THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN

 

THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN

            It has always been believed by the Church that one is saved and joins the community of the faith through baptism, and that it should be given not only to adults but to children, as Saint Peter taught the crowd in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost: “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 and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38-39, emphasis added). 

            Christ himself said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:13).  Judaism always welcomed children into the Covenant with God at the beginning of their lives.  God mandated in the Law of Moses that sons be initiated eight days after birth by ritual circumcision, although they were not held to the Law’s precepts until they reached their thirteenth birthday.  (A ceremony was not prescribed for girls, who were included in the community by the fact of having been born of a Jewish mother.)  The first Christians were Jewish, including the apostles, so it was natural for them to carry on the tradition of initiating children into the faith community.   

            The early Church understood baptism as replacing circumcision as a ritual of initiation and celebrated it for both sexes.  Thus, Saint Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians: “In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ.  You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:11-12).  What circumcision did for the male Jewish child – initiating him into God’s Covenant with Israel – baptism does for the sons and daughters of Christians by initiating them into the New Covenant, which is sealed in the blood of Christ (cf. Luke 22:20).  The connection which the early Christians made between ritual circumcision and baptism is evident in the fact that St. Cyprian, in a letter to a certain Fidus, written in 253, had to correct the idea that parents should wait until the eighth day after birth to baptize, as the Jews wait for eight days to circumcise.  He wrote, “Rather, we all judge that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no man born” and he approved of baptizing infants even sooner.

            Those who oppose the baptism of children reject what the Church has practiced since the beginning.  We have an abundance of manuscript evidence in support of child baptism, starting with the New Testament itself, which refers to the baptism of entire households.  These would have naturally included children (cf. Acts 16:15; Acts 16:33; 1 Cor 16:15).  In “The Apostolic Tradition,” written in the year 215, Saint Hippolytus, a priest of Rome, provides instructions on sacramental celebrations, including baptism: “Baptize first the children, and if they can speak for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them.”  This continues to be the practice of the Church today.  In his “Commentary on Romans,” the third century theologian and scholar Origen affirmed that, “The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. The apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of the divine sacraments, knew there are in everyone innate strains of [original] sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit.”  He wrote this a little over a century since the death of the last living apostle.   

The Church believes that the baptism of children and infants is a work of mercy.  Saint Cyprian explained it well: “If, in the case of the worst sinners…when afterwards they believe, the remission of their sins is granted and no one is held back from baptism and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back, who, having but recently been born, has done no sin, except that, born of the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of that old death from his first being born.”  Given this history, and the perennial encouragement of our spiritual shepherds, Catholic parents should not hesitate to baptize their newborn children, so that from the beginning of their lives they may receive God’s mercy, be forgiven of original sin, and become members of the family of God, which is the Church.