Who Can Baptize, When, and Why? Some New Points By Fr. Chris Alar

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-12

[00:00:06]So, the two powerful parts of these readings, in the first reading, um we hear about the baptism. Um what's going on about being saved and being baptized and then we hear about the Holy Spirit.

[00:00:21]Now, Father, I was not scheduled to do this mass today. I was supposed to do Monday and Wednesday, but due to a schedule conflict, Father Matt asked if I could do this mass today. So, today I' I'd like to add a few new things I've not mentioned that um about baptism that that um I feel are important that I haven't talked fully about before. Uh and then tomorrow I'll be back because I think that I can continue the Holy Spirit. some also some new things that I haven't shared before I think that are powerful um both about baptism today and Holy Spirit I'll talk about tomorrow.

[00:00:58]Now the word to to baptize you all know means to immerse but not just in water.

[00:01:09]This is why we think oh you Catholics you're not doing it correctly but actually the immersion is not water.

[00:01:16]We're talking about 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "The one who is baptized is immersed into the death of Christ and rises with him as a new creature."

[00:01:31]That's the immersion.

[00:01:34]You Catholics don't do it right. You got to fully immerse the baby. Now, we can.

[00:01:38]That's allowed. But the the the thing the to keep in mind is the true immersion is into the death of Christ and then rising with him as a new creature.

[00:01:51]Remember dying you destroyed our death.

[00:01:53]Rising you restored our life. So in the old covenant baptism was prefigured several places. All right. Water.

[00:02:06]All right. Water was seen as a source of life and death.

[00:02:11]Life because you can't live without it, but death because we can drown. And the ark of Noah both happened.

[00:02:20]Water killed. It drowned, but it also saves because we can't live without it. So the ark of Noah prefigures baptism which saved by means of water.

[00:02:34]In the passing through the Red Sea, this liberated Israel from Egyptian slavery, from slavery to freedom. In the crossing of the Jordan, the Jordan River, Israel crossing that uh crossing the Jordan, Israel then went to the promised land which is an image of eternal life. So they went through the water of the Jordan. Now, all the old covenant prefigurations that I just mentioned find fulfillment in Christ.

[00:03:10]At the beginning of his public life, Jesus, we know, was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan on the cross. What came out the side of Christ? Blood and water. And Jesus told St. Fina that that water is the cleansing waters of baptism and confession. All right. Um, the great command, go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. So in our theology, we learn about the Catholic sacraments and you may have heard me talk a little bit about form and matter. Okay. Now in baptism, what is the matter? What is required is water.

[00:04:00]Okay. The form is the trinitarian words.

[00:04:04]I baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.

[00:04:09]Not the creator, the redeemer, and the sanctifier. You need those words of the trinitarian formula to be valid. Now, this is spoken while water is poured over the head three times on the head. Now, it can be immersed.

[00:04:28]The baby can be immersed three times, but that immersion remembers into the death of Christ. So, it can also be poured. Now, who can baptize? In an emergency, the person baptizing can be anyone. Now, here's what's interesting. I've never mentioned this before. The person doing the baptism doesn't have to be Catholic and in fact doesn't even have to be a baptized Christian themselves.

[00:04:58]That's kind of interesting.

[00:05:00]The person doing the baptizing doesn't even need to be a baptized Christian themselves. Now, they need to believe though in what is happening in the baptism. This is important. So, it kind of should be that way. Now, if there is no grave reason, grandmas, who have baptized your grandchildren in the bathtub, uh, God bless you. But if there's no grave reason why you don't where you you you can't wait for a priest like a baby dying or an emergency death as somebody's dying. If you can wait for a priest and you don't and you baptize, yes, it is valid, but it's illicit.

[00:05:47]It's valid, but it's illicit.

[00:05:50]Now, you have to make sure that when you do the baptizing that at least one of the parents, if it's an infant, agrees.

[00:06:03]Okay? make sure the person they are baptizing um desires it. So if it's a baby, it would be the parents. At least one of the parents desires it. Or if you're baptizing an adult that they desire it.

[00:06:18]Now, what about somebody who's unconscious at the scene of an accident?

[00:06:22]I've had that situation. Well, that's where I do the anointing of the sick because that also wipes away sin. Now, what about if you don't know if they're Catholic? That's where really tricky because then we do it conditionally.

[00:06:36]Okay, we do it conditionally. Or if somebody doesn't know if they've been baptized, but they desire to be baptized and they say, "Father Chris, I really don't know if I was baptized. Um, my we had a flood and all the paperwork was eliminated." Well, that's why you need to do it at a church because they have records. If you're just baptized in the bathtub, there's no records of that. And so a priest will do sometimes a conditional baptism. But anyway, um you can't that's because you can't be baptized twice, right? Even divine mercy Sunday is like a second baptism, complete forgiveness of sin and punishment, but it is not an actual second baptism. Now, baptism impresses the Christian character in the soul and it allows the other sacraments to be able to happen. All right? And that comes from the Holy Spirit.

[00:07:36]This is what we talked about in the gospel, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

[00:07:42]How is the Holy Spirit present to us? In the sacraments. And so the Holy Spirit gives us the church and she in return gives us the sacraments.

[00:07:56]The Holy Spirit gives us the church and the church in turn gives us the sacraments.

[00:08:02]Now a lot of non-atholics we said before criticize Catholics for infant baptism.

[00:08:08]Now they say that you all you need is to be born again that you need this born again experience. They first accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

[00:08:19]That's fine. And then they get baptized.

[00:08:22]Now, that's not salvific.

[00:08:26]That's not a sacrament. It's only a sign, a symbol of their conversion.

[00:08:34]So, that's why they don't give it to those under the age of reason because it's just a symbol.

[00:08:41]No. Christ instituted the sacraments.

[00:08:44]Remember an efficacious sign. It does something of God's grace instituted by Christ entrusted to the church by which divine life is instilled in us.

[00:08:55]Now they're leaving their children with original sin, tied to a ball and chain that you don't want. This needs to be removed.

[00:09:06]Even a child of age of reason, seven years old, is capable now of sin. So you want to remove get that away from them.

[00:09:16]And baptism is the bornagain experience.

[00:09:21]It is salvific.

[00:09:23]First Peter 3:21 says, "Baptism now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

[00:09:39]We just read Acts.

[00:09:42]Okay, this is really important. Acts 16:33, the Philippian jailer. We just were in Philippi. I was leading a pilgrimage there as a fundraiser for our seminarians and we went to Philippi where Ly Lydia, who was mentioned in yesterday's reading, was the first European um to be baptized. And so they showed us this region, this area. It's surreal being right there. So now the Philippian jailer who we just read who Paul and Silas basically converted.

[00:10:21]Then we are told at the same hour of the night he was baptized with all of his family. It didn't say not the children.

[00:10:31]It said all of his family. Then Paul recalled,"I did baptize." Now if you jump to 1 Corinthians 16, chapter 1:16, Paul said,"I did baptize also the household of Stfanis."

[00:10:46]He didn't say, "We left out the infants." No. Peter declared in Acts 2:38, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For this promise is to you and your children."

[00:11:10]So, one thing I wanted to add because I find it fascinating is that in the Old Testament, if a man converted to become a Jew, he had to do something. He had to believe in the God of Israel and be circumcised.

[00:11:31]Okay? So, if a guy wanted to convert to be a Jew, he was a pagan, let's say, in the Old Testament. If he wanted to become a Jew, he had to believe in the God of Israel and be circumcised.

[00:11:45]Now, in the New Testament, if somebody wanted to become a Christian, they must believe in Jesus and they must be baptized.

[00:11:56]Okay, let's look at this. So, those born as Jews were circumcised in anticipation of the Jewish faith. They were about to be raised. They were circumcised on the eighth day. They were a baby.

[00:12:14]They were an infant. And those born in Christian households are to also be baptized in anticipation of the Christian faith. So if the Jews were circumcised at 8 days old in anticipation of their Jewish faith, Christians were always those born into Christian households were always baptized in anticipation of their Christian faith as infants.

[00:12:43]Furthermore, Paul notes that baptism has now replaced circumcision.

[00:12:50]Don't believe me? Colossians 2 11 and 12, Paul notes that baptism has replaced circumcision. Now wait a minute.

[00:13:02]Circumcision was done on infants.

[00:13:05]Only infants were circumcised under the old law. Circumcision of adults was very rare. It was almost never done. There weren't a lot of converts to Judaism. So if Paul meant to exclude infants, he would not have chosen circumcision as a comparison.

[00:13:28]Never. It makes no sense.

[00:13:32]And so when we are criticized for baptizing infants and you are told that you are not biblical, this is hogwash.

[00:13:42]St. Augustine taught way a thousand years, more than a thousand years before there was anything but the Catholic Church. The custom of mother church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned. Nor is it to believe to be believed that its tradition is anything except apostolic. He's calling infant baptism apostolic.

[00:14:11]What about this? This comes from the apostolic tradition 21 uh16 from the year around 215. Again, over a thousand years before the first non-Christian church.

[00:14:27]Baptize first the children and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or relatives speak for them. Again, baptize first the children.

[00:14:43]There is no doubt that the early church practiced infant baptism. And there were no Christian objections of this until after the Reformation.

[00:14:56]Please embrace your Catholic faith.

[00:15:00]Don't be talked out of it by people who don't know what 2,000 years of Christianity did and taught.

[00:15:12]This is key.

[00:15:15]And yes, baptism is needed. It's not a symbol. Mark 16:16, he who believes, all you need to do is believe. No. Mark says who believe. He who believes and is baptized will be saved.

[00:15:34]John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit." Now, yes, don't despair. In my book, I talk a lot about there's baptism of desire, there's baptism of blood. There are ways. Remember, God is not constrained by the sacraments, but we are. God can choose to work around them, above them, instead of them, but we can't. So, go the safe route.

[00:16:10]Baptize your babies.

[00:16:13]I've been crying for this since the day we started live streaming, and many of you are tired of hearing it. But until every bad baby is baptized, I'm gonna keep screaming it because I I've told you before, I think this is the reason the world is in the mess that we are in.

[00:16:31]We're not baptizing our babies. Please take them to your church. Get them baptized and let them realize the grace that we just heard about from St. Paul.