Alejandro, soon to be baptized: This is ‘a second chance’

“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” These are the words that thousands of catechumens around the world are preparing to hear on Easter night when they are baptized. Throughout Lent, Aleteia is sharing with you the stories of some of these men and women, who are happy to become children of God. Read all of the testimonies here.

Baptism is an act of faith. It’s true that young children don’t know what’s happening when they’re being baptized, but nonetheless, what happens in their soul will transform their life for eternity.

Alejandro Freyre Hernández—a 13-year-old from Celaya, a city in the Mexican state of Guanajuato—now understands the importance of this sacrament, which is why he’s preparing to be baptized on April 19th during the Easter Vigil.

We should note that in Mexico the percentage of adolescents and young people who are unbaptized is still low. However, it’s undeniable that the panorama is changing with new generations.

The young man tells Aleteia that he wasn’t baptized earlier because his mother hadn’t had the time. When he was an infant, his family was going through many changes, he explains, so they postponed the sacrament.

His mother goes to Mass every Sunday, which is why he was curious enough to ask what he should do to be baptized. Then, he started attending catechism classes.

The young man is currently in secondary school and works at a grocery store. Lively and confident in his answers, he tells us that he’s interested in getting to know God. He talks about it simply: “I feel good about getting closer to the Lord.”

Among his siblings, only his older brother was baptized, but he’s also taking a catechetical course so he can receive his First Communion and Confirmation.

All three brothers are participating in a pre-sacramental preparation group at the parish of La Resurrección, run by the priest responsible for diocesan catechesis. Two of them will celebrate the first sacrament of Christian initiation this Easter.

We ask Alejandro about what he’s been learning, and he replies that they’ve been taught the commandments and prayers.

For the boy, the situation is strange at times. He says he feels weird because his older brother was baptized and he wasn't. That's why he can't wait to receive the sacrament. But at the same time, he feels nervous. He thinks he knows very little, although for him this period of preparation has been an opportunity for him to go to his family “to ask them what to do.”

But today he feels motivated and says that his thoughts, vocabulary, and personality have changed. “I feel like I'm going to come out of this very changed, and it's going to be very helpful in my life... It's as if I'm being given a second chance as a person,” he concludes.