said to His disciples : “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28, 18).

Baptism in Christ is both a death and a life – it is Christ’s death and rising to a new life repeated in me. It is truly a rebirth that puts an end to any need for a series of rebirths to escape the consequences of sins. Saint Paul ’s words are worth reading again here :

“Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.

“If we have been united with him through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection. This we know, our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might be slaves to sin no longer.

“A man who is dead has been freed from sin. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we are also to live with him. We know that Christ, once raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over him. His death was death to sin, once for all; his life is for God.

“In the same way, you must consider yourselves dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6, 3-11).

In baptism our old selfish self dies and a wonderful new life bursts forth inside us – the new life of Christ.

CONVERSION

Closely tied to the question of Baptism is conversion. This is a topic on which there is much misunderstanding so it is necessary to consider a few points here.

Conversion is a much misunderstood word which simply means turning-turning towards. When correctly understood, it is seen that conversion is a continual necessity in the life of every man and woman, whether Christian or not, whether young or old, rich or poor, saint or sinner. There is no man or woman alive who cannot turn to follow God more closely. That is conversion.

Conversion is turning away from slavery to my selfish self and turning towards God instead.

Conversion in this real sense, therefore, can never be forced, for that would be a contradiction in words. It must always be a fully free action. It is necessarily the action of an adult. In this sense, no one can object to conversion in a free country. For it means that an adult man or woman, after giving thought to the matter, freely decides to follow God in a way he or she judges to be right and proper for himself or herself.