Thursday, April 4, 2019

5th Sunday of Lent (Gospel: John 8:1-11) Baptism and Confirmation



Easter is the time when many adults are baptized and become part of the Church, having completed the time of learning about the faith known as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Easter is always focused on baptism and it is the most important time for baptism to take place, as the whole focus is on new life. I always find it very inspiring to see adults lined up for baptism at the Easter Vigil. It is a reminder of what we take for granted. Recently someone asked me to try and explain baptism and confirmation and that’s what I would like to do. In order to make sense of it we need to go way back to the beginning.

We believe that God created everything; the world around us that we see and the invisible world that we cannot yet see. We also believe that God’s greatest creation was the human being. It says in Genesis that the last thing God created was the human being, which is a biblical way of saying that we were the most important thing that God created. We are more like God than anything else that was created, especially because we have free will. But free will also comes at a cost.

We also believe that somewhere way back at the beginning, humanity sinned against God. There was some kind of rejection of God and of his word, which is explained through the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we know that there was some kind of rebellion against God and we call this Original Sin.

Because of this sin we now lost the possibility of eternal life with God which God intended for us. It says in the story that Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They had lost what God originally intended for them. This was a disaster as we could not resolve this problem ourselves.

 
Because God loves his creation He would not leave us in that situation and so, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the perfect offering was made to the Father which overcame Original Sin. The power of Original Sin was broken and we were set free, restoring to us the possibility of eternal happiness with God. However, because gave us the extraordinary gift of free will, God does not force this on us, but simply offers it to us. We have to say yes to it. We have to accept this gift which God offers us and we do that by being baptized. When we are baptized we are saying, ‘Yes, I believe this and I want this. Let me be baptized in it, soaked in it,’ That’s what baptism is, but we must consciously ask for it.

If that is true, then why do we baptize infants who don’t yet have the understanding of baptism? We baptize infants because we want this grace for them from the beginning of their lives, but on condition that we will teach them their faith as they grow up. Otherwise it is hypocrisy. To baptize an infant without the intention of teaching them about their faith as they grow up is hypocrisy and that’s why the parents and God-parents make the vows of baptism, promising to pass on this faith as best they can. If an adult comes to me for baptism, they first have to go through what we call the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, during which time they will learn about their faith. Only when they understand it properly will they be baptized. Recently I spoke to a man who was telling me that he and his wife drove two hours each way to go to the RCIA classes so that they could be baptized. Two hours each way, for several months! That is so inspiring to me.

So, to be baptized is to say 'yes, I believe all that God has done for me and I want it all. Let me be soaked in it, baptized in it'.

What about those who are never baptized, such as our brothers and sisters who are Muslim or Hindu? Can they go to heaven too? Of course they can. We understand that it is necessary for us to be baptized in order to enter life with God, but that doesn’t mean that God can’t bring it about for others who have no understanding of baptism. But for us who understand it, baptism is necessary and that’s why it is so important. God’s power is not limited to any one way. God will speak to people of other faiths in ways that we don’t understand.
 

Where then does confirmation fit in? Confirmation is really the other half of baptism. It is the time when we receive the gift of the Spirit to strengthen us for living the Christian life. One confirms the other; hence ‘confirmation.’ For children we wait until they are old enough to understand what confirmation is, since they were baptized when they were too young to understand, but for adults they usually receive the two together. The important thing is that these are gifts to us from God, to help us. Everything we receive from God is to help us and is given out of love for us. That is why the Apostles baptized people and then prayed with them for the gift of the Spirit, so that they were ready for our life with God on earth.

Every time we pray the Creed we are stating what we believe and that we want this for ourselves and our children. We want all that God is offering us.

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