January 19, 2003

Not everyone would agree, but I can think of no better place for a boy or girl to grow up in than New York City. The practicalities of the high cost of housing and finding schools often make this difficult. When families reach a certain size they sometimes have to make the difficult decision to move out to rustic areas, and so the parish does not have many children in the middle years. Our CCD program is growing and flourishing and the new Marriage Preparation course seems to be a great success already.

The increasing number of baptisms requires that we give careful thought to what the Sacrament of Baptism means. As much as possible, I like to give individual preparation for the parents and godparents

The reason we have godparents, or “sponsors,” is not always clear. They have had a social purpose through the centuries, ensuring the care and well-being of the child especially in ages when the life expectancy of parents was short. It was because godparents came to be named for purely honorific purposes apart from religion, that the Council of Trent in 1563 limited their number to one male and one female. The new Code of Canon Law prescribes at least one sponsor, or two sponsors, one of each sex. Save for just cause, they must be at least 16 years old. Canon 874 requires that they be baptized, confirmed, and practicing Catholics, which means they should be faithful in prayer, in worshipping at Holy Mass, and in keeping their other obligations in religion.

The Pope has said (January 10, 1982): that parents and godparents have the duty of “responsibly educating the newly baptized and helping them to grow in a Christian way.” Whether the one baptized is an infant or an adult, the sponsor represents the whole Church into which the new Christian is being incorporated.

Unlike the baptism of St. John, which symbolized desire for moral reform in preparation for the Messiah, the baptism of Christ actually washes away original sin which brought sin and death into the world, and makes the baptized “born again” by water and the Spirit, with the promise of eternal life in Heaven.

Moses could not cross the Jordan himself when he sent the Jews on ahead into the land of milk and honey. He was like a man looking at the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn Heights (although happy is he who can claim the noble borough of Brooklyn for his earthly home). Christ leads us across the river, which is not the Jordan in Israel or the East River here, or any river on earth, for it is the divide between time and eternity. So the Welsh poet William Williams wrote in the hymn “Arglwyyd, arwain try’r anialwch”: “Death of death and Hell’s destruction / Land me safe on Canaan’s side.”

Fr. George W. Rutler