UNDERSTANDING THE LITURGY by John J. O'Brien, C.P.

THE SHEPHERD'S GATEWAY: the meaning of Baptism and its connection to Sunday Eucharist

I was born six weeks early and weighed 41/2 pounds. I was baptized right away. I never thought much about baptism until I studied its history with the Episcopalian professor, Daniel V. Stevick. In 1975 I discovered the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) and I have been passionately involved with baptismal ministry and study ever since.

We are not born Christian. We are made Christians in the waters. "The Lord is my shepherd, I need nothing more. You give me rest in green meadows, setting me near calm waters, where you revive my spirit (Psalm 23:12). In those meadows Christians met the great Shepherd of the Sheep, Christ himself, and they passed through the sheepgate.

I never appreciated baptism till I was already a priest eleven years. I was pastor at Saint Gabriel in Brighton. We had no baptismal font. So we used a large baby bath. In 1969 the Catholic Church produced its first ever Rite of Baptism for Children. It stated that immersion was the more suitable way of baptizing a child rather than by pouring water over the infant's head. In 1978 our Bishops reaffirmed this when they commented on baptismal spaces large and ample enough for the baptismal bath and immersion.

Let me tell you, I felt like God's midwife the first time I took a naked infant out of the womb waters of the baptismal bath and placed her into a towel and into the arms of her parents. Saint Augustine used to call Christ a pediatrician because he was the great Physician Christians met in the birthing we call baptism. We begin (= initiation) the Christian life through the Shepherd's gateway called baptism. Christian life begins in refreshing bath. We become literally the aroma of Christ by being lavishly oiled - with perfumed oil. We put aside the soiled garments of sin and literally take off the rags of the old Adam and we put on Christ by getting clothed in a radiant garment. We are led through this gateway to the Shepherd's luxurious banquet hall so that he can feed and nourish us at the Lord's table.

Liturgical assemblies like St. Malachy are called to be midwives of new birth, to be pro-life communities. We need to welcome and encourage new parents so that their family will continue to be part of the assembly every week and regular sharers in the Eucharist. Without this food and drink they may starve and their child's baptism may fade from memory.

The assembly's pastoring requires us to be prudent in how ritual prayer is enacted. For example, a lot of emphasis is placed on naming the child, especially since the name given should connect a child with a holy person from the Bible or a particular patron saint. Then the child's forehead is signed with the cross because Christians live in the shadow of the cross. Since the child will not be a catechumen, the ritual says that the oil of catechumens may be dropped.

Why do we baptize adults, children, and infants at the Sunday Eucharist? That's when assemblies gather to take pastoral responsibility for their new born members. Baptism and Eucharist are intimately linked. " You spread a table before me as my foes look on. You soothe my head with oil, my cup is more than full (Psalm 23:5)."