Posted on 11/20/2008 3:54:15 PM PST by NYer
From the headline, I thought this was going to be about the Sacrament of the Annointing of the Sick.
In no way is the Sacrament of Confirmation the Sacrament of Farewell. Where we fail is in hahving active programs for these people to step into and stay involved.
How many of you have Young Adult groups in your parishes? That’s where a lot of the answer is in my opinion.
Well it could be because the young people are not seen again until they come back to get married and have their own children baptized.
Please see post number 15 also. Thanks.
A little more study of that issue is in order. I left the Catholic church many years ago and it was in part, due to that which you mention about infant baptism. I, however, did a very deep 8 year study on what I believed to be the error of the RCC church and found this about infant baptism.
In scripture, you are correct, many were baptized after believeing. however, scripture also points out that whole households were baptized after the Father had accepted Jesus and believed. It is unreasonable to think that in a procreative, HUGE extended family model that existed back then, that no children or infants were baptized in the whole household model. It was impossible to start a new belief system in the first generation without adult converts to the faith, therefore necessitated the adult believers baptism for conversion.
2. If infant baptism was objectionable, then circumcision would have been to. Circumsicion of babies 8 days old in the Jewish faith was considered the sign of passing along the faith of the father and mother, as commanded by God. If God included infants in the Jewish faith at such a young age without asking for it or believeing in it, and Jesus came to fufill the law and for the fufillment of the jewish faith, why would he completely change that law? Why wouldn’t Christian children have the virtue of being considered christians just as Jewish children did?
And lastly. Baptism bestows grace, santicfiying grace,according to scripture 2Peter Chap3 Vs18-22. If grace is truly a free gift which no one can merit, isn’t it most freely and without asking to give that grace to an infant? In a believers baptism, one is required to do many things to make themselves “worthy of the gift” They must first, without grace, turn to God, Pray the sinners prayer, Believe in their hearts, Ask for baptism, and then recieve grace. If it is a free gift- why all the steps to receive it? Isn’t that alot of doing, or works, you have to do for a free gift? I on the other hand bring my child to the Church, and God accepts him into his family based on my faith and promise to raise him in the faith, just like the Jewish folks do.
As to free will, my child will, at age thirteen, choose to accept or reject their faith through confirmation. They will have been educated in the faith for the previous 8 years, and make a public acceptance of that faith and accept responsibility for their own actions and sin at that time, much as the Bar mitzvah is the equivalent in Jesus’s own faith of Judiasm.
sorry this post is so long, but much explanation is usually necessary on this issue. Christians do need to remember, Jesus was a Jew, a perfect Jew. He came to fufill the law, not change it. The fufillment of Judiasm, should and does resemble it. If your Church does not, maybe a more prayerful study of scripture and the early church/church fathers, didache, and what the Catholic Church ACTUALLY teaches instead of what is assumed, would yield some good fruit.
God Bless!!
JMHO, Confirmation should be given as early as possible, and not used as a carrot to extend participation in church or as some sort of milestone. It feels coerced. A priest once told me that teens need the sanctifying grace bestowed in Confirmation before they hit their teens.
But the one good thing about confirmation latter on is that it helps the teens at a point in life when they start to make important decisions about what their state of life and careers are going to be with the help of the Holy Spirit.
I think infant baptism goes back to when in the Acts I believe once a whole household accepted salvation. It must have to have included infants.
I didn't post to start a discussion or argument, but to simply make a point. I've done much study on the issue, as you have also apparently done, and came to a different result than you did. We each will have to live with it. I know what the RCC teaches and still believe it is in error on this point - that's my take. A day is coming in which all will be laid bare, and then truth will be made known to all. Anyway, thanks for your input on this issue. It is appreciated.
I wanted to add on, now that I thought of it, what we did for the Legion of Mary was not so much as prosyletizing the word that came to my mind late last night but I guess it was evangelizing.
We would take a number of Church bulletins with us and then more or less, knock on a door and give one out and invite people to go to Mass if they were Catholics. Maybe in a few instances we would give out Rosaries as well.
Very good things, I need to do such kinds of things again.
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