Msg Base:  AREA 3  - ASK FATHER (AMDG)
  Msg No: 115.  Tue  10-19-92  0:54  (NO KILL)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Joey Kennedy
 Subject: Infant Baptism

JK| why do catholics think infant baptism is ok? show me where it says so in
  | the bible.
 
JK| thanks
  | in his love
  | joe
 
Dear Joey,
 
Really, the shoe is on the other foot, isn't it?  Why do a minority
of Christians *neglect* to baptize babies?  All Catholic, all Orthodox,
and a very large number of Protestants baptize their infant children.
Refusing this sacrament to infants is an innovation, rejected by most
Christians.
 
Ephesians 5:25-26 shows baptism as the expression of Christ's love
for his Body, the Church.  Christ cleanses the whole Church by
baptism.  To exclude the young children of Christian parents from
baptism is to deny them this cleansing and forbid them Church
Membership.  That is unjust to them.
 
The Church is the household and family of God.  We are the New
Covenant people of God.  As circumcision brought infants into the
Covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so baptism brings infants into
the New Covenant in Christ's Blood.  Family membership is not
something a child is denied until he grows old enough to "decide for
himself".  Family membership is something given the child, that he
grows up with and grows into.  Baptism is a life to be lived, a
spirit to be filled with.  It rightly belongs to children, so we give
it to them.  With their parents and others, children learn to live out
their baptism.  It is truly their second nature, their sharing in
the Nature of God (2 Pet. 1:4).  And it should begin with babyhood.
 
Part of the Christian Faith is what Christians actually DO in the
course of their worship of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
who works in the Church, in her laity and in her pastors.  And among
the things Christians DO and have always done is to baptize our babies.
 
The challenge: "show me where it says so in the Bible" is not really
very powerful.  The Bible is not the only repository of God's
revelation, as I said in message #709.  To be solidly grounded in the
truth, we must look to the Church.
 
                                        Sincerely in Christ,
 
 
                                                Father Mateo