Day 170: Who Can Be Baptized?

 "Every person not yet baptized and only such a person is able to be baptized." CCC 1246

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses who can receive the Sacrament of Baptism. The answer is pretty straightforward: adult or infant, everyone can. For adults, this can require a time of preparation, that is "a formation in the whole Christian life" (CCC 1248) which includes learning more about the faith to which they wish to embrace. Infants are also baptized, "a practice [that] is an immemorial tradition of the Church" explicitly testified to from the 2nd century on. This can also be found "from the beginning of apostolic preaching" in Scripture "when whole 'households' received baptism" (e.g. Acts 16:15). Many of the Church Fathers attest that this included infants and small children (e.g. St. Cyprian of Carthage). To this I'd add the work of the late Lutheran theologian I enjoyed, Joachim Jeremias. 

Why the Church baptizes infants though is summarized here in the Catechism Compendium:

The Church baptizes infants because they are born with original sin. They need to be freed from the power of the Evil One and brought into that realm of freedom which belongs to the children of God. (#258)

The Catechism Companion, Vol II has a nice reminder for those of us who've already received this sacrament:

If you have already been baptized, then call is calling you, as a temple of the Holy Spirit, to spread his Word to the whole world. We ought to praise the Lord for the formation in the Christian life that we have already had, and for how it will lead us further to becoming the people God has called us to be. (p. 104)

Finally, Dr. Brant Pitre has a good discussion in this video on circumcision in the Old Testament and infant baptism under the New Covenant:

Water is poured on the head of an infant held over the baptismal font of a Catholic church.

Infant baptism show in a powerful way the completely free gift of God's saving grace (see CCC 1250). (p. 105)