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Washed In Tears
Tony
was terribly proud of their baby; awesomely impressed by her finger
nails and her eyelashes, by her uniqueness and self-possession, and
by her separateness from them both.
Mary wanted to call the baby Antonia [after
him] but naming, to Mary, was inextricably mixed up with Baptism. If Mary
had a fault (and he was reluctant to admit that the mother of his child
had any faults) it was that she was too Catholic and too given to saying
the Rosary when she got up, and too given to going to Sunday Mass.
He didn't want Antonia baptised. "I want
her to have a free choice when she grows up."
"Being baptised doesn't stop you doing that," Mary replied.
"Look at you. You were baptised and you have exercised your free
choice by dropping the lot..."
The weeks went by and the thing became an issue. It was their
first real disagreement. The baby started to have mild
convulsions. "Tony, darling, let me have her baptised, it's
making her ill..."
"Don't be
irrational..."
They were driving home from the specialist.
He had been kind; almost too kind. Tony had not really understood -
but then he had not wanted to. Mary was feeding the baby. The rhythmic
movement of the small mouth at her breast ceased. Automatically she
lifted the little one to feed at the other side. But it was already
dead. In despair Tony tried to turn the car on the motorway to get back
to the surgery. Brushing her fingers through the tears coursing over
her wet cheeks Mary made the sign of the cross on the baby's forehead:
"I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit....."
(Ty Mam
Duw would like to thank Mrs Kimberly Hahn for this true story)
Living Water
The
world is mostly covered by water. There is even a myth of an eighth
continent, Atlantis [in the Atlantic] that was engulfed in a tidal wave.
Though geological evidence is against it, psychologists tell us that
it is common to dream you are being overwhelmed by a vast wave of water.
Baptism is a kind of heavenly homeopathy - a great lot of water will
kill you but a little is essential to life.
Some of us [here at Ty Mam Duw] were baptised
as infants, and some only as adults. We have compared notes and if you
are a parent who suffers from the fear that, by infant baptism, you
are deciding for your child and taking its freedom away we can reassure
you on hard evidence. If you are baptised and even receive a degree
of Christian upbringing you can still cut yourself off from God and
break all ten If you are baptised and receive absolutely no Christian
upbringing there is still something inside you which is protected by
love and hungers for peace and goodness. If you are not baptised in
infancy you will still hunger for peace and goodness but you will be
strangely and horribly defenceless before evil.
Baptism in infancy does not make your mind
up for you but it really does protect you from evil.
What has baptism done
for you?
Whether
you are an adult or an infant, when you come to be baptised you will
be asked what you want of the Church and you or your Godparents will
answer, Faith. Then you will be signed with the sign of the cross. You
will hear the Word of the Lord for the first time and water will be
poured over you in three separate gestures, to bring you into the heart
of the love of the Truth. Finally you will be anointed with perfumed
oil as the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to you.
For real friendship there is one absolute essential:
equality. The Lord wants our friendship and since we canıt get up to
his level he came down to ours. Baptism is the first step to meeting
him. But it has an almost indescribable sidewise effect, too; I am no
longer "just me" I am part of a collective person. The Church
is not so keen on the translation "We believe" for the opening
of the Creed, not because where faith is concerned - we are not essentially
plural, but because our pluralness, our collectiveness makes up one
complete person in the Church. "I believe" - that "I"
is all of us together.
What Henry VIII has
to say
In
1521, at the age of thirty [and still a Catholic gent with one wife]
Henry wrote his brilliant Defence of the Seven Sacraments. It is not
just polemic well-aimed at Luther, it contains inspiring and sometimes
moving insights into the beauty of the Church. Pope Leo X was thrilled
with it and gave "this most potent, prudent and Truly Most Christian
King" the title of Defender of the Faith:
The Prophet Zechariah says: Living water
shall flow out from Jerusalem... Donıt these words show us a prefigurement
of Baptism, which is simply water flowing from the Church, cleansing
us from both original and actual sin? The Prophet does not call this
Œdead water'; no, he calls it living, to show, I believe, that the concealed
power of God infuses life into an element of the earth. I do not presume
to analyse, nor am I curious to dissect the way in which God gives grace
to the Sacraments, for his ways are truly inscrutable. But I do believe...
that he imparts his spiritual power by the Word of God.
Henry VIII
What the the Catechism
says:
-
1276
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you" [Mt 28:19-20].
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1277 Baptism is birth into the new life in Christ.
In accordance with the Lordıs will, it is necessary for salvation, as
is the Church herself, which we enter by Baptism.
-
1278 The essential rite of Baptism consists
in immersing the candidate in water or pouring water on his head, while
pronouncing the invocation of the Most Holy Trinity: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
-
1280 Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible
spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptised person
for Christian worship. Because of the character Baptism cannot be repeated
[cf. DS 1609 and DS 1624].
-
1281 Those who die for the faith, those who
are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but
acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive
to fulfil his will, are saved even if they have not been baptised [cf
LG 16].
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1282 Since the earliest times, Baptism has
been administered to children, for it is a grace and a gift of God that
does not presuppose any human merit; children are baptised in the faith
of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom.
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