage when one is baptized as an infant. Although the god parents answer for the child in front of the church at baptism for the obvious reason that the child is totally unaware; it is nonetheless good if the child grows very early and gradually in its faith under the tutelage of its parents. Although he might make a more mature choice, a grown up might also need a lot of prodding before he would finally consent to baptism. As they say it is easier to correct a bent tree when it is just a seedling not when its trunk has become hard and stiff.
There is not one correct time when to embrace the faith. Some have arrived late in the church yet became saints. God comes to us whenever He likes, as they say in His time.
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