Exiit qui seminat

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