Suffer the Little Children III
In continuity with the practice of the ancient Church, Anglicans practice infant baptism, “as most agreeable with the institution of Christ” (Article 27). “For the infants of Christians belong to God and to the Church no less than did formerly the offspring of the Hebrews to whom circumcision was administered in infancy. And so, baptism should be administered to our infants because they are sharers of the same promise and divine covenant and were received by Christ with the greatest kindness” (Reformatio legum ecclesiast-icorum, 1552). For those who are not themselves capable of the acts of intellect and will required in faith, the faith of the Church suffices for their salvation. Like the daughter of the woman of Canaan (Matthew 15: 21-28); the servant of the enturion (Matthew 8:5-13); and the son of the nobleman of Capernaum, (John 4:26-54), it is through the faith and prayers of others, the faith and prayers of the Church, that we are received by Christ, and blessed by him.
The Church therefore has a special vocation to pray for all her children, first that Christ may receive them in baptism, and then that they may in turn “hear and receive” the Word of God in faith, and serve him in holiness and righteousness, in obedience to the commandments. And as we pray, so must be act, bringing up the baptized children of the Church “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), training them up to believe and serve Christ. There is no more cruel abstraction than the notion that children should be left to discover moral and spiritual truth by experiment – that we should cast them adrift in the supermarket of religion and morality without giving them any criteria by which to make goodchoices.
That is why the Prayer Book is careful to include a Catechism designed for young baptized children in preparation for their confirmation and admission to communion. With pastoral wisdom this Catechism addresses the meaning and consequences of the child’s baptism. The first question concerns the name received in baptism, the second the benefits that it bestowed. Thus baptism defines who and what they are, establishing their self-understanding as members of Christ, the children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.
The question about benefits is followed by a question about the promises of baptism. After teaching them of God’s saving love for them, whereby in baptism he has made them his own, we teach them to respond to his love with trusting faith and grateful obedience, and by renouncing the world, the flesh, and the devil, the powers that lead us into rebellion against God, into sin and death. Indeed, one could not imagine a better foundation for their own faith and love of God, than in the sure knowledge of his love for them.
After the benefits and promises of baptism comes a question about the obligation to fulfill these promises. The acknowledgement of this obligation is filled out in terms of gratitude for God’s calling them into this state of salvation through Christ the Saviour, and a prayer for grace to continue in it. The implication is clear enough: it is by baptism that God has called them into this state of salvation in Christ, and it is by keeping the promises of baptism that they may continue in his saving love “As the Father hath loved me, so have I have loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:9, 10; c.f. Deuteronomy 7:6-11).
How do we teach children the faith? By teaching them the fact of God’s saving love for them in Christ, communicated to them by means of baptism; and on that foundation, teaching them to abide in his love by means of believing and obeying him, in accord with the promises made at their baptism. By teaching them to give thanks for God’s saving love, we encourage them to pray hopefully for grace to abide in this love. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).