We Catholics believe that Christ has ordered that His followers should be baptized. “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of God." (Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3) Baptism is the great sacrament by which we are saved. “In the sacraments of Christian initiation we are freed from the power of darkness and joined to Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. We receive the Spirit of filial adoption and are part of the entire people of God in the celebration of the memorial of the Lord's death and resurrection.” Sacraments are signs and moments of grace Yet though the Church says with vigor and with the confidence that Baptism is necessary for salvation, she is never so arrogant as to assert that she can save anyone without the grace of Christ. It is grace that saves; it is by grace that Christ gives us eternal life. For it was by his own gracious cat of kenosis or self-emptying that Christ saves us, his self-emptying on the throne of the Cross. We Catholics boast not of ourselves, but of Christ and of Him crucified. Without Christ, the Church would be a shell, an organization of human beings, a self-seeking club of philanthropists. But the Church is Christ’s Body, the living wellspring from which His grace flows onto the world. Baptism without Charity does not save St Augustine warns us that we must not presume that baptism is some form of magic, a ritual that saves in spite of our immoral lives and our lack of virtue. The Christian must never consider a sacrament as some form of spell or magic which has power to force God to grant us life eternal. These events should be a warning against pride to any who have received from God a holy gift such as baptism, and yet lack charity. They would do better to think about the reckoning with God to be faced by all who make use of holy things in an unholy manner.1 Pope Benedict XVI has written in the same vein, that all history aims at a union between God and the world that will be a perfect existence. That union, which is initiated in Baptism, is built on love. “Those who abide in love, abide in God" Commenting on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, he says, “Thus the Council agrees with Augustine in saying that the goal of history is that mankind become love: it is thus adoration, a living worship, "the city of God". And thus creation's inmost longing, that God may be everything to everyone, is fulfilled”. (I Cor 15:28; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests 2:42-55; Augustine De Civ. Dei X, chap. 6).2 The baptism of John the Baptist is not the baptism of the Church John baptized people so that their repentance would result in the forgiveness of their sins. “Repent" was his cry as he stood at the Jordan. He called on Israel to repent for her sins and to accept baptism as a sign of that conversion. The Christian baptism that begins to be celebrated in Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2; 41) was more that a mere baptism for the forgiveness of sins; it was also a baptism of incorporation into the Church and the life of Grace. It was inspired and driven by the arrival of the Parachlete on that Pentecost. The apostles baptize in obedience to Christ’s mandate; “go out and make disciples of the whole world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28: 19) Therefore the Christian celebration of baptism differs from the baptism of John in that it is Trinitarian in form, and it brings about a permanent change in that person’s relationship with God. In Christian baptism, the person becomes the adopted child of God. That could not have been achieved in the water baptism of John. Christian celebration of baptism is celebrated with Christ as the priest. It is Jesus himself who baptizes, because the Church is his Body. John himself accepts the deficiency of his baptism when he says; “On whoever you see the Spirit come down, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” (John 1: 33) Far superior to the purifications of the Old Law, baptism produces these effects by the power of the mystery of the Lord's passion and resurrection. Those who are baptized are united to Christ in a death like his; buried with him in death, they are given life again with him, and with him they rise again.For baptism recalls and makes present the paschal mystery itself, because in baptism we pass from the death of sin into life. The celebration of baptism should therefore reflect the joy of the resurrection, especially when the celebration takes place during the Easter Vigil or on a Sunday. (General Introduction to the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, 6) (John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the River Jordan. The Abbey of Monte Casino. Artist D. Long 1979) 1. Sacrament of initiation into the life of Christ and his Church Initiation into the Church and to the life of grace. “Baptism incorporates us into Christ and forms us into God's people. This first sacrament pardons all our sins, rescues us from the power of darkness, and brings us to the dignity of adopted children, a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit. Hence we are called and are indeed the children of God.” Catholics believe that Christ gives the Apostles a mandate to bring the world into full communion with Himself and through him, to the Father who created all and sustains all. For, just as all things, animate and inanimate, have their beginning in the will of God, so too, all things must one day be re-gathered together into Christ who is the Head of all creation. Thus, the primary purpose of baptism is to bring all the baptized into the life of grace, into that community of persons who bear the name of Christian. Baptism is the entry sacrament, the doorway into that life of grace. Let us look at the incident reported in all the Gospels, the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, and ask how Jesus himself pre-figured our entry into the life of grace by his actions at the river Jordan. It is easy to remember that John called for repentance and that great crowds came to him at the Jordan. The location for this act of repentance and ablution is significant. The Jordan marks a border between the land of the nations and the land which God has designated for the children of Israel. In the Book of Joshua 3: 14 -17 we read that the Israelites crossed through the river Jordan to take possession of the land. Joshua led the people into the land designated for them by God by crossing the Jordan. Jesus, whose name in Hebrew is Joshua, now symbolically repeats the entry of God’s people into the kingdom of God. Christ is baptized and then comes up out of the water on the western side. He enters into his new ministry as Messiah by symbolically entering the Promised Land from the water of the Jordan. In this action of entering into the Promised Land, Christ symbolically shows his disciples that they too must enter into the Kingdom of God through humble acceptance of baptism. Baptism as the Sacrament of the forgiveness of sins. We read in Matthew 3 that John the Baptist baptized the people so that their sins would be washed away. That image of washing away sins was not unique to John and his disciples. It was a custom in Israel to perform ritual washing to symbolize the cleansing of sinners. That sign value of water in washing away sin remains strong in our Catholic tradition, so much so that we hold and teach that the sacrament washes away all the sins of one’s life. So the adult who is baptized receives the full forgiveness of his sins in the sacrament. The Church is the gathering of the Lord’s people, awaiting His coming in glory. In that Church are many saints and many whose commitment is partial and incomplete. Yet, it is the will of Christ that all, saints and sinners, be gathered together in the Church. Those who need the example of the saints benefit from being within the Church, allowing them a greater access to God’s grace. Baptism is no guarantee of salvation, but entry to the Church helps one to find the way to Christ. Augustine says that those who know love are in the Church along with those who are deficient in love. But though the world may not be able to distinguish between the two types of Christian, Christ can easily identify His own by their love. …….Throughout the scriptures charity chooses the highest way and claims the highest place. Only good people aspire to charity; the wicked do not communicate with us in charity. They may communicate with us in baptism, they may communicate with us in the other sacraments, they may communicate with us in prayer. They may share these very walls with us and be part of this congregation, but they do not communicate with us in charity. The true wellspring of good things, the proper fount of all that is holy, is that charity of which scripture warns, Let no stranger communicate with you. Who are the strangers? All those who hear the dismissal, I never knew you; depart from me; for if the Lord never knew them, they must be strangers. The higher way of charity lays hold on those who properly belong to the kingdom of heaven. 3 1 Enerrationes in Psalmos 105, 10.
For our learning purpose, let us explore two ways of looking at baptism
2. Sacrament of forgiveness of sins
2 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith, San Francisco; Ignatius Press. 2002. 166.
3 Enerrationes in Psalmos 105, 10.