- Then Jesus came ... to John at the Jordan to be baptized
(Mt. 3,13):
- Baptism in water and the Spirit:
- I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse
you:
- I will give you a new heart... I will put my
spirit within you:
- I will take you away from among the nations
... you shall be my people:
- The necessity of baptism:
- The salvation of the unbaptized:
- Baptism and the unity of Christians:
"Christ is baptized not to be made
holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing
to purify the waters which he touched ... For when the Savior is
washed, all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source
for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages"
(Saint Maximum of Turin).
When John objects that
it is he who should instead be baptized by Jesus, the Savior replies: "Allow
it for now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."
Thus does Jesus manifest the full extent of that "emptying out" of his divine
dignity upon coming into the world (Phil 2,7). Jesus "who knew no sin was
made sin for us" (Roman Breviary) so that we might escape the condemnation
due our sins through baptism which he our Lord will give. Though free of
every sin, he fulfills all righteousness for us the Church, which will come
to birth by water and the Holy Spirit, his sacramental gift of baptism.
As Jesus comes up from
the Jordan, the voice of the Father welcomes his beloved Son and the Spirit
like a dove broods over the water to signal the beginning of the new creation,
the Church. The flow of that saving flood of baptismal grace will be signaled
at Calvary when Christ's side is pierced and blood and water issue forth
(Jn 19,34). Yet even at this beginning of Christ's ministry, that sacrament
is already endowed with its future grace.
"He chose to bury sinful humanity
in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in
readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new
creation through the spirit and the water" (Saint Gregory of Nazianzus).
John the Baptist
had told the crowds that the one who was coming after him would baptize not
with water alone but with water and the Holy Spirit. And it was to Nicodemus
that Jesus announced this baptism in water and the Spirit as the sacrament
of new birth. So fundamental is this being born again from above that without
it no one can enter into the Kingdom of God (Jn 3,3- 5). As the chosen people
were saved by God's power in their passage through the Red Sea and so came
to the promised land, so too must all who would come to God's Kingdom pass
through the waters of baptism "stirred up" by the Holy Spirit (Jn 5,7).
Such then is the
necessity of baptism and its promised fruition in the Kingdom. What, however,
are its present gifts, the fruit already granted now which destine the baptized
to such glory?
The salvation history
of the Old Testament is rich in historic event and prophetic word that foreshadow
the grace of baptism. Among these are the moving words of the Lord to the
prophet Ezekiel in which he promises the return from the exile of Babylon:
"For I will take you from
among the nations, gather you from all the foreign lands and bring you
back to your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you to
cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols I will
cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within
you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural
hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my
statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land
I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God"
(Ez 36, 24-28).
By the waters
of baptism all sins are remitted, original sin and all personal sins as well
as all punishment due to sin. In fact, in those who are reborn there remains
nothing that would hinder entrance into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's
sin, nor personal sin nor the consequences of sin, the most serious of which
is separation from God.
Still, in the
baptized there do remain certain temporal effects of sin such as suffering,
sickness, death, the inherent weaknesses of life and, most challenging of
all for the daily struggle of christian living, concupiscence, that is, the
inclination to sin.
Yet, even this
attraction to the old life of sin can do no harm to those who do not consent
to it and who resist with a courage founded on Christ's grace. The Christian
life is a combat in which each must bear a share of hardship like a good
soldier of Christ: it is a contest in which the athlete receives the crown
for having competed according to the rules (2 Tm 2,3-5).
Baptism not only
purifies from all sin but also makes of the baptized a new creation. "So
whoever is in Christ is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold,
new things have come" (2 Cor 5,17). Endowed by the Holy Trinity with sanctifying
grace, the grace of justification, the baptized as new creation is rendered
capable of leading the supernatural life of the christian through the theological
virtues of faith, hope and charity, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and growth
in the moral virtues.
The baptized is also
an adopted child of God: "God sent his son... to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption" (Gal 4,4-5). And since adopted children
of God, the baptized are likewise co-heirs with Christ: "The Spirit itself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with
him" (Rom 8,16-17)
A new creation, a
child of God, a co-heir with Christ, the dignity of the baptized culminates
in his becoming in his very flesh the dwelling place of the Most High: "Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom
you have from God... Therefore, glorify God in your body" (1 Cor 6,19-20).
Baptism makes of
us members of the Body of Christ, members of the Church, that is, those who
have been called out from every nation and race and assembled as the People
of God. In one Spirit all the baptized from one body; they are living stones
"built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1Pt 2,5).
In the Church the
baptized participate not only in the priesthood of Christ but also in his
royal dignity by their struggle against evil and in his prophetic ministry
by the witness of their lives. Entitled by baptism to all the rights of Church
membership -- to receive the sacraments, to be nourished by the Word of God
and to be sustained by all the other spiritual aids of the Church -- the
baptized are likewise bound by the responsibilities of this sacrament: to
profess before men the faith received from God through the Church and to
participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the people of God.
"Whoever goes down into
these waters of rebirth with faith renounces the devil and pledges himself
to Christ. He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is
God, throws off his servitude and is raised to filial status. He comes
up from baptism resplendent as the sun, radiant in his purity, but above
all, he comes as a son of God and coheir with Christ" (Saint Hippolytus).
"Amen, amen, I say to
you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and
Spirit (Jn 3,5). The clear meaning of these words of Jesus to Nicodemus,
emphasized the more by their solemn formulation, declare the universal obligation
to receive this bath of regeneration. So basic is this necessity that whereas
the ordinary minister of baptism is a deacon, priest or bishop, in an emergency
anyone, even someone not baptized himself, may baptize. Such a one must have
the intention of doing what the Church does by baptizing and, while pouring
the water on or immersing in water the one to be baptized, must invoke the
Blessed Trinity: "I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit." Even in such an extraordinary circumstance, the
Church's faith is celebrated, that faith which holds that "Christ is present
in the sacraments by his power in such a way that when someone baptizes,
Christ himself baptizes" (Vatican II).
Nor are infants
or children exempt from this necessity. Christ's works make no such exception
nor does the tradition of the Church which from earliest time attests to
the baptism of little children. Possess of Adam's fallen nature, they too
need the new birth of baptism. In fact, the baptism of children manifests
in a special way the gratuity of the grace of salvation, its nature as pure
gift, for which no human act can adequately prepare one and which no human
act can merit.
"Whoever believes
and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned"
(Mk 16,16).
These words from Jesus final commission
to the apostles before his ascension confirm his earlier words to Nicodemus
on the necessity of baptism. What then is the destiny of those who die without
being baptized?
Since the
beginning the Church has reflected on this question. Already in earliest
times she was of the conviction that those who died for the faith without
having received the sacrament are saved by a baptism of blood. Likewise,
catechumens who die before their baptism are assured of salvation by their
explicit desire of the sacrament united to repentance for their sins and
charity.
As for
the vast number of others who have never heard, nor will ever hear, the gospel,
the Church's reflection is governed by the conviction that God in his great
mercy wills that all men be saved (1 Tim 2,4). "Since Christ died for all
and since man's final destiny is truly unique, that is to say divine, we
must hold that the Holy Spirit offers all men, in the manner known to God,
the possibility of being associated to the Paschal Mystery" (Vatican II).
Everyone then who, though ignorant of the gospel of Christ and his Church,
looks for the truth and does the will of God insofar as he knows it can be
saved. For such persons would have explicitly desired baptism if they had
known of its necessity.
Similarly,
with regard to little children, incapable of any moral act, who die unbaptized,
the Church confides them to God's mercy in the hope that for them too there
is a way to salvation. Here the Church is especially consoled by that tenderness
of Jesus toward children which made him say: "Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these" (Mk
10,14).
"God has bound salvation
to the sacrament of baptism, but God is not himself limited to his sacraments"
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1257).
Through baptism
the baptized is configured to Christ, sealed with an indelible mark, a permanent
character, as on belonging to the Lord. Therefore, this sacrament can never
be repeated. So, when validly baptized christians from other confessions
seek admission to the Catholic Church, they make a profession of Catholic
faith but are not baptized anew.
Indeed, even
before the achievement of the visible unity for which Christ prayed, baptism
constitutes a present bond of unity among all Christians. "Those who believe
in Christ and have received valid baptism are in a real, however imperfect,
communion with the Catholic Church... Justified by the faith received at
baptism, incorporated into Christ, they are justly called christians, and
the sons of the Catholic Church rightly recognize them as brothers in the
Lord" (Vatican Council II).
Sealed as
they are by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption (Eph 4,30), all christians
share the blessed expectation that by remaining faithful to the requirements
of their baptism they will come on that Day to the vision of God and resurrected
life with Christ.
Fr. Jerome Esper, C.S.C.
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