Exiit qui seminat
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I love doing baptisms. Other than celebrating Mass, it's by far my
favorite sacrament. First, babies are cute (in my humble opinion
there is no such thing as an ugly baby). Second, baptisms are a
wonderful opportunity to teach and evangelize in a more relaxed and
personal setting than other sacraments. But I had a baptism
experience recently that was a first in my over 18 years of
priesthood. I was baptizing two sibilings who were about 5 years
old. The baptism was delayed for several reasons including COVID.
Baptizing children who are on the older side is not usually a problem,
but one of the siblings wanted nothing to do with the baptism at all. I
bypassed most of the signs and symbols that go along with the
sacrament and it was only by the grace of God that this child ended
up being baptized. The last thing that I wanted was for baptism to be
a traumatic experience, especially for a child who could possibly
remember the moment and emotions that went along with it. While
grateful that this child was able to be baptized, it did get me thinking
about Baptism and our current culture. When it comes the current
practice of baptism, many of the families present their children to the
Church usually due to pressure from grandparents and greatgrandparents
or consider the sacrament a rite of passage more than
the reality of entering the Church, being freed from Original Sin and
receiving the grace of faith. Even more discouraging is that for more
and more families, baptism becomes an afterthought rather than a
spiritual necessity. This reality bears itself out in the fact that the
retention rate of families who continue to be an active part of the
Church after their children are baptized is around 8%. While the
parishes in Vineland put in an effort to make sure that parents are
properly prepared for the responsibility and obligations that go along
with Baptism, there needs to be more. If we are to accompany
families in their faith journey, we have to give families an opportunity
to be a part of our Church. I think we are in the process of doing
that. COVID has delayed a lot of the purposeful "self-scouting" and
evangelization but it seems like we are slowly getting back on track.
But the adage is equally true, "You can lead a horse to water, but you
can't make them drink." The Church and the life of faith has to be
something that people want to be a part of. It has to be their
conscious choice. It's a fine line and balance between being
encouraging and inviting, but at the same time to challenge families
to make sure Baptism isn't merely a ceremony, but a life altering
encounter with God. So I open it up to all of you! What more can we
do to welcome families and, at the same time, help them take more
responsibility for their faith? Feel free to give a call to the parish or
email me your thoughts at robert.sinatra@camdendiocese.org.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Rob Sinatra
