He certainly wouldn’t have any trouble spotting the house where he was born and where his family has lived since at least 1650.
I first visited there in 1977, long after my grandfather had died, and I have been there several times, as recently as this past summer.
The only discernible changes over those 34 years were the addition of a telephone, the transition from a black-and-white TV to a color model, and the acquisition of a VCR, whose sole function is to play tapes of a family wedding, baptism, and confirmation.
I have seen the wedding three times, and I have come to think of it as a parable.
The first scene is typical of such recordings – my cousin Giuseppina is at her parents’ house preparing for the ceremony.
When she and her mother and father step outside, however, the whole village is waiting for them and follows on foot as they walk the two-tenths of a mile or so to the Church of St. Nicholas of Bari – where, incidentally, my grandparents were married a little more than a hundred years ago.
That scene reminds me of another sacramental setting – my monthly opportunity to administer baptism to one or more infants.
On the most recent occasion, the baby was accompanied by his parents and godparents and one other adult. That’s all that’s necessary, of course – in fact, it’s more than necessary – but it’s not ideal.
More often, the infant comes with a sizeable retinue, and when there are two or three or four infants, the result can be bedlam.
That’s more like it.
The Second Vatican Council emphasized that “Liturgical services are not private functions but are celebrations of the Church which is the ‘sacrament of unity. . . .’ ”
And so, when there are a lot of people in church, I always call attention to it before beginning the baptism liturgy.
I welcome the people on behalf of the parish, but I also tell them how fortuitous it is that they are there in such numbers.
I disabuse them of the idea – if they had such an idea – that they are merely spectators, biding their time before the party to come.
No, I tell them, you are witnesses to what is about to take place here.
You are to listen to the Scripture and apply it to your own lives. You are to think about the significance of all the symbols – the child’s name, the oil, the chrism, the white garment, the candle flame, and, of course, the baptismal water.
You are to be conscious of the fact that you are part of something larger than any one of us – you stand in here for the whole Christian Church. With the whole Church, you have a stake in the life being renewed in the Spirit before your eyes, you share with all of us a responsibility to make your life as a baptized person an example for the little person whom God is about to heal with this sacrament.
Pretty cool, huh?
And I hope it communicates to those who gather in our church on the first Sunday of each month – the more the merrier – what we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1253):
“Baptism is the sacrament of faith. But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe.”
Charles Paolino is a member of the RENEW staff and a permanent Deacon in the Diocese of Metuchen.