Baptism: why we belong

By Nicole Poyer and Angelo Kurbanali, RCIA catechists

Most of us are born into a family and most of us belong to that family forever. Some of us are adopted into a family. Some of us have to find a family to belong to. ‘Found family’ is a term that is becoming part of our vocabulary. Church can be all: a family we are born into, a family we are adopted into, and a found family.

Yet do you ever feel like you do not belong, even to the Church? Jesus knows how that feels (Mt 8:20). Still, through Christ, God rejects that anyone should feel like they do not belong. One way Jesus ensures that everyone unconditionally belongs to God is through our Baptism.

Since our beginnings, 2,000 years ago, the Church has welcomed members into the Christian community through Baptism (1 Cor 12:13). Though many of us do not remember the moment it began, Christian Baptism is a lifelong, open invitation to belong to the Body of Christ. So, why is it that so many Christians feel anything but belonging in the Church? The problem–and solution–can be found in our story.

Collective misunderstandings of our Christian story contribute to many of us feeling like we do not belong in the Church, even today. We sometimes think only holy people belong in the Church.

Additionally, because of our elitist, colonial heritage, those now charged with welcoming people in, often engage in gatekeeping instead. Further, our Church is often guilty of neglecting our youth, marginalising others, discarding our elderly and ignoring the disabled, fuelling more exclusion. Injustices like these are not who the Church is called to be.

As author Brené Brown writes, “our sense of worthiness lives inside our story.” Our Christian-Trinbagonian story is ripe with belonging in God.

In a cosmic sense, we can think of God as Belonging itself—the persons of the Trinity are constantly belonging to one another. Scripturally, the Bible offers us a well-known image of God as a loving father, making room for a son who had no right to return home (Lk 15).

Culturally, Carnival begs us to be a part of something greater than ourselves—in ‘High Mas’ David Rudder sings, “Our Father who has given us this art so that we can all feel as if we are a part of your Heaven.”

All these senses move us to a sacramental level, where God offers us this belonging through Baptism.

Make more room

The official teaching of our Church, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), tells us that God seals an “indelible mark of belonging” on our souls through Baptism (CCC §1272).

Baptism forever roots us in God, calling us to faith, hope, and love. As “the basis of the whole Christian life,” Baptism means “we become members of Christ…incorporated into the Church” (CCC §1213). Simply put, Baptism means we are unconditionally loved and belong to God through the Church.

Therefore, if any of us do not feel a sense of belonging to God, and by extension the Church, then the Church is called to make more room, or as Jamaican priest and theologian Fr Donald Chambers says: ‘smal up yourself.’ A renewed engagement with our Baptism can help us to experience belonging as well as make room for others to experience the same.

The RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) process, properly done, offers belonging through relational encounter. Here the Church becomes a found family with whom new members journey. Relationships are forged through sharing and learning. Catechists, sponsors, and catechumens find that God’s love embraces imperfection and unworthiness.

It is our hope in salvation through Christ and our collective need for that salvation that binds us all. We are all bound and therefore, all belong to God through the grace of Baptism.

As a Church, we have to shed the idea that we can disregard anyone’s worthiness to receive grace and belong to the Church. We are all like the redeemed woman in Luke 7:36–50 or the tax collector in Luke 18:13.

One practical framework our Church can adopt to open its arms and ensure belonging is the synodal way, reintroduced to us by Pope Francis. A synodal church listens deeply without judgement, believing the Holy Spirit’s voice will be heard through our collective voices, especially marginalised voices.

While ‘Synod fatigue’ is real in our Archdiocese, and understandably so, synodality invites us to meaningfully reflect on our Christian faith and live out our Christian Baptism in our own unique ways—there is no one way to follow Christ. For decades, Lord Nelson has told us, “all ah we is one family.” Our Church takes this idea seriously because it is formed by the unconditional love of God. We all deserve to feel a sense of belonging to our one family, and we all have a responsibility to embrace those who do not feel like they belong.

Christian Baptism makes our Church God’s family.

God believes we are worthy of belonging. When will we?