By Deacon Mike Seibert
Connecting Liturgy and Life
Editor’s note: For 2026, the weekly “Connecting Faith and Life” column has been renamed “Connecting Liturgy and Life.” The column consists of reflections on Part Two of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which focuses on the Liturgy and the Sacraments.
cf. CCC 1210-1228
When we went to the Holy Land in 2020, just days before the world shut down for Covid, we got to go to the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized. There were people everywhere – as you can imagine. Every Christian wants to see and experience the very spot which was so monumental in the life of Jesus.
Our small group stepped to the side to an outdoor chapel – really just a gazebo – and we renewed our own baptismal promises. We even used a bottle of muddy water from the Jordan that Father Crispine Adongo had scooped from the river upstream. Cool, right?! It gets better. As we were renewing our promises, a dove landed on the top of the gazebo and just sat there through the ceremony! It was as if God was re-enacting for us the decent of the Holy Spirit when God the Father declared ‘this is My beloved Son’. God was reminding us that we too are His beloved sons and daughters.
That’s because baptism is an adoption ceremony. Through this Sacrament, God ‘adopts’ us into His family. Let that sink in. You are a son or daughter of God! We might take that for granted nowadays, but before Jesus came, the idea of God as Father and us as His children would have been blasphemous. Jesus teaching us to say ‘Our Father’ was radical! When does God become our Father? At baptism. Before that – we’re not yet adopted.
That’s why we baptize children! Many think we should wait until the child is old enough to decide for themselves. That is a gross misunderstanding of the Sacrament. Consider this scenario: Let’s say you and your spouse decide to adopt an infant. What choice does that baby have as to whether it wants to become part of your family? Zero. Adoption is not a choice of the child but is a legal action of the parents. The parents are saying I choose this child as my son. I will love him forever…I will give him a name; I will teach him how to live; He will live in my house, eat at my table, and he will have an inheritance with the rest of my family! Again – it’s not the child’s choice, but a legal action of the parents.
Same with baptism. God is saying I choose this child as my son. I will love him forever…I will give him a name (Christian); I will teach him how to live; He will live in my house (church), eat at my table (altar), and he will have an inheritance (of eternal life) with the rest of my family! It’s not the choice of the child to join God’s family – it is an act of God. That’s what sacraments are… acts of God.
In the Rite of Baptism, we pray the prayer that all the baptized pray, the Our Father. It’s followed by a great line where we say “He is now called a child of God, for indeed he is!”. This aligns with 1 John 3:1 — “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. Yet so we are.” A few years ago, I baptized a girl at sunrise on Easter morning – which was awesome in itself. But as I said those words above, “She is now called a child of God…” she raised her arms as if in victory! I have that video saved on my phone to remind me of that awesome moment. It was as if she realized that she was changed forever in that moment.
What does it mean to be a child of God? It means we have full access to the Father. Just as human parents wants nothing more than an intimate relationship with their child, God wants that intimacy with you. We spend the rest of our lives learning to accept the love of our Father, to love like our father and to become just like our ‘Abba’ (Daddy).