It is through this sacrament that we are made the children of God. The fall of our first parents bequeathed to us an inheritance that put us at enmity with God, and rather so affected us that we were unable of ourselves to follow steadfastly the paths of the divine commandments. The original sin so upset the harmony of our nature that the perfect kingdom was reduced to a state of anarchy, and it is precisely this state of anarchy that is the original sin we inherit. Revolutions, betrayals, treachery, make up the history of my soul; foes within leagued to foes without, plotting to overthrow the rightful government. In the earlier state of Adam, called by theologians the state of original justice, the powers of the soul were organized in perfect order. The passions or non-rational faculties, so to call them, obeyed the commands of the will, the will obeyed the reason, and the reason obeyed the infinite reason which is the law of God. Thus was his whole being in absolute harmony, and everything done by him was orderly and right. Then, of course, came the Fall, which disturbed this harmony by discord; for henceforth the emotions or passions strove to dominate the will, which in turn dictated to the reason what it should justify or denounce the inferior powers, that is, assumed the reins of government and lorded it over the man. They obscured his intelligence, so that through passion he was no longer able to judge correctly; they disturbed the will to such an extent that Saint Paul could accurately describe himself in the paradox, "To will is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good I find not, so that I do not the things that I would."
Then comes the sacrament of Baptism. At once through the merits of Christ's sacred Passion we become the children of God. All the enmity that we had incurred by our sinful state falls from us and we stand openly as the sons of the Most High. Original sin, as we have spoken of it, can be seen to be not an act, but rather a state of ill-health to which the soul has succumbed. It is not that we have done anything wrong, but only that we have inherited an evil condition. It is a state, indeed, of positive guilt in which all men share through their inclusion by God's ordinance in the will of Adam. But we can here consider the effect of original sin as a disorder of the soul, wherein the passions dominate will, and the will overrules the reason, and the reason defies the law of God. We are told that Baptism sets right the effects of original sin; but surely we ask, does not the sad state that Saint Paul described still continue even after we have received the sacrament of Baptism? How, then, can it be said that Baptism restores us to the friendship of God? What really happens is this: It is that though by Baptism the whole order and properly regulated harmony of the soul is at once re-established so that we become even as Adam was before he fell, yet there remains the terrible possibility of further sin. We are not healed of all our tendency to sin, nor of that corrupt desire of our will which turns our thoughts to evil, but we enter into the position of being able to conquer that desire and lead it in the right direction. We are not led back into those golden days of peace, but we have now the power in ourselves under God's grace to set up once more on earth the kingdom of the Father.
The value, then, of Baptism is that I am no longer a child of wrath, but that I become a child of God. A seal or mark or character is stamped upon me, whereby I am set apart for ever as a son. The very sinful nature whence I was rescued by this saving sacrament is now made, as it were, of the nature of God I partake of the divine nature. I am lifted up from the depth of my degradation to the height of God Himself. Hence it is that in the Fathers and early writers there is so much in their commen taries on that wonderful mystery of the Incarnation, in so far as it brings Him to earth and lifts earth to Him. Surely if I could only realize what great things have been done for me, I should never again lose courage or hope. If I could only get myself to under stand that God has indeed made me His child, that I am no longer His servant but His son, I should never more put to myself the querulous and foolish question as to what use I am here at all. Sometimes I am tempted, when things spiritual are very dull and seemingly not very successful, to cry out that it is no advantage my going on or attempting to go on, when I am evidently of so little consequence in the sight of God. He has so much that is more worthy of His attention that I cannot conceive His having the time or the desire to look after me also. But then I have to say to myself: "I am now His son." I am a son of God by that sacrament that can never be repeated, for it has no need to be repeated, since what was done once has been done for all time. The passions, through prayer and austerity and the power of the sacraments, are to be brought into subjection. The will resigns its sovereignty to the reason, which in turn now more closely observes and obeys the Will of God. Baptism does not set us right, but, by the high privilege it affords, it gives us the power to set ourselves right.
- text taken from Meditations for Layfolk by Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.