As most of you know, when my husband and I got married, I was Protestant and he was a cradle Catholic. Initially, I thought I could be okay with agreeing to raise our kids Catholic, but after our marriage, I wasn’t so sure. My husband was eager to baptize our firstborn but I was less than keen on the idea. In fact, I loathed the idea. Every time my husband would try to discuss her baptism with me, I would pick a fight.
“It’s something that she has to chose to do, Dustin! She has to decide for herself!”
Each time we argued about it, our words sailed over the other’s head–nothing was sinking in. What we didn’t understand is that each of us had very different views of what baptism is and does. It was a good lesson in defining your terms.
For me, a Protestant back then, baptism was a profession of faith. It was when I decided that I believed Jesus was my Lord and Savior. It was the moment when I chose to take on my Christian identity. I was baptized when I was eleven by full immersion baptism with the proper form (right words) and matter (water).
For Dustin, though, it meant something entirely different. For Catholics, they understand that a valid baptism does numerous things: 1. It cleanses us of Original Sin inherited from Adam and Eve. It also cleanses us of any actual sins if we are old enough to have committed any. 2. Our spiritual life is born and we become members of the Body of Christ. 3. It fills our souls with sanctifying grace, which ultimately means we have a share in the divine life. 4. It allows us to receive all the other sacraments. 5. It gives us the theological and moral virtues. 6. We gain the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 7. It leaves an indelible mark on our souls, marking us forever as Christ’s. 8. It makes us adopted sons and daughters of God and makes us heirs of the Kingdom of God.
As you can see, it’s a bit deeper than I understood at the time. That’s not to say that most Protestants believe it to be unimportant, as most do think it’s necessary. Sadly, though, the understanding of baptism throughout Protestant denominations runs the gamut with some even believing it’s not necessary for salvation.
(What is most interesting is that those denominations which were the first to break off from the Catholic Church in the 1500s during the Protestant Reformation still hold to infant baptism: Lutherans, Anglicans, Calvinists (Presbyterians), and Methodists. As time goes on and more and more denominations spring up, that’s when we notice a disagreement in infant baptism. So, either the Catholic Church had it right from the get-go or some people got it right some 1600+ years later.)
In my Protestant mind, our daughter needed to have the opportunity to “profess Jesus as her Lord and Savior.” My husband, on the other hand, wanted to cleanse her of Original Sin, bring her into the Body of Christ, and fill her with the divine life and all its virtues and gifts. What finally got to me was when he told me that baptism left a special character on her soul that marked her as Christ’s. That hit home and I agreed to baptize our children from then on. Our oldest was five when she finally received the sacrament. Thank God I was given the grace to acquiesce to my husband’s pleas.
Our oldest, who is now in college, has recently been having deep discussions with a Protestant girl that lives in her house. One of the topics of discussion has been infant baptism. My daughter’s friend is a strict adherer to Sola Scriptura, which is the belief that the Bible is the sole authority on matters related to God. For her, if it’s not in the Bible then it shouldn’t be done with regards to religious matters. As Catholics, we have three authorities: The Bible (of course), Tradition, and the Magisterium, which is the teaching authority of the Catholic Church given to her by Christ. Why do we have three and not just the Bible? Well, for one reason, the fully compiled Bible wasn’t around for over 350 years after Christ. What did the Apostles and the first Christians use to guide them? They used Apostolic Tradition and the teaching authority of the Church (Magisterium) guided by the Holy Spirit as Christ promised.
My daughter’s friend has argued that it is wrong to baptize infants because nowhere in the Bible does it specifically say to baptize them. She’d be right in saying that. However, it also doesn’t say not to. In fact, if we look at the bigger picture, there’s a substantial case for infant baptism.
- For the Jewish people, baby boys were circumcised in order to bring them into the Covenant with God. Now all of a sudden with Jesus and His New Covenant, He wants to leave babies out? We know that everything in the OT is a foreshadowing of what is to come and nothing will be less in the NT. It makes no sense that babies would be excluded once Jesus establishes His New Covenant.
- Jesus said in Matthew 19:14, “Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Do we really think that Jesus is upset with us for baptizing babies? When we get to Heaven is He going to say, “I really wish you all would have left the babies alone.”
- We see in Acts 16:33 that Paul and Silas baptize an entire household. Now, it doesn’t specifically say babies were among the group, but it doesn’t say they weren’t either. We can assume that all the Apostles baptized entire households at some point. But, they left out the babies? If it was terribly wrong to baptize babies, you would think that they would mention that. “We baptized entire households except for the babies.”
- What did the first Christians do, those that learned from and were probably baptized by one of the Apostles or their immediate disciples? Well, if we look at the writings of these men, we find that infant baptism was practiced. St. Hippolytus of Rome wrote: The children shall be baptized first. All the children who can answer for themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for them, or someone else from their family. (c. A.D. 215)
I was baptized at eleven and “professed my faith in Christ.” However, it truly is something I have to wake up every day and recommit myself to. Baptism is there to help us do that with all the graces it supplies. Ultimately, each of my children has to fully make the decision to follow Christ or not, but I will do all I can to assist them in their journey. Their souls are mine to guide and protect and if baptism saves their soul, then I can’t think of anything more important.
When I let my ego fall and started listening to my husband, things started to make sense. It’s always jarring when the way you do things is challenged. The Catholic Church challenged the way I did things. Mostly, I was bucking against the Church because I didn’t want to be wrong, not because I had really looked into things. I had never researched baptism or really tried to understand it in the Bible. I didn’t understand that it was more than just a profession of faith. My husband was trying to tell me that but a clinging to old beliefs left me deaf. Finally, the Holy Spirit got through.
Baptism is a beautiful and necessary sacrament. It’s so necessary, in fact, that it is the only sacrament that anyone can administer so long as they desire to do what the Church teaches. This isn’t the standard practice, but if someone is in danger of death and hasn’t been baptized, anyone can baptize them.
Christ showed us, Catholic Pilgrims, what He wanted us to do when He was baptized in the Jordan River. Jesus wasn’t offering a suggestion when He said to the Apostles, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” Mark 16:15-16. And it surely was meant for even babies when we hear St. Peter say in Acts 2:38-40, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children…”
