Pope Baptises 13 Children in Sistine Chapel

(13 Jan 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI marked the feast of Our Lords’ Baptism today, which marks the end of Christmas celebrations. Speaking to pilgrims gathered beneath the windows of his study this Sunday to pray the midday Angelus, Pope Benedict urged them to give thanks that the Son of God came down to earth to share our human condition, because it is through his death that we have all be baptised into eternal life.

Pope Benedict said: “On this feast of the Lord’s Baptism, Jesus descends into the waters of the Jordan, taking upon himself the weight of our sins; then he rises from the water, as the Spirit comes down upon him and the Father’s voice declares: “This is my beloved Son”.
The solemnity of Our Lord’s Baptism brings to an end the season of Christmas, marking the second manifestation of the Son of God and the beginning of his earthly mission.
It is also traditionally on this feast day when the Holy Father administers the sacrament of Baptism to new born babies, welcoming them into the Christian community, a tradition which he described as one of his very favourite.
Sunday morning Pope Benedict XVI told the parents and godparents of 13 infants gathered beneath the magnificent frescos of the Sistine Chapel, that: “the entire mystery of Christ on earth can be summarised in one word, “baptism”, which in Greek means immersion”. “But in baptism the tiny human being receives new life, a life of grace which allows him to enter into a personal relationship with the Creator, forever, for all eternity. Unfortunately man is capable of extinguishing this new life by his sin, reducing it to a situation which the Sacred Scripture calls “second death”. While for other creatures, which are not called to eternity, death simply means the end of their existence on the earth, in us sin creates an abyss that risks swallowing us forever, if the Father in Heaven does not hold out his hand to us. Here, dear brothers and sisters, is the mystery of Baptism: God wanted to save us by journeying himself into the depths of the abyss of death, so that all men who had fallen so low as to no longer see the sky, can find the hand of God and holding onto it, can rise up out of the shadows and once again see the light for which he was made. We all feel, we all perceive, deep within ourselves, that our existence is the desire for a life which invokes fullness, which invokes salvation. This fullness of life is given to us in Baptism”.
Pope Benedict said “the Son of God, was “immersed” in our reality of sinners, to make us participants in his life: he was incarnated, he was born like us, he grew up like us and on becoming an adult, he manifested his mission, starting with the “baptism of conversion” given him by John the Baptist.
Turning to the parents, all of them Vatican employees drawn from the police corps, health service, telecommunications centre, library and museums, the Holy Father reminded them of their central role in the transmission of the faith from generation to generation:
He said “While you offer them all that is necessary for their health and growth, together with the godparents, you must also commit yourselves to developing in them faith, hope and charity, the three theological virtues which belong to the new life gifted them in the sacrament of Baptism”.
This he concluded “will be ensured by your presence, affection and care; but above all by prayer, by presenting them each and every day to God and entrusting them to Him throughout the seasons of their lives”.
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