One of the most helpful moments of learning in my years of ministry was the situation of a young mother who wanted to get her baby “done.”
I explained to her that her understanding of what it means to be baptized was not the true one. She just looked at me and flatly stated: “I will make it what I want to make it!”
Briefly put: I will make religion what I want it to be, and on my own terms!
She came from a long list of traditional born Catholics, but has not been raised in the Church. What she had were the left overs of a fear ridden understanding of baptism that ‘if anything happens to your baby it will go to limbo” and you will always be a bad mother because you did not get baptism done.
Whenever this happens you have one clear action: one action with two meanings. Both parties involved here are doing very different things: the priest as the carrier of the official teaching, and the parents who want to get this done for their child because it is a duty, or a fear of punishment or to get grandparents off my back.
In one of our baptismal preparation classes the time was given to questions. One sincere question arose, “What does baptism have to do with the Church?”
The lesson learnt from the above exchange is to listen to what people are actually doing. Even though they are inside the local parish church does not mean that they are in harmony with the teaching of the Church and the prayers. This is very evident when it comes to the baptism of infants and sacraments for children. Parents (often under pressure from grandparents) just want to get this done. That’s all!
People may have a very deficient knowledge and participation of the Christian faith. They may wear a religious label but in actual fact be functional unbelievers. They may want the sacraments for their children but have almost a zero awareness of the life and person of Jesus Christ.
The ministry within our parish communities are on the right track when they try to educate and develop participation in the life of the faith community. They are teaching correctly that the sacrament is not limited to the parish church, but the sacraments are made real in the life of faith lived by the people. The sacraments lead to a commitment in faith. Only if the people live them are the sacraments real.
The Christian faith is never what one individual chooses it to be, but rather it is the accepted teaching of our Catholic faith lived and integrated into the lives of individuals and faith communities. The young woman in the above story may never accept what is the authentic meaning of being baptized but that does not lessen our responsibility to teach her of the truth.
Our Christian faith is always located in the way in which we live our lives motivated by the very spirit of Jesus Christ. Religion is not what I make of it, but rather what religion makes of me!
No comments:
Post a Comment