VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Sistine Chapel sounded a bit like a nursery Jan. 14, as Pope Benedict XVI baptized 20 babies, whose crying provided a constant accompaniment to the two-hour Mass on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Referring to the day’s reading from the Gospel St. Luke, which recounts the baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist, Pope Benedict said that in choosing to receive the sacrament, Jesus showed he “was really immersed in our human condition; he lived it to the utmost – although without sin – and in such a way that he understands weakness and fragility.”

The pope told the parents that their children’s baptism would bring them into a “personal relationship with Jesus” that would give their lives meaning: “Only in this friendship is the great potential of the human condition truly revealed and we can experience what is beautiful and what is free.”

Reminding the godparents of their duty to assist parents in raising their godchildren in the faith, Pope Benedict noted that “it is not easy to demonstrate what you believe in openly and without compromise, especially in the context in which we live, in the face of a society that often considers those who live by faith in Jesus to be old-fashioned and out of date.”