Baptism

1990 (Year A), 30 September /
Pentecost 17        

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

Children fill adults with hope – hope for the future. Here’s what one man hoped for his child, a daughter. ‘As a brief tenant of this precious and irreplaceable world, I’d ask her to preserve life both in herself and others. Never to persecute others for the sins hidden in herself, nor seek justice in terms of vengeance; to avoid like the plague all acts of mob righteousness; to take cover whenever flags start flying … May she feel confident, wanted, take pleasure and give it, be artful, laugh easily, covet no-one, forget herself sometimes. In the end, I suppose, I just want to give her the love and assurance of a home on earth’.

St Paul adds other things that I guess we would all hope for our children, ‘Be gentle, and patient too. Be forbearing with one another and charitable. Spare no effort to make fast the bonds of peace.’ Some of these things may be shared by the parents of the three children as they come to be baptised, for today they will feel not only proud, it is a day for hope.

The lives of Charlie, Tom and Patrice stretch out like a great story which is in the process of being written. Just now it has more space than most but that will soon end as the comic and tragic press in on them.

Undoubtedly those who have been entrusted with the care and love of these children have hopes for them, but they are not the only ones. At this most important time the church too has its hopes and one is that the Divine Father be allowed to play some part in the writing of their story. He may only want to add something seemingly insignificant (after all our Father is the Lord of quality, not quantity, something quite contrary to the spirit of the age) and he will probably wait, not wanting to force his intention on his creation. But he will want to be included at some point, so may these children be blessed in seeing these moments for what they are and receive them gratefully. May they be given discernment and the guidance of others to see when these moments arrive.

The church hopes too that they will all receive patience and grace. Patience to wait upon God whilst he gives grace to accept the gift when it is offered. Adam’s great sin in the garden was that he grabbed rather than wait until he received. He had been given much but he wanted more. He grabbed. May these children have the patience to wait because in time God will come and make his home with them.

The church hopes that they may have imagination and vision to see that their faith will take them beyond the confines of this world and its values. Into a world where God’s own values prevail. A world where it’s not out of the ordinary to care for and give respect to the dying, the unlovely and the unlovable. The church hopes that they may have the vision to see that there is a connection between what we say we believe and how we live our lives, and that they might be given wisdom to recognise that those who say anything difference are dealing in untruths.

The church hopes that they will grow up in the knowledge that God cares passionately for each one of them but no one will be able to begin to convince these children that God does love them unless they experience that love first of all in us. The church hopes that these children may be given time to experience this divine love which can transform their lives.

At the moment of course they are so young that they can do little else except receive what is handed out to them. May we so live our lives that they may grasp some of the love and the peace and the vision and imagination which we have of God, and make it their own. AMEN