Welcome to the Church Isabella Josephine Buckley

I told Mike and Jen and Kent and Kellie that this is going to be a little harder than most baptisms. As a minister of the Church, I want to treat all three babies and all the parent and grandparents equally. You shouldn’t expect anything less. On the other hand, one of the babies is my only granddaughter. I’ve never done a baptism quite as special as this one before.

Hopefully you’ll all be patient with me if I seem to be a little partial.

Now that that’s out of the way, I hope the grownups will excuse me for a minute while I talk to my granddaughter. Keighlen and Kuhlen, I want you to listen to this too.

I’ll bet you’re wondering what we’re doing here. Why am I all dressed up? Why are all these people here? Why’s my grandpa wearing a dress? What’s the deal?

What we’re doing here today is called Baptism. In a few minutes, you and Keiglhen and Kuhlen are going to be baptized. I’m going to put oil on your chests. Then I’m going to pour water on your heads. Then I’m going to put oil on your heads. It sounds funny, but there’s a good reason.

See, a long, long time ago, there were two people. They were the first two people, Adam and Eve. God had made them and let them live in paradise. It was beautiful. There were lots of trees and animals and plenty to eat. God gave them one rule, leave just one tree alone. They could eat the fruit from every other tree, but not that one. Guess what? The devil pretended to be a snake and tricked them into eating the fruit from that one tree.

Because God had told them to leave that one tree alone, He really got mad when he found out what they’d done. It was the first time one of us disobeyed God so we call it original sin.

Since Adam and Eve were the first people, all of us inherit original sin when we’re born, even you. What we’re doing today is getting rid of that original sin. We’re going to wash it away. That’s why I’m going to pour water on your heads.

A long time ago, God saw that things had pretty much gone down hill ever since He threw Adam and Eve out of paradise. People just weren’t acting very nice. We had piled lots of our own sins on top of the original sin of Adam and Eve. But God loves us, even when we’re not good. He decided to send His Son down here from heaven to save us from ourselves. God’s son’s name is Jesus.

Jesus could have just shown up as a grown up. He was God. He could do that. But God thought it was important that Jesus be just like us, except that He never sinned. So Jesus came as a little baby, just like you. God wanted Him to live in a family, just like you and mom and dad, and to grow up just like we all do.

Jesus did grow up just like you’re going to grow up. His mom, Mary and his step-dad, Joseph loved Him very much. Unfortunately, Jesus had to die for our sins. They took Him and nailed Him on a cross. That’s Him up there. But, He had the last laugh. Three days after He died, his friends went looking for Him in the tomb and he was gone! He had risen from the dead! He beat death so you, and I and Keighlen and Kuhlen and everybody who believes in Him can beat death too.

In the reading I just read, Jesus was talking to the people when a lot of little kids were trying to get His attention. It won’t be long until you’ll be doing the same thing. You’ll be tugging on mom or dad’s leg going “Mommy, mommy, mommy” or “daddy, daddy, daddy”. That’s what little kids do. Jesus’ friends didn’t want the kids bothering Jesus and tried to make them stop. But, Jesus got mad at his friends and said, “Leave them alone. The kingdom of God (that’s heaven) belongs to such as these. Whoever doesn’t accept the Kingdom of God like a child won’t enter it.” Then he hugged the kids and gave them a blessing.

Jesus knew that the time when we’re most ready to go to heaven is when we’re little, because we haven’t learned how to sin yet. As you grow up, you’re going to learn so many things. Most of them are wonderful things like how to walk and talk and how to read and write. You’re going to learn how to jump rope and kick a ball and you’re going to learn about Big Bird, and Bert and Ernie (Ernie was your dad’s favorite).

But, you’re going to learn about bad things, too. It’s mom and dad’s job to protect you from that stuff, but no matter how hard they try, bad stuff is going to get through. It’s everywhere. It’s on TV. It’s in movies. When you get older and start to school, you’re going to learn about bad stuff from the other kids.

People will try to convince you that it’s ok to sin. They’ll make fun of you for wanting to do the right thing. Everybody that’s here today will be praying that all three of you make the right choices. Your Baptism, and later on your Confirmation will help you do that.

Mom and dad just aren’t going to be able to keep all the bad stuff away without help. Your grandparents will help. Your aunts and uncles and cousins will help. Your godparents will also help. In fact, in just a few minutes, they’re going to get up in front of all these people, and in front of Jesus, and promise to be there when you need them.

When you start school, especially if you go to a Catholic school, your teachers will help. Everybody who loves you will try to keep sin away. But it’s such a big job, we just can’t do it by ourselves. That’s why we need Jesus. He promised He’d be here to help us if we just ask Him. You can always depend on Jesus, even when you can’t depend on anybody else. Sometimes mom and dad will make mistakes. Izzy, ask dad sometime how many mistakes your grandpa made when he was growing up. Make sure you’ve got lots of time when you ask him because grandpa messed up a lot.

No matter how much we love you, we’re just people and we can’t fight off sin without God’s help. When you get older, after you’ve started to school, you’re going to start getting ready for what’s called “First Communion.” Communion is Jesus’ Body and Blood. I know it sounds kind of icky, but during mass the priest turns bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood. Jesus said that unless we eat His Body and drink His Blood we have no life in us. We need to do that so that Jesus is part of us. That way, even if the people who love you can’t keep sin away, you’re protected by having Jesus really be part of you.

I guess we’d better get back to all your company and get on with the baptism. It’s a really important day for all three of you. Thank you for letting me be the one to pour the water on your heads.

I just want you to remember one thing. Mom and dad will get older really fast. One day they’re here, having you baptized and the next thing you know, they’re going to be watching you get married and then watching you have your baby baptized. You won’t know where the time went. So, enjoy ‘em while they’re young.