It’s not enough to say that ‘baptism makes us children of God’. We hear this from some parents who ask for their young child to be baptised. Some of those who meet them at the Parish House ask ‘Yes, of course, but are you baptised, and are the godparents? If the parents say ‘yes’, the baptism is prepared; the godparents sign the registers in the appropriate boxes.
Nevertheless, this leaves a taste of unfinished business: will the child and those around him or her live a new life as baptised people?
At baptism, we receive Christ from the Father
Let us go further: we are all ‘children of God the Father’, even before baptism. St John, seeking to express the unheard-of richness of the covenant God is seeking with each of us, says ‘We are children of the Father, and it is not yet clear what we will become; when Christ comes again, we will be like him…’.
In baptism, to become what we are, we receive Christ from the Father; He is the beloved Son, ‘listen to him’.
Companions of Jesus
St Ignatius expressed this new reality wonderfully when he called himself and his companions ‘companions of Jesus’. This is the Christ who gave his life to give us direct access to the life of the Father. In colloquial terms, I like to call Jesus ‘the big brother’. He is already there in his Church. It is becoming a disciple to receive from Him to be a missionary, and to awaken us to His incredible company.
Our work in Church, in SVECJ, with brothers and sisters in Christ, and to awaken, remind, nourish this company of Christ.
Christophe Decherf, SVECJ
Priest of the diocese of Cambra
