August 23, 2026, 12:00 PM
We’ve heard it so many times: God meets us where we are.
God visits Abraham and Sarah when they’ve given up hope of having a child of their own. God finds Moses when he’s running away from his problems. Jesus walks with disciples that first Easter afternoon, even though they’re walking in the wrong direction. God finds us and meets us where we are.
As Church we’re called to accompany people, to help them on their way to experience God’s salvation.
Many of us remember old patterns of how we began our journey in faith. Our parents and godparents brought us to the font for baptism. When we were old enough to recognize the difference between bread on our table and the Lord’s Body and Blood on our altar, we made our First Communion. Even later—and the age for this has varied immensely—we memorized questions to prepare us for the Spirit’s gift in confirmation. For some of us, that pattern still holds. But, for other families and individuals, the timeline has changed. We’ve seen more baptisms happen years after the child’s birth. And we’re happy to welcome these children and their families to this important step in faith.
But, there’s a difference between being baptized as an infant and as a growing child.
The infant can’t respond to those questions about rejecting Satan and choosing the Trinity. She or he needs parents and godparents to say that “I do” and offer the child a share in “the faith of the Church, in which children are baptized.”
But, the child who’s reached the age of seven (pretty precise—the Church has set a boundary here!) is a different story. That child answers the questions. That child can know what’s being asked and what he or she is answering. And, just like the adult who receives baptism, confirmation and first communion in one ceremony. So, with the child from the age of seven onward. We’ve seen this from time to time. Just last Easter Vigil we had families—husbands and wives, parents and children—baptized, confirmed and welcomed to the Lord’s Table all together. No separation of these great sacraments of initiation.
Now the Church gives us some room to adapt. We don’t have to replicate every step of the OCIA—think of Welcoming Rites and the Scrutinies—for every child. Neither does the Church offer some a la carte type of menu. Neither priest nor parents can set aside the rules to separate these sacraments. Now, we don’t absolutely need to bring children to the Easter Vigil (although that is an option). We can celebrate these sacraments at a Sunday Mass—when everyone’s ready. We can baptize and confirm a child along with his or her age peers at a First Communion Mass or the Confirmation Mass.
Some of us have seen these rites play out. At some time in the future, probably most of us will see them at Mass. Let’s allow the Church, as wise mother and loving teacher, to lead us all to appreciate these sacraments as well welcome both young and old to the community of the baptized.
Fr. McCreary
