How to embrace your Baptismal call for the good of the Church

Catechumens receive the Sacrament of Baptism at this years Cathedral Easter Vigil Mass.

Baptism is the first and most important thing that happens to any Catholic, but we don’t tend to think about it a lot. That’s because most of us can’t remember our own baptism.

From 1970 to 2017, there were around 3 million Catholic baptisms in Australia. Most of these were babies, but around 200,000 were people aged more than 7 years old.

But with just 417,000 Australian Catholics now going to Mass each Sunday, it looks like just being baptised isn’t enough to make someone into a good lifelong Catholic.

And yet Baptism is an incredibly powerful sacrament. It’s much more than a naming ceremony and a photo opportunity. In the document Lumen Gentium, Vatican II linked it directly with our priesthood as believers in Jesus.

This very first sacrament is the bedrock of your covenant with God. It’s put a stamp on you for eternity.

It incorporated you physically and spiritually into the Body of Christ. It empowered you to participate in the paschal mystery through the sacraments.

It’s when your body and soul became a temple of the Holy Spirit. It gave you the graces you needed to believe in God and to re-order all your priorities towards Him.

It opened you up to listening to the Holy Spirit. It pointed you in the right direction and gave you the room you needed to grow in goodness if you wanted. It gave you responsibilities and rights as a Catholic.

So how can you embrace your individual Baptismal call for the good of the Church? The first step is to learn more about it. The Catechism §1213-§1284 will give you plenty to meditate on.

Baptism is also deeply linked with what you believe in. You made three renunciations rejecting Satan and evil, and you’ve probably renewed this renunciation every Easter Sunday.

And you also accepted the Creed, which you say every week at Mass. But have you ever really thought about the Creed while you say it? It’s worth learning the backstory behind it.

Participating in the sacramental life of the Church as much as you can is another way. This is going to be different for everyone. I’m a huge fan of going to Mass not just every Sunday, but during the week as well, if you can.

If you can’t, saying some or all of the Liturgy of the Hours – the daily prayer of the Church – links you powerfully with all the baptised. There’s phone apps today that make this really easy.

Regular sacramental confession is a powerful expression of your Baptism. It’s both a responsibility you owe to God, and a right that you’re entitled to a Catholic. It doesn’t just help you personally – it builds up the Church and purifies it and renews it, every single time you go.

Is this too much? Then start small. Get some holy water for your house and use it often to make the Sign of the Cross. This is a physical reminder of the waters of your own Baptism.

Your Baptism calls you to constant conversion. The more you learn about the transformation that it worked in you, the easier it will be for you to ask God to stir it up in your daily life.

If you live fully in the sacramental life of the Church, everything else – social justice, care for the poor, greater kindness and patience – will also flow much more easily into your life.

Why not give it a go this week? Learn more about your own Baptism, and then ask God to stir up those graces in your own life.