Infant Baptism

See first: Baptism.

It is sometimes objected that baptism presupposes faith, and that a child too small to believe should not receive it. Yet the Church has baptised little children from the beginning, because baptism is first a gift of God, received before it is understood.

The child needs grace

Every man comes into the world deprived of sanctifying grace, marked by the original sin inherited from the origins. Baptism erases this sin and gives the soul the divine life, which makes the child a son of God. The child is the one who most needs this gift, and the Church opens it to him at the very threshold of his life, for the new birth is necessary to all to enter the Kingdom. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, no one can enter the kingdom of God.” John 3:5

Grace is not earned

Baptism freely gives grace, the very life of God, before any merit. The infant, who can yet offer nothing, shows this gratuity better than anyone: he receives everything by pure favour. To wait until he is of age to believe would amount to making salvation a human conquest; it is pure gift. Christ himself opens his Kingdom to children. “But Jesus said to them: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me: for the kingdom of heaven is for such.” Matthew 19:14

The promise is for the children

From the Church’s first day, the announcement of salvation includes children. At Pentecost, Peter calls to baptism and declares: “For the promise is for you and for your children.” Acts 2:39 The Apostles indeed baptised whole households, where children and servants were found. Thus the jailer of Philippi “himself was baptized, and all his house immediately.” Acts 16:33 and likewise the household of Lydia, “when she was baptized, and her household” Acts 16:15, and that of Stephanas, “I baptized also the household of Stephanus.” 1 Corinthians 1:16.

As circumcision once did

In the Old Covenant, the child entered the people of God through circumcision, received on the eighth day, long before any personal act of faith. Baptism fulfils this sign: it unites to Christ as circumcision united to the covenant. “In him you were circumcised… buried with him in baptism.” Colossians 2:11-12 The Christian child thus receives what the child of Israel already received.

Baptised in the faith of the Church

The child cannot yet believe by himself. He is therefore baptised in the faith of the Church, that of his parents, his godparents, and the community that welcomes him and commits to helping him grow. Faith is received and handed on before it becomes a personal response. Baptism, moreover, places in the child the very seed of faith, a virtue that God infuses with grace, which will blossom into a personal act when his reason awakens. He is carried by it until that day, as he is carried, from birth, by the love of his own. Thus the baptism of little children opens faith and calls it forth: the gift of God always precedes the response of man.