identity: having a name - baptism of aleina

Allow me to share some few thoughts. 

Unlike other gatherings for prayer which almost always start with an opening song and the sign of the cross, the rite of baptism starts instead with a question, what name do you give your child?  Now you may take this question and its answer for granted or you may even take it as stating the obvious by the fact that this has been already established a fortnight ago in her birth certificate.  But this first act in the ritual of baptism is very important.  It defines our purpose today, it establishes the intent of our gathering this afternoon, it summarizes and therefore simplifies the varied actions in this long ritual into something that is both simple to understand and at the same time expressive of our longing for this child. What name do you give your child?  To be baptized is to be defined – to be baptized is to establish who you are and who you will become.  Thus the question - What name do you give your child?

The week had been particularly exhausting for me.  In several instances I have to deal with people who had been adopted when they were children.  Many times when we deal with people who have been adopted as children we simply dismiss their feelings saying pasalamat ka kay gin-adopt ka sang mga may kaya, sang may ikasarang, tani wala-wala ka gid subong.  Daw sila pa ang may utang.  But you see what defines many of them is not that they were adopted by good and responsible adoptive parents, rather what defines many of them is this, why was I put up for adoption in the first place, why was I rejected by my real parents, why was I unwanted?  Through the years if this has not been looked into and dealt with accordingly this becomes the who I am, an identity that would haunt me to the very core of my being.

In Baptism however when we answer the question, what name do you give your child, we are defining the child in a new way.  She is not just the result of the love of Alein and Ayla.  She is not just the result of some random act of nature.  She is not an accident.  She is not just a psst or a hoy.  She has a name.  She has an identity that makes her different from the mass of humanity, and she has an identity that makes her stand out from the rest of the crowd.  For in baptism we acknowledge that she was created on purpose and with love – that is why she has a name for like every child she was meant to be.  She is not just one of the children, she is not just one of the students, she is not just one of the girls.  In God she is an individual – she is Ma. Aleina Laurentia.

So no this is not just a simple act of naming.  This is not just a simple act of pouring water.  This is identity, who we are  before God and who we must be before others.