There was once a woman who asked whether she should have her child baptized. The woman's mother wanted the grandbaby to be baptized, but the mother and father didn't follow any faith, and the mother especially struggled because she had been raised Catholic and her first husband, who was a devout Catholic, had been killed in a tragic accident; In some ways she still blamed God. In the end the mother decided that she did not live her faith; that she would allow the child to be raised in a home devoid of religion and he could decide for himself when he was an adult whether he would pursue faith. The grandmother, when he was an infant, took Holy Water from the Jordan River and claimed him for Christ in the hope that if he should die, he would have the hope of attaining heaven through God's mercy.
In light of today's Gospel where we hear of the Glory of the Father descending with the Holy Spirit upon the Son, that cleansing, that holiness, and rich blessing, knowing that this is similar to the baptism that we experience when we are baptized into Christ, it is almost unfathomable that parents struggle to decide to baptize their children; this however is due in part to our current age of secular relativism. God is not bound my time or current human philosophies. We need to look to the Eternal and the meaning of our sacraments, instead of whether we find them convenient. Jesus was baptized with water and the Holy Spirit. "The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1257. Let us pray that we do not prevent the little ones from coming to the Lord.
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