When I teach Baptism classes, I remind the parents that they, not the Church, are the formators of their children’s Catholic faith because of their role as leaders of their “domestic church.” Then, as I go through the Rite of Baptism with them, I emphasize to them this question that the priest or deacon will ask them: “In asking for Baptism for your child, you are undertaking the responsibility of raising him (her) in the faith, so that, keeping God’s commandments, he (she) may love the Lord and her neighbor as Christ has taught us. Do you understand this responsibility?” Of course, their answer should be “We do.”
I then share with them this verse from the Gospel of Matthew (18:2-6): “[Jesus] called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me. [And here is the hinge. . .] Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Sounds familiar? It should because we just heard a similar account in the Gospel of Luke.
My sisters and brothers in Christ, when we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit - wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God - and, as the Catechism states, we “are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed” (1285).
Today’s saint, Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church, “was dedicated to the preservation of the teachings handed down once for all from the Apostles. His greatest triumph was the Ecumenical Council. . . held in Chalcedon. There, the Council Fathers recognised and re-affirmed the truth of the union of two natures – divine and human – in the one Person of Jesus Christ. Leo himself had proclaimed this truth in a letter. . . [and when it] was read at Chalcedon, the Council Fathers cried out ‘Peter has spoken through Leo!’” (Vatican News).
Now, for most of us, we “spread and defend the faith” starting with our own family. Through the Sacrament of Marriage, husband and wife are called to live out their Catholic faith in such a way that when others see them, they see Jesus self-sacrificing, selfless love for his bride - the Church. And should God bless them with children, parents have the responsibility to pass on their Catholic faith to their children and “defend the faith” when necessary by guiding their children on the right path but, at the very least, to not lead their children away from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is certainly a challenge for all Catholic parents striving to raise their children in our secularized society. However, Catholic parents should never feel that they have to do it on their own because, as we heard in the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, “the Spirit of the Lord fills the world, is all-embracing. . .” Parents only need to turn to God in prayer in the words of the Apostles to Jesus: "Increase our faith."
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