Pastor's Corner, January 11, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

This Sunday is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The Christmas season officially comes to an end and we begin the season of the Church called Ordinary Time.

Why was Jesus baptized? The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for sinners, in order to ‘fulfill all righteousness.’ Jesus’ gesture is a manifestation of his self-emptying” (1224).

By Our Lord’s own Passion, Death and Resurrection he opened for all of us the fountain of baptism. Some Fundamentalist Christians will criticize the Church’s practice of baptizing infants because, according to them, baptism is for adults and older children. It is to be administered only after someone has had a “born again” experience whereby one has accepted Jesus Christ as his “personal Lord and Savior.”

But this would deprive a child of a necessary means of salvation. It would deny a child the “priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth” (CCC, 1250) and it would deprive the Church of a particularly clear manifestation of the gratuitousness of the grace of salvation.

Today let us all give praise to God for the gift of our baptism.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker