Joy Turns to Pain

Priest:    What dost thou ask of the Church of God?
Answer: Faith
Priest:    What doth faith bring thee to?
Answer: Life everlasting.
Priest:    If then thou desirest to enter into life, keep the commandments. Thou shall love the Lord thy 
            God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind; and thy neighbor as
            thyself.

So begins the rite of Baptism, for infant and adult alike. Baptism 1) Washes away original sin through which we stand condemned to hell. 2) Gives us grace which makes us share the life of God and opens heaven to us. 3) Imprints a character on our soul which is indelible and cannot be erased.

With the Sign of the Cross upon forehead and heart, the priest says: "Take unto thee the faith of the heavenly precepts; and so order thy life as to be, from henceforth, the temple of God."

The Baptism itself fulfills what Our Lord told the apostles:" Go, therefore and teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." So receiving the baptismal water, the soul, St. Paul says: "as Christ is risen from the dead" so it may also walk in newness of life.

   After Sunday Mass, February 19, there was an infant Baptism. Several people in the congregation stayed to witness the happy occasion, shared by family and friends. The little girl, about two weeks old, wore an heirloom gown and bonnet. With bonnet removed for the rite, her thick crop of dark brown hair framed an adorable little face. She complained loudly through the whole ceremony, which will be duly noted, I imagine, in her Baby Book.  I had tears in my eyes, and prayed that this child would remain in God's grace for the whole of her life.  Her mother and father made sure that their little one had the right start in life, with the soul an unstained garment to wear before God.

  Often, following the Baptism is a beautiful ceremony for mothers. It recalls the Holy Family at the Temple for the Presentation of Our Lord and Purification of Our Lady, the custom in those days.  The mother kneels, holding a lighted candle. Psalm 23 is read, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness therof..." Other prayers follow and then: "Almighty, everlasting God, who, through the delivery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, hast turned into joy the pains of the faithful in childbirth, look mercifully upon thine handmaid, coming in gladness to thy temple to offer up her thanks: and grant that after this life, by the merits and intercession of the same blessed Mary, she may merit to arrive, together with her offspring, at the joys of everlasting happiness. Through Christ our Lord Amen."  And finally: "The peace and blessing of God Almighty, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, descend upon thee, and abide forever."

   I remember the blessing and felt that God had indeed blessed me with beautiful children for whom I had the hopes all mothers have. Each was a gift from God to be treasured, brought up in Faith and love.

   Somewhere along the line, in so many lives, circumstances prevent one from fulfilling the duties necessary to preserve and help to grow, the faith and the strength of character in their children. The "temples of God," which each of us became at Baptism, too often through neglect, the world's temptations (ever made more and more enticing) and exacerbated by weakness of will, become temples dedicated to alcohol, drugs and
adultery. Marriages, some ill-conceived probably, are ruined. Vows, meant to be eternal, are broken and put the offender into Mortal Sin. Children are damaged in ways that may not, at first, be discernable, but will manifest themselves in time. While lives are being ruined, worse, souls are being damned. Sin isn't a word modern people like to hear, but it is a fact, and the sinner is in enmity with God.

   What mother will not mourn the disintegration of her family and loss of her children's souls, and those of generations to come? The hopes and aspirations held at the time of their Baptisms are dashed. While tears for the physical loss of family are bitter, those for the loss of immortal souls precious to her, are unquenchable. She can do no more than continue the prayers for those souls, that they realize what they have become, try to repair the damage done and seek forgiveness from all they have wounded by their actions. More particularly, they need to return to God's good Grace before it's too late.

As the little one baptized yesterday was told: "Receive this burning light and see thou guard the grace of they Baptism without blame; keep the commandments of God, so that when the Lord shall come to call thee to the nuptials, thou mayest meet Him with all the saints in the heavenly courts, there to live for ever and ever. Amen."

   Pain may be turned once again into Joy.