What is Baptism?

Knowing in the depths of our heart that we are “sons and daughters of God” and that we have been grafted onto Christ and belong to Him is something that can never be taken away from us once we have been baptized. It is a sacrament that is administered once, yet lasts for our whole life on earth, and enables us to enter into eternal life. Each day we can hold this thought in our heart and allow it to penetrate our life completely so that we live for Christ. Through the sacrament we become very aware that the Most Holy Trinity dwells within us, and we endeavor to live this union fully. The Lord tells us that we must be born of water and Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God (Jn 3:5). We also know that in baptism we are entering into the death of Christ and then rise with Him because of this grafting onto Him that has taken place. That causes us to realize that we are not alone in this life, we belong to him both now and in eternity. We know that our human life has been transformed into a divine life and that we are assured of the graces from this sacrament and all of the sacraments that follow so that we will continue to be rooted in and built up in this intimate life we share with Jesus Christ.
 
Most of us have been baptized as infants. That speaks of the desire of our parents to ask the Church to bestow the gift of faith, but also of the generations of people who have gone before us, living the faith and passing that desire onto future generations, and our ability to now share it with others because love of God and union with Him impels us to want to share our faith. So there is a sense of continuity and connection, not only with the community we belong to here and now, but with those who enabled us to receive this path of faith and pass it onto our children and grandchildren and future members of the one Body of Christ. We have also been given godparents, and they are to help us in keeping the light of Christ burning, as it is said in our baptism rite when the baptismal candle is lit from the Paschal candle. We can recall this each time we see the Paschal candle, we can recall our baptismal promises each time we profess our faith. We also know that we will preserve the garment of grace that we were clothed with at our baptism each time we allow sanctifying grace, the grace given at baptism which remains in the soul to makes us holy, to be at work within our life. What greater gift could we ask for ourselves or for our children but that which makes us belong to God forever and keeps that desire burning within our heart.