By Jason Godin
May 7, 2012
Why choose specific individuals as godparents for an infant or adult catechumen? Why accept the role of godparent? The process by which most of us select godmothers and godfathers illustrates how we usually answer such questions. But the result over time – decreasing numbers of men and women witnessing a life of faith after Baptism – challenges one to reconsider how we should answer those questions.
In the Catholic Church, baptismal preparations begin by discussing the sacrament with a priest or deacon. It is within such initial encounters one discovers the need for godparents, and the canonical requirement that at least one of them practice the faith regularly. Today, this rule usually presents parents (in the case of an infant Baptism) or the adult catechumen with rapidly shrinking candidate lists and growing stress levels. Consequently, and almost always with the express purpose of ending anxiety as quickly as possible, the selection criteria for godparents tend to assume qualities similar to fairies from our favorite tales: helpful, warm-hearted, stable, and capable souls who promise to be there for important life events now and in time to come.
Opportune as it may appear in a moment of need, and by no means seeking to cheapen such admirable character traits, selecting godparents based solely on fairy qualities is a practice ripe with unforeseen hazards. Fairies satisfy immediate wants. But is what we want now always what we truly need later? Fairies tend to prove small in stature, entering into the narrative at just the right times. But a flitting presence can have fleeting effects, and runs the real risk of making one look small in the eyes of others. Promises also aren’t guarantees. Break enough of them and great distances of time and space can metastasize into deep absences of faith.
Genuine faith demands real presence. After all, how is a soul in the infancy of its faith journey going to recognize the Real Presence without a faithful guide beside it along the way?