"you begin to understand it [the impact of one's baptism] in the encounter with a living Christian companionship" (Julián Carrón).
"Baptism is the sacrament of faith. But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe. The faith required for Baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning that is called to develop" (CCC 1253)."Catechesis aims at coming to know Jesus concretely [....] catechetical instruction also includes a pilgrim fellowship, a gradual familiarization with the new life-style [or form of life] of Christianity" (Ratzinger, Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism, 56-57).
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Baptism and the Necessity of a Living Christian Companionship
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2 comments:
Isn't this equally true for the Protest who insists on believer's baptism? There is a community of believers that is in the world but not of it. The choice to turn towards that community begins with an inward trust in Christ, but true entry into the community requires some visible act.
That is certainly true of the unbaptized adult who grew up without any Christian influence and now seeks to join any group of Christ's followers. Whether he goes to a Baptist, Presbyterian, or Catholic church, the unbaptized convert encounters the living Christian companionship of a community of believers and "wants in." Baptism is an outward act that lets him in--and the faith it takes to obey Christ's command to be baptized may be far from perfect or mature, but it is enough for that first step.
What I can't figure out yet is whether the Church teaches that the infant's baptism is an act of the infant's faith.
The Catholic Church recognizes as valid all Christian baptisms performed according to the Trinitarian formula given in the New Testament, so yes: what's said here should be observable in believer's baptisms as well. In fact, it should also be observable in the case of a nominal Methodist baptized as an infant: baptism only takes on its full significance when they begin to live in Christian community. And Catholics do not re-baptize anybody with documented Christian baptisms.
As for infants, the CCC says this also (1250): The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. It would seem that faith is required of those who are capable of it. For the infant incapable of faith, baptism is a seed which grows just as the minimal incipient faith of an adult grows after baptism.
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