Infant Baptism
I have already written an article about the necessity of Baptism. This article is a little different, in that it is meant to specifically address infant Baptism. Why is it considered so necessary and important for Catholics to baptize their babies?
We will have no success in understanding infant Baptism if we do not first understand original sin and the life of grace in our souls, so we will spend some time addressing these things first.
Original Sin
From the time of Christ, it has been the unequivocal teaching of the Church that Baptism is necessary for the salvation of all men, because Christ Himself has said:
“Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5)
The word “man” is used in our English translation, however the original Greek does not use the word man in this text. The Greek word is “tis” and it means “anyone.” A more literal translation would be “unless anyone be born again…” For any person, adult, child, or infant, to enter the kingdom of God, they must be baptized.
Thus, the necessity of infant Baptism follows from the fact that babies, by their human nature, have contracted the guilt of original sin (Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:21-23) and they are in need of baptism to remit original sin.
Simply put, original sin is the sin that Adam committed. The consequence of this first sin is a hereditary stain with which we are all born on account of our descent from Adam. In other words, we are all born in a state of sin as a result of the transgression of our first parent. “Wherefore,” says St. Paul, “as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and so death passed unto all men, in whom all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12)
Life of Grace
Baptism is our spiritual rebirth that infuses grace into our souls. Our ordinary life – that is, our human nature that we received through human generation – is insufficient to attain Heaven. We must receive the additional life of grace by baptismal rebirth (Why? Because Christ said so: “unless anyone be born again … he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”) An unbaptized infant has received only natural life and had only one birth – left in this state, he can have no claim to the supernatural life of Heaven.
“What is the right end of the life of man?” asks Frank Sheed in his famous book, Map of Life. And he answers, “The road of life runs through this life to heaven. Heaven, then, is the end of the road.” The end for which man was made is to go to Heaven. That is the supreme purpose of every created human being: we were created by God, for Divine Union with Him in Heaven. “It follows,” says Sheed, “that whatever is necessary to enable a man to live a life of heaven must, in some way or another, be acquired by man in this life: otherwise this life would not be a preparation for Heaven.” He goes on to make an illustration of a human taking a journey to another planet. It would be wise to refuse such a trip, he says, since the breathing apparatus we have by nature was made for the atmosphere of earth and no other. In a different atmosphere, it would not work, and we would suffocate. Through this illustration he desires to bring to light that our human nature is adequate to life in one world but not in another. That is, our human nature is inadequate to the life of Heaven – we cannot enter heaven with only the powers of our human nature. In order to live a life above our nature, we need the Supernatural Life. This supernatural life is how God raises His creatures above their natural sphere, something man is completely incapable of doing on his own.
When Adam disobeyed God through sin, he lost the gift of the supernatural life, but retained his natural life. Supernaturally speaking, he was dead, and the effect of this original sin was dispensed on the whole human race. As a consequence, the nature handed on to his descendants was an impaired nature. This is the whole reason for the Incarnation, for God becoming man, for Jesus Christ coming to redeem humanity.
While Christ was on earth, He gathered his disciples and selected twelve – the apostles – whom He taught and gave a commission to teach and to baptize, by which His life could flow into the souls of men. He said to them: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19). St. Mark’s Gospel gives us a similar testimony: “And he said to them: Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16) In obedience to this command, the Apostles went out into the countries of the known world to preach the Gospel and baptize.
When He left earth, Jesus left His followers as a body, with officials and with Peter as their head. He left us His Church, the Body of Christ on earth. According to St. Paul, the Church is a body, a living thing, truly united to Christ, Who is the Head. Every member of the Church is like a cell in the body and lives with the life of Christ. How does this membership, this union, come about? How are we incorporated into the Mystical Body? By Baptism. “We are all baptized into one Body” (1 Cor 12:13) Baptism is a rebirth, a being born again, because it is an entry into supernatural life. By natural birth, we entered into life as a man. By rebirth, we enter into the life of Christ, “As many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ,” (Gal 3:27).
Baptism restores the Supernatural Life in us, it gives the necessary grace to our souls required for us to attain Heaven. Remember, our human nature by its own power is not adequate to live in another world: we need the supernatural life of grace dwelling in our souls, and Baptism confers the sanctifying grace upon our souls to make us partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4) It makes us children of God, living temples of the Holy Ghost, and members of Christ’s Church.
Peter Baptizes Cornelius
We have so far established:
[1] Baptism is a Sacrament instituted by Christ for the destruction of original sin, and that Baptism restores the graces we lost through our first parents, which are necessary for attaining our eternal destiny. Although there are many effects and benefits to Baptism, this is the primary purpose: the destruction of sin and restoration of grace. Baptism is necessary to cleanse us from Original Sin, and that reality is just as true for infants as it is for adults.
“Do penance and be baptized, every one of you … for the remission of your sins.” (Acts 2:38)
“Rise up and be baptized, and wash away thy sin” (Acts 22:16)
[2] By physical birth we are born into an earthly existence, but Christ Himself said we must be born again of water in the Holy Ghost. In the supernatural order, grace is the life of the soul, and we must be born into the life of grace if we want to possess the birth-right of Heaven.
“Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” These authoritative words about Baptism from Our Lord embrace the whole human race. Baptism is necessary for all in respect to salvation, whether they be infants or adults. No one is exempted: not even babies. This explains the great care and concern that the Church has always had in never unduly deferring baptism, even in the case of infants.
Baptism in the Bible
“Baptism of Lydia” by Marie Ellenrieder
It is true that there is no explicit mention of the baptizing of infants in the New Testament, but we do see multiple instances of whole families being baptized. For example:
The conversion of Lydia and her household in Acts 16:14-15
“And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying: If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there.”Paul and Silas baptize the household of the jailer in Acts 16:30-33
“And bringing them out, he said: Masters, what must I do, that I may be saved? But they said: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. And he, taking them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes, and himself was baptized, and all his house immediately.”Paul baptized the household of Stephanus in 1 Cor 1:16
“And I baptized also the household of Stephanus”
On the very day of Pentecost, after Peter’s first sermon, the multitudes asked him, “What shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one who the Lord calls to Him.” (Acts 2:38). About 3,000 people were baptized that day. Peter makes no distinction between people for any reason: ethnicity, gender, age. Rather, he asserts that every one of them needs to be baptized and that the benefits of Baptism are available to all. This explains why the apostles baptized entire households, and when whole households received baptism it is not improbable that babies and children were among these families.
It also does not say anywhere in Scripture that infants were not baptized, and it implicitly demands that they should be. When Christ told the Apostles to teach and baptize all nations, does not the term “nations” apply to all humanity – men, women and children?
Furthermore, St. Paul tells us that Baptism is the circumcision of Christians (Col 2:11-12). St. Paul insists that Christ accomplishes in Baptism what circumcision only signified in ancient Israel. This is an excellent Biblical foundation for infant Baptism, since we know that circumcision was administered to infants in the Old Law. The early Christians saw in Baptism what the Israelites saw in circumcision: the sacrament of initiation into God’s covenant people, open to adults and infants alike.
The Apostles and their successors understood that even infants, born into humanity, needed this life-giving Sacrament in order to be cleansed of original sin, to become members of the Church, and to become heirs of Heaven. Because infants have not yet reached the age of reason, they are not capable of committing actual sins, and no Church Father denies this. Yet all affirm with perfect clarity that, as members of the human race, every child is born with the original sin of Adam. Because we are born with original sin, an unbaptized person cannot attain Heaven. This is a most serious matter and why the Church makes great haste in baptizing babies as soon as possible after they are born.
But how can a baby be baptized without having faith? To that I answer with the words and actions of Jesus Christ in the Gospel.
In Matthew 15, we find Christ healing the Canaanite woman’s daughter based on the faith of the mother, not the faith of the daughter. The mother comes to Christ and cries out, “Have mercy on me, my daughter is grievously troubled by the devil!” At first He ignores her, but as she persists, He finally says to her, “O woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt.” And her daughter was cured because of the faith of the mother.
In Matthew 8, a Roman centurion comes to Christ beseeching Him to heal his sick servant. Jesus says that He will come and heal the servant, but in a remarkable display of faith and humility the centurion replies: “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.” Jesus marvels at the great faith of this Roman soldier and says, “I have not found so great faith in Israel.” Then he says to the centurion, “Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee.” And the servant was healed by the faith of the centurion.
But the most convincing instance from the Gospel in my opinion is from Luke 5, when a group of men bring their friend to Jesus to be healed. Due to the great multitude surrounding Jesus, they cannot get the paralyzed man to Jesus. The Gospel tells us, “And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in, because of the multitude, they went up upon the roof, and let him down through the tiles with his bed into the midst before Jesus.” These men were desperate to get their friend healed, and they spared no effort. When Jesus saw their great faith He said, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.”
This is more striking than the first two examples because Jesus did not at first heal the man’s physical body but healed his soul by forgiving his sins. Above all else, Christ came to restore man to spiritual health. We know that Baptism remits sins, and here is a clear Biblical example of Christ forgiving the sins of a man who was brought to him by the faith of others. The man himself did not express any kind of faith before Jesus healed him.
In the same way, parents bring their infants to the baptismal font to be cleansed of original sin, to receive sanctifying grace, to become a child of God, a temple of the Holy Ghost, and a member of Christ’s Church. The parents choose two sponsors, or godparents for their child. The godparents speak the responses on behalf of the child who cannot speak for himself. When a parent knows that the most spiritually important thing they can do for their child is bring them to Christ through the life-giving waters of baptism, why wouldn’t they? Great is their faith.
The Early Fathers on Infant Baptism
Now we will examine the words of the Church Fathers on the subject of infant Baptism. Why are the writings of the Early Fathers important? Because they give us concrete evidence of the instructions circulated amongst the Christians as handed down from the Apostles themselves, who learned it directly from Jesus Christ. These are the successors of the Apostles, who can be traced in an unbroken line back to Christ Himself. Their testimony removes all doubt concerning the Apostolic practice of baptizing infants. They are unanimous in insisting upon infant Baptism, basing it on the universal command of Christ to baptize all, and on its divine power to cleanse from original sin.
A.D. 180-199: Irenaeus (a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John…) wrote in his work titled Against Heresies:
“Christ came to save all through Himself – all, I say, who through Him are reborn in God – infants, and children, and youth, and old men.”
A.D. 215: Hippolytus of Rome, in his work The Apostolic Tradition, gives us a careful description of the baptismal ceremony in use at that time. Regarding the Rite of Baptism, he states clearly:
“Baptize first the children; and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them.”
Less than 200 years after Christ’s death, we have proof that children who were not yet able to speak were being baptized by the Church.
A.D. 244: Origen wrote in his Homilies on Leviticus of the necessity of infant baptism to wash from their souls the stain of original sin:
“Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin …. And if it should seem necessary to do so, there may be added to the aforementioned considerations, the fact that in the Church, Baptism is given for the remission of sins; and according to the usage of the Church, Baptism is given even to infants.”
And his Commentaries on Romans, Origen declares infant baptism as an Apostolic institution:
“The Church received from the Apostles the tradition of giving Baptism even to infants. For the Apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the innate stains of sin, which must be washed away through water and the Spirit.”
A.D. 251: In a letter written by Cyprian of Carthage, he announces authoritatively:
“As to what pertains to the case of infants: you said that they ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after birth, and that the old law of circumcision must be taken into consideration, and that you did not think that one should be baptized and sanctified within the eight day after his birth. In our council it seemed to us far otherwise. No one agreed to the course which you thought should be taken. Rather, we all judged that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no man born.”
“If, in the case of the worst sinners and of those who formerly sinned much against God, when afterwards they believe, the remission of their sins is granted and no one held back from Baptism and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back, who, having but recently been born, has done no sin, except that, born of the flesh according to Adam, he contracted the contagion of that old death from his first being born. For this very reason does he approach more easily to receive the remission of sins: because the sins forgiven him are not his own but those of another.”
The council of Carthage condemned the opinion that infants must wait until the eight day after birth to be baptized, as was the case with circumcision.
A.D. 381: In his Oration on Holy Baptism, Gregory of Nazianzus (a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople and theologian) has a harsh word for mothers who do not bring their infants to baptism:
“Do you have an infant child? Allow sin no opportunity; rather, let the infant be sanctified from childhood. From his most tender age let him be consecrated by the Spirit. Do you fear the seal because of the weakness of nature? O what a pusillanimous mother, and how little faith! … Give your child the Trinity, that great and noble Protector.”
A little further on in this same oration, he states:
“‘Well enough,’ some will say, ‘for those who ask for Baptism, but what do you have to say about those who are still children, and aware neither of loss nor of grace? Shall we baptize them, too?’ Certainly, if there is any pressing danger. Better that they be sanctified unaware, than they depart unsealed and uninitiated.
A.D. 388: In his Baptismal Catechesis, John Chrysostom (an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople) detailed the important benefits of baptism and said:
“You see how many are the benefits of Baptism, and some think its heavenly grace consists only in the remission of sins; but we have enumerated ten honors. For this reason we baptize even infants, though they do not have [their own] sins, so that there may be given to them holiness, righteousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood with Christ, and that they may be His members.”
A.D. 413: Augustine wrote in a letter to Jerome:
“Anyone who would say that even infants who pass from this life without participation in the Sacrament [of Baptism] shall be made alive in Christ truly goes counter to the preaching of the Apostle…” On the contrary, he further states that the Church has great haste in baptizing infants “because it is believed without doubt that there is no other way at all in which they can be made alive in Christ.” He warns, “Let no one hold any opinion contrary to the manifest belief of the Apostle … A reason must be sought and given why souls, if they are newly created for each one being born, are damned if the infants die without Christ’s Sacrament. That they are damned if they so depart the body is the testimony of both Holy Scripture and of Holy Church.”
In Augustine’s Literal Interpretation of Genesis we also find these words:
“The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned, nor is it to be regarded in any way as superfluous, nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything except Apostolic.”
Conclusion
We can see clearly from the writings of the Church Fathers that the practice of baptizing infants dates from the Apostles. Interestingly, you will find no record of early Christian writing that condemns infant baptism. Instead, we find the practice of baptizing infants was the customary and appropriate practice since the days of the early Church. The Catholic Church continues and maintains this tradition established by the first Christians, who heeded the words of Christ:
“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:16)
