WORD ALIVE
There was once a woman who brought her child to church for baptism. “What’s the baby’s name?” asked the parish priest. “Toyota,” said the mother. Taken aback, the priest said, “Why that name?” “Kasi po Father,” she replied, “iyong panganay ko ay nagngangalang ‘Ford,’ yong ikalawa naman ay ‘Mercedes’ at yong pinakamaliit ay ‘Beetle.’”
“A ganoon ba?” Irritated, the priest retorted, “Bueno, ano ang gusto mong ibibinyag ko sa kanya: diesel o gasolina?”
That funny story might well focus our attention on the feast of Christ’s Baptism this Sunday and the secularized and unchristian way some parents name their children nowadays. For instance, some name their children “Apple Pie,” “Honey Girl”; a Marcos loyalist named his child “Martial Law”; more recent ones, “Tsunami,” “Covid”!
The Church’s tradition is to name the child to a saint whose feast falls on the date of his or her birthday. This is to remind the child the saint’s virtues to emulate and be his or her personal guardian and spiritual caretaker. (Check the Catholic calendar).
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When the Lord waded down the River Jordan and was baptized by John, the sacrament of baptism was inaugurated. Before ascending to heaven, Jesus made baptism a mandate, saying, “Go, make disciples of all nations, ‘baptizing’ them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28,15).
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It is to the immense praise of Christian parents that they take to heart the baptism of their children.
It seems, however, that many baptized children grow up unknowing of religious instructions and their Christian obligations. All because, there’s no follow-up after baptism.
The theologian Bernard Cooke in his book, “Christian Sacraments and Christian Personality,” writes: “Our baptism is not an action which happens once and has no further significance for our life. Rather, all the significance of this sacrament passes dynamically into the ‘daily living’ of the Christian.”
In other words, it is not enough for us just to accept baptism passively or as something done to us. Our baptism should become an operative power impelling us to act as Christ did.
The absence of this “operative power” of baptism engenders a piety that’s split between faith and practice in day-to-day life. As somebody remarked, “We are baptized but not evangelized.”
One reason behind this religious malady is that our Christian faith and morals have not really permeated and influenced the various spheres of socio-economic and political life.
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To illustrate: Once I was trying to settle the quarrel between two feuding relatives. “Forgive one another,” I appealed. “God told us to forgive.”
The lady shot back with a reply that almost floored me: “Father, puwede ba, huwag natin isama ang Diyos dito! (Father, please, let’s not include God here!)”
Baptismal faith should influence our day-to-day life, relationships and transactions. Parents should teach their children by good example to follow God’s Commandments or the Universal Law: “Do good and avoid evil.”
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Wrong use of baptism. Some years ago in the US, the news media reported that a father had his one-year-old son baptized 26 times in three years.
When he was asked by a reporter why he had done this, the father answered, “Very simple. Each new godfather was good for at least one loan.”
In the Philippines, it’s more of having many godparents to serve as political or social connections.
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Support seminarians. Seminarians are our future priests, missionaries and bishops. If we do not have them, we will not have priests and missionaries.
So, let’s support them.
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