During his General Audience on Wednesday 11 April, Pope Francis focused his catechism on the link between Easter and Sacrament of Baptism. The Holy Father invited the faithful to remember their Baptism date and celebrate it, saying ‘it is our second birthday, our rebirth’.
In his catechism Pope Francis said, ‘Baptism is the door to the other sacraments, whereby we grow in the life of grace until we come at last to our true homeland in heaven. Our Christian life, as a journey of faith and union with the Lord, is sustained by prayer and by our daily efforts to grow in the imitation of Christ.’
The Holy Father said, ‘The Sacrament assumes a journey of faith, which we call the catechumenate, which is most evident when an adult asks to be baptised’, but ‘even children, from antiquity onwards are baptised into the faith of their parents.’
Appealing to parents, Pope Francis said, ‘don’t put off baptising your children with the excuse that ‘he or she is unable to understand’, this attitude he said indicates that ‘you do not trust in the Holy Spirit’.
Pope Francis encouraged all present to seek out the date of their Baptism and to celebrate it as they would their birthday, ‘why not celebrate – or at least remember – the date of our baptism as well?’ The Holy Father highlighted that Baptism is ‘the day the Holy Spirit entered into our lives … it is our second birthday, our rebirth’.
In Jesus, Pope Francis said, ‘all sons of Adam are called to a new life,’ and ‘immersing us in Christ, baptism also makes us members of his body, which is the Church, and participants in its mission in the world.’
The Pope concluded his catechesis saying that the baptismal promises that we renew every year in the Easter Vigil have to be reaffirmed every day, so that baptism ‘Christifies’ whoever has received it, rendering us truly another Christ.
ENDS
(Source: Vatican News)
