"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
In my previous post, I recounted a little bit of my own story and how I came to reconsider the Catholic teaching concerning intercommunion. In today’s post I would like to present the two main issues around which this teaching revolves.
Over the last two days I have been looking at infant baptism. On Day 1 I looked at the evidence of infant Baptism in the New Testament. On Day 2 I demonstrated how the earliest Christians believed that Baptism actually does something to the soul of the one being baptized, thereby making it something that parents would naturally desire for their children.
Today’s entry will be a short post. All I would like to do is very briefly show the relationship between the circumcision of the Old Covenant and the Baptism of the New Covenant…
Over the last six months, many of my non-Catholic Christian friends have given birth to their first child. This was brought about, presumably, through the combination of an extremely poor TV lineup last summer and an abundance of free time on their part.
With this wonderful addition to their family, several of these new parents are now facing a dilemma: should they baptize their newborn child?
You see, in many cases, one spouse comes from a denomination where infant baptism isn’t performed (Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, non-denominationals) and the other has come from a denomination where it is standard practice (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist). The parents typically make the choice to either baptize their child or to have some kind of dedication ceremony.
This is an important issue to me. I was once a member of Protestant congregation where they did infant baptisms, but they also carried out child dedications, depending upon the wishes of the parents. This inconsistency was an important catalyst in my study of the ancient Christian faith and my eventual reversion to the Catholic Church.
So, in the next few posts I would like to present the basic case in favour of infant baptism…
Being in the image of God the human individual possess the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.
He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons.
And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead.
– Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 357
Life continues to be a bit hectic so I’m afraid these notes will be rather brief again…
This Sunday is the feast of “Corpus Christi” (Latin for “Body of Christ”), a feast which came about during the 13th Century. Our First Reading describes the institution of the Yahweh’s covenant with Israel through the Patriarch Moses. While instituting the Eucharist in our Gospel Reading, Jesus speaks about a new covenant in His blood. In the Second Reading we hear more about this covenant, brought about through Christ, our great High Priest.
Every time we go to Mass we renew our covenant with the Lord. Let us approach the Eucharist this week mindful of this great covenant, purchased for us by the very blood of Christ.
In all He did from the Incarnation to the Cross, the end Jesus Christ had in mind was the gift of the Eucharist, his personal and corporal union with each Christian through Communion. He saw in It the means of communicating to us all the treasures of His Passion, all the virtues of His Sacred Humanity, and all the merits of His Life. -St. Peter Julian Eymard
As this Lenten season reaches its climax, our Sunday Mass Readings are filled with anticipation.
In the First Reading, the Prophet Jeremiah speaks of a time to come when God would make a new kind of covenant with His people, one dramatically different from the ones made before. Under this new covenant the exiled tribes would be gathered together. It would signal a new era and a new level of intimacy with the Lord. After hearing these words of Jeremiah, God’s people waited in eager anticipation of this promised future.
In our Gospel Reading, Jesus is approached by some Greeks. At their arrival Jesus declares that “The hour has come…”. The “hour” of which Jesus speaks refers to His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. With the coming of this “hour”, what was promised through the Prophet Jeremiah will finally reach fulfillment through Christ. Not only will the Children of Israel be gathered together, but so too will all people, “wash[ed]…and cleanse[d]” as we sing in today’s psalm.
Jesus says that He must die in order to bring eternal life. If Jesus is the Head of the Church, then His Body must do likewise:
Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. – John 12:25
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead – Philippians 3:10
The new life which Jesus brought to mankind is made present to us at every Mass in the Blessed Sacrament. Sometime this week, in preparation for Easter, why not spend an additional Holy Hour asking for the grace to live a life in imitation of our Lord?