Children, however troublesome they may become, are always a blessing from God. I hope we all agree on that. Do you remember when your first child was born? Or your second? Or your third? At that moment, didn’t you want to offer that little creature the best of yourself, the best you had? Of course you did. We all want the best for our children.

That is why you bought clothes so he would not be cold. You fed him so he would not cry from hunger. Then you took him to the doctor to get vaccinations so he would not get sick with measles or typhoid. And all that time, as the child was growing, you taught him to speak your language, to obey the rules of your home, and to know the good customs of your house. Why? Because a child must be given everything.

Before doing all that for your child, did you ask him? Did you even worry about whether your child would want to dress that way, eat what you gave him, feel or not feel the prick of the vaccine, learn English or perhaps another language, live in your house or in a nicer one, etc.? I suppose not. (You must already be saying, Oh Father, what silly questions!)

All right. But allow me one last silly question: did you take your little child to Church to be baptized?

Do you know what one lady told me?

“Ah, no, not that. I do not want to force my child to have any religion. When he is grown up, let him choose it however he wants.”

What a contradictory attitude!

So many things we “impose” on our children for their own good (health, language, home, education), and the most valuable thing, what we need most in life, our Catholic faith, she does not want to give him!

Can you imagine if that lady said the same thing about her son’s education? “Oh, no. I will not put him in any school. Let him choose when he grows up whether he wants to study or not.”

That would occur to no one. It would be very irresponsible of the parents.

If we love our children, we must also give them our faith! And the first step is baptism.

There are many sects, especially “the biblical ones,” that tell us Catholics that we do wrong by baptizing our children as soon as they are born. They say, first, that baptizing children is not in the Bible. Second, that baptism is only a symbol of our conversion and of our having accepted Christ as our Savior: a child cannot do that because he has no sins and because he does not understand what it means to accept the Lord and cannot do it freely. For that reason, baptism is valid only for adults.

Is it in the Bible?

In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus says that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5). Notice that he does not say “only adults” nor “except children.” Before going up to heaven, Jesus says to his apostles: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

Here he says all, excluding no one.

Since Christ commands everyone to be baptized if they want to enter heaven, without distinguishing between grown-ups and little ones, the challenge is not really that we Catholics have to prove that infant baptism is permitted, because it is already included in that “all” of Jesus. Rather, the problem belongs to the Evangelicals. Let them tell us where the Bible forbids the baptism of children.

Not only is it not forbidden. We see that the Bible indicates that this was done from the earliest times.

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles we can hear Saint Peter’s words to the crowd on the very day of Pentecost: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and also for all those who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Neither the command to be baptized nor the promise of Christ is restricted to adults.

The Bible tells us of at least four occasions when Saint Paul baptized entire households: the jailer and his family in the middle of the night (Acts 16:33); the centurion Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:48); Crispus, the synagogue official, and his family (Acts 18:8); and Stephanas and his whole household, as Paul tells us in (1 Cor 1:16).

It is clear that the baptism of whole families was a common practice among the first Christians. It is hard to imagine that none of those families had children.

In Col 2:11-12, Paul makes a comparison between the circumcision of the Jews and the baptism of Christians.

The Jews circumcised children as an initiation into the faith of their parents. It is entirely reasonable to think that the same practice passed into Christianity with baptism.

But what if little children cannot sin?

They ask: why must a child be baptized if he is not capable of sinning?

First of all, we were all born in sin; and second, baptism is not only for the forgiveness of sins.

The need to baptize children is seen from the effects that baptism has on the soul. Baptism “seals” the soul with an indelible sign of belonging to Christ.

When we baptize our children, we consecrate them to God and He receives them as His children. Even if later in life the Christian were to sin gravely or deny his faith, the seal of Christ remains.

Can a child not also belong to Christ?

Baptism frees us from original sin (the guilt we inherited from Adam and Eve) and from personal sins. We know that no one can enter heaven in a state of sin. Christ came to earth precisely to redeem us from sin. Can we deny a child that redemption?

Through baptism we are incorporated into the life of the Church; we become members of God’s great family on earth. Thus we also open ourselves to all the spiritual and human benefits that Christ has given to the Church he himself founded. Children also have their place in this family.

Faith is a process of growth that begins with baptism. Certainly the effort, study and will of the individual are required in order to persevere, but baptism begins the life of grace in our soul, and that grace is for everyone.

On the other hand, the tradition of not baptizing children began in the Middle Ages with sects such as the Waldensians, the Albigensians and, later, the Anabaptists. Until that time, the universal practice did not exclude children from the right to be baptized.

Do you remember what Jesus said to those who wanted to stop the children who ran to greet him?

“Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Mt 19:14)

Remind our sectarian brothers of this when they tell you not to baptize your children.

Author: Siempre Fiel

Source: Churchforum.org