Cindy Brewer
On this day, many, many years ago, I was baptized, barely a month old. I had never inquired about the day I was baptized. I only got interested later in life when I realized that that was my birth-day into the family of God.
Since my parents have passed away, I had to call the church to learn of the date. I thought it odd that the secretary couldn’t find a baptismal date for Cynthia Brewer. Then it struck me! “Duh, that’s my married name. Of course, it wouldn’t be under Brewer, but Love, my maiden name.” I laughed at myself.
The next surprise was when I learned that I was baptized on April Fool’s Day! Sometimes I’m so ditzy, that I said to myself, “Well, that figures!” Besides that, I wondered what that could mean. I’m sure that that was just the first available date on the church’s calendar.
On that April Fool’s Day, Mom and maybe Dad, toted my older, by 15 months, brother Tom and me to the church. St. Francis Xavier Church had about a dozen steps to climb to get from the street to the sanctuary. This was way before the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Of course, my Protestant dad, the king of jokers and jokes, probably had fun with our celebration date as he lovingly made fun of the Catholic Church as often as he could.
Before he married my mom, his mother had made him promise her that he would never convert to the Catholic faith, and he never attended with us on other Sundays. He had come from the Presbyterian faith, which fortunately also believed in infant baptism, so he could have been there, and maybe even my grandmother was there.
The Catholic and Presbyterian faiths believe that baptism welcomes one into the covenant family of God. As circumcision in the Hebrew faith marks an eight-day-old boy as a new member of the Jewish faith, similarly, baptism puts an indelible mark on new members of the Christian faith.
The Catholic Church also believes that baptism cleanses one from original sin and any personal sins a person may have committed since birth. Baptism truly saves us. Jesus told [Nicodemus], “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit,” (John 3:5). This is baptism, the day I was first saved!
As far as my being baptized on April Fool’s Day, I not only became a new member of the family of God, but beyond that, I am now a Fool for the Lord!
St. Paul asks, “Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? (1 Cor. … 1:20)
… “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength,” (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:6-16).
St. Paul continued, “We are fools on Christ’s account …” (1 Corinthians 4:10:17).
I praise God that I can be His fool and have a public holiday, April Fool’s Day, to honor it! Thank you, Lord!
