Baptized two days later?
Saint Jean Eudes is clear : he was born on Wednesday and was baptized next Friday, in the evening. The reader of the XXIè century wonders certainly: why was he so fast baptized? Has it a special sense?
We consulted Fr Álvaro Duarte, in charge of the Unit of Spirituality Eudist. He assured that this way of making is in connection with the faiths of the 17th century. If a child was not baptized, there was such a risk of infantile death as he would have been deprived of the kingdom of God. His parents " serious and pious Christians " [ 1 ] could not deprive their first son of this special grace. Today, we have in mind the words of Benoit XVI [ 2 ], sent to the Ecclesial assembly of the Diocese of Rome on June 11th, 2012 and which help us to understand, since another context, but in front of the same reality, the importance to baptize the children:
The life does not give itself unless we can choose if we want to live or not; we can ask nobody: " do you want to be born or not? " The life does not give itself inevitably with consent. It is given to us and we cannot say themselves " yes, or no, do I want to live? " And in reality, the real question is: " It is justice in this world to give birth without consent: do you want to live or not? Can we really anticipate the life, give birth without the subject had the possibility of deciding? I would say: it is only possible and just, if, with the life, we can give as well the guarantee of the fact as the life, with all the problems of the world, is good; that it is the good to live, that there is a guarantee of the fact that the life is good that it is protected by God and is a real gift. Only the anticipation of the sense(direction) justifies the anticipation of the life. For that purpose, the baptism as guarantee of God's well, as anticipation of the sense of God's " yes " which protects the life, also justifies the anticipation of the life. For all that the baptism of children does not go against the freedom: it is necessary to give him(it) to them, to justify also the gift(donation) of the life. Only the life which is in hands of God, in the hands of the Christ, immersed in God's name is the good which can give itself unscrupulous. Then let us give thanks to God because it gave us this gift, it gave to us to himself. And our challenge it is to live this gift, to live it really, in a post-baptismal way, on renunciation that brings us to live always in God's " yes ". And so live good.
This reality expressed in a language so simple and deep by Benoit XVI reminds the conviction which probably had the parents of saint Jean Eudes by discovering the baptism as the free gift of God. He must be given to the future theologian of the baptism.
[1] Milcent, Saint Jean Eudes, 7.
[2] Benedicto XVI, Lectio Divina del Santo Padre Benedicto XVI a la Asamblea Eclesial de la Diócesis de Roma, Roma: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012. Disponible en el sitio web
