"Thinking" out loud about Baptism

For the moment, forget about infant baptism. Consider baptism of an adult. What is it?

It is primarily an invitation to the candidate to join in the work of the church. It:

• authorizes the candidate to join with other Christians in the church's work, and
• celebrates the fact that the church -- the pilgrim people of God -- has another person to help them on their journey.

At the same time, witnesses to the baptism who themselves have already been baptized are:

• reminded of the responsibilities they assumed at their own baptism,
• realize how often they've failed to carry out those responsibilities, and
• are moved to try harder to fulfill their responsibilities in the future -- they not only renew their baptismal promises, they are, in a sense, rebaptized (indelible marks on the soul to the contrary notwithstanding). Fifty years after one's baptism, he/she will (God willing) be 50 years more baptized than the day the priest poured the water over his/her head.
  

Water -- the "matter" of the sacrament -- symbolizes:

• "the deep" of Genesis 1, over which the Spirit of God hovered,
  
• Noah's (and humanity's) rescue from the deluge,
• the Israelites' escape through the Red (Reed) Sea,
• the River Jordan which the Israelites had to cross to enter into their land of milk and honey, and
• the baptism of Jesus by John.

By immersion in the waters of the sacrament as part of his/her entry into the church, the candidate symbolically recapitulates the history of God's people and makes it his/her own.

Immersion also represents death. The Apostle Paul says we are baptized "into Christ's death." And Jesus spoke of his coming passion as a kind of baptism. I don't find this image particularly useful.

Oil is not the "matter" of the sacrament, but when I become pope it will be. The new Christian is anointed with oil as "priest, prophet and king." This is the part of the ritual where the the new Christian is authorized to share in the work of the church.

• As priest, he/she is to mediate God to our brothers and sisters,
• As prophet, he/she is to speak God's word to our bros and sisses, and
• As king, he/she shares in the work of creating a realm in which justice and love prevail.

In short, the anointing with oil makes the new Christian a mini-Christ ("Christ" means "the anointed one"). As Hopkins says, the new Christian:

Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

(Actually, Hopkins doesn't restrict this "Christness" to baptized Christians. I suppose I shouldn't either.)

What baptism is not:

• It does not make an individual a child of God and and heir to the kingdom of heaven. The individual has that from the moment of his/her birth. (Birth? Conception? Please! One thing at a time!)

Okay. So what about infant baptism? All of the foregoing applies. In addition:

• It's a celebration of new life! What could be holier, more sacramental, than that?
  
• Baptism is an ongoing process -- fifty years after one's baptism, he/she will (God willing) be 50 years more baptized than the day the priest poured the water over his/her head. Presumably the infant will have plenty of time to reaffirm or reject his/her baptism when he/she grows older. (If he/she has a couple brain cells to rub against one another, he/she will probably reaffirm AND reject his/her baptism any number of times as he/she grows older.)
  
• Parents make decisions for their children all the time, right? Why should baptism be a special source or concern?

That said, once I become pope I don't know whether I would endorse infant baptism or restrict the sacrament to individuals who have reached the age of reason (which I would define to be way older than 7.)