Meditation Forty-five, Second Week of January 2004

The Rites of Baptism and Their Spiritual Meaning

Begin with prayer to the Holy Spirit

Readings: Acts 2:38-41; Rom. 6:3-11, 17; Gal. 3:27-28; Catechism § 1234-1244

When we attend a Baptism, we are aware of several ceremonies surrounding the sacrament. Often, though, we pay little attention to them, focusing only on the actual Baptism: the pouring of the water and the Trinitarian formula, or invocation of the Holy Trinity. Actually, the other ceremonies have important spiritual significance to which we should pay attention, especially when we meditate on the graces we have received either as infants or adults. The Catechism refers to this as the mystagogy of the celebration (§1234).
THE SIGN OF THE CROSS begins the rite when the celebrant and others make the sign of the cross on the forehead of the person to be baptized. We are claimed for Christ at our Baptism by the very sign of the Redemption. The readings from Sacred Scripture, especially the Gospel, remind us that this is a sacrament of faith. We must accept faith and practice it. Love for the Bible and especially for the Gospel is the sign of a true Christian.

THE DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL, or the exorcism, often goes unnoticed, except that we are called on to reject Satan and evil. In these days, when there are so many evil influences, particularly in the media, and chaos in every aspect of daily life, the exorcism is very important, especially in adult Baptism. The anointing with the oil of catechumens is a sign of divine protection. The custom derives from the ancient practice of soldiers who, when going into battle, anointed their bodies so that weapons or other objects hurled at them might slip off without doing any harm.
THE BLESSING OF BAPTISMAL WATER calls to our minds the many uses of water in salvation history, which are recounted in a beautiful prayer. Little known is the fact that water taken from the river Jordan does not require a blessing; it had already been blessed by the Baptism of Christ.

THE ACTUAL BAPTISM (the word means to submerge or plunge) signifies the act of burying someone and means a death to sin and rising to new life. Water and immersion in it as symbols of death and new life are used in a number of ancient traditional religions. St. Paul strongly and powerfully uses the image of death and resurrection with Christ as the explanation of the symbolism of Baptism.

Finally, THE ANOINTING WITH HOLY CHRISM. The oil consecrated in Holy Week by the bishop is a special mixture perfumed with balm and is used in the rites for three sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders (the ordination of priests and bishops). In previous times it was used also to anoint kings and queens at their coronations. The use of holy chrism indicates that all who are baptized are part of a priestly people, a royal people preparing for the kingdom of God.

THE WHITE GARMENT symbolizes the putting on of Christ (Gal. 3:27), and the WHITE CANDLE reminds us of the immortality of the soul and that we are to be a light to the world. When we attend a Baptism, it is helpful to understand all its symbols and try prayerfully to apply them to our Christian life.

Quotation for Meditation

And this is the meaning of the great sacrament of Baptism which is solemnized among us, that all who attain to this grace should die to sin, as He is said to have died to sin, because He died in the flesh, which is the likeness of sin; and rising from the font regenerate, as He arose alive from the grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit, whatever may be the age of the body.
For from the infant newly born to the old man bent with age, as there is none shut out from Baptism, so there is none who in Baptism does not die to sin. But infants die only to original sin; those who are older die also to all the sins which their evil lives have added to the sin which they brought with them. . . .

[O]ne sin, admitted into a place where such perfect happiness reigned, was of so heinous a character, that in one man the whole human race was originally, and as one may say, radically, condemned; and it cannot be pardoned and blotted out except through the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who only has had power to be so born as not to need a second birth. . . .

All the events, then, of Christ's crucifixion, of His burial, of His resurrection the third day, of His ascension into heaven, of His sitting down at the right hand of the Father, were so ordered that the life which the Christian leads here might be modeled upon them, not merely in a mystical sense but in reality. For in reference to His crucifixion it is said: "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." And in reference to His burial: "We are buried with Him by Baptism into death." In reference to His resurrection: "That, as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." And in reference to His ascension into heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (St. Augustine, Enchiridion, chapters 42, 43, 48, 53)

Quiet Time and Then Discussion

Questions for Meditation

1. Do I think of my Baptism occasionally and what it means to me?
2. Do I consider that my Baptism calls me to avoid sin, that if I sin, I am called to
repentance and reconciliation?
3. Do I ever take the trouble to remind others of their Baptism and its meaning?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I was baptized into Your death and washed clean by Your blood. Help me grow each day in the grace of Baptism. Help me also to avoid sin and to "put on Christ." You paid so much for my redemption. Help me make a return for Your love, a return that opens my being to grow in Your grace. Amen.