In the last Morceau I stressed Baptism’s “communitarian” dimension: it makes a person a member of the community of the Church. I like to start there, since “Other people are always more important than oneself!”
Yet Baptism is also something intensely personal. And the most personal aspect of Baptism involves its most famous effect: Baptism takes away sin.
If an older child or adult is baptized, any sins he or she may have committed are immediately wiped away. (It’s not only impossible to go to confession before Baptism, it’s not necessary!) But Baptism not only takes away “personal sins” that have been committed – Baptism also erases what’s known as “original sin,” which is the state of sin and misery into which all people are born. You might wish to read paragraphs 402-406 (and 977-978) in the Catechism of the Catholic Church about this.
It’s sad that all of us enter this life inclined toward evil and burdened by our weaknesses and limitations. But at the same time it’s a tremendous joy that God in His goodness has offered us a way to get beyond this, so we might be saved by His grace!
