Baptism

by Fr. Charlie Irvin

Note: This is only a sketchy outline needing to be fleshed out. I certainly do not represent this as anything at all complete. It is simply an aid to be used in exploring more deeply the subjects and ideas put forth. Hopefully it will provide the user with a contextual framework from in which to develop further the ideas I have set forth here for discussion.

• THE ROLE OF WATER IN SALVATION HISTORY:
  
  
  
  
  1. Water is at once life giving and death dealing.
     
     
  2. (Read Genesis: 1:1-2) The waters of Genesis: beyond human control; chaos, bringing despair; symbolizing DEATH and DESTRUCTION.
     
     
     
     
     1. To get the feeling, visualize yourself on a small ship at sea in a terrifying storm. It doesn't matter at that point how much money you have in the bank, what your political connections might be back on shore at home, what your I.Q. is, what fame you have, or whether you are "successful" or not. You are helpless and powerless; your fate rests solely in the hands of the master of the ship. And who is the Master? He is GOD. And that's the point of the first verses of the Book of Genesis!
        
        
     2. Genesis 1:1-2 is a simply statement that God is the Master of Spaceship Earth. We must depend on Him or die! Outside of the Ark we die in the stormy waters of Chaos.
        
        
     
     
  3. After the breakdown of the primal integrity and wholeness of the world, the breakdown resulting from the sin of Adam and Eve (for sin is that which destroys integrity and breaks down our bonding with others and the Other that is God) the floodgates of Chaos were opened.
     
     
     
     
     1. The Flood is both death dealing and life giving. The Ark floats on top of the waters of chaos and God enters into the work of making a new creation. [This is the second - some number it the third - creation account in Genesis]. Sin brings chaos by disordering the original order and integrity placed by God in the life of His creation. Because of human sinfulness we are all born into it and must be rescued from it by God because we cannot rescue ourselves any more than a drowning person can rescue himself all by himself.
        
        
     2. Note that WORK is not a curse, it is a blessing. God "works" to bring about Creation. Jesus Christ is about the "work" of our redemption. Works can be (and are when joined into God's work) salvific.
        
        Theological Note: God is always acting. God never gives up; He is always starting over again. Human sin is not more powerful than God's love for His creation and His personal love for His children. God's love is infinitely more powerful than anything sin can accomplish within us.
        
        
     3. Noah and his wife, plus mated twos of every living creature, are the new Adam and the new Eve through whom God enters into a new creation. Read Genesis, Chapters 6, 7 and 8. Those who acknowledged God's role rode out the storm and entered upon a new world, His new creation.
        
        
     4. Today's storms are ecological disaster, nuclear destruction, energy depletion, exploitation, militarism, racism, sexism, nihilistic individualism and all of those evils that drown our lives in chaos as a direct consequence of our radical disorientation from the God whose Presence and order and purpose are found in Nature.
        
        
     5. Sin is in our origins, hence the theological term: Original Sin. It is still at work within us today! By ourselves alone we cannot rescue ourselves from drowning in it.
        
        Theological Note: Original Sin did not corrupt us; God's original blessing is underneath all the ash and debris that are the resultants of our sin. Sin is NOT more powerful than God's goodness. Original sin did, however, weaken us; it wounded us; its force is still at work deep within us - inclining us toward self-centeredness, selfishness, ego-centric individualism, and disregard for the good of others, along with disregard for the well-being of the world around us.
        
        
     
     
  4. (Read Exodus 14) By passing through the waters of the Red Sea the People of God were liberated from their Egyptian bondage and captivity. Once again, as in the Ark, God incorporated His People into a community, this time by giving them the Law and covenanting Himself to them. Baptism, then, takes us through all of those historical waters and into a new life, a new relationship with God.
     
     Theological Note: The Ten Commandments are not simply "do's" and "don'ts". They are, rather, the principles that bond people together in community. Violate them and you attack that which bonds folks together in families and in communities.
     
     
  5. While the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert they were given WATER from the rock which Moses struck with his staff. This water was, of course, life giving water; a gift from God to sustain us in His life which He shares with us when we life in His community of life. [Note that the inner life of God is precisely that, namely a community of Persons who empty their life into each other in order that they may all, together, have life].
     
     Theological Note: Life can never be found in isolation, all by ourselves. Life can only be found by sharing with others in community, in communion, in the common-union that is our bonding together in love. We are saved by belonging to a Community.
     
     
  6. Our first "bonding", our first Covenant with God, comes to us from Mt. Sinai. Later on in the New Testament we find other significant "mountains", namely the Mount of the Beatitudes, the Mountain of the Transfiguration, Mount Zion (Jerusalem & Golgotha), and the Mount of the Ascension, all of them recalling the original mountain from which God's Presence came to us, Mt. Sinai.
     
     It is significant that Christ was crucified on the "mountain" that is Golgotha, and from his pierced side flowed out blood and water, another of all of those waters into which we are immersed in the waters of baptism.
     
     
  7. (Read Joshua 3 and 4), the JORDAN CROSSING. It is through water that God's people entered the Promised Land. That's why Catholic churches have holy water available to the faithful at the doors through which they enter into the House of God, reminding all who enter of the waters of baptism and all of the other waters though which our humanity passed in the history of our salvation. It also accounts for the renewed emphasis on the baptismal font that we find in newly built and newly renovated Catholic churches.
     
     
  8. Read Ezekiel 36:23-27. The possibility of a New Covenant is prophesied, the old ones having been abandoned by us through human sinfulness. Here we find the cleansing action of water. And we find John the Baptist using water as a cleansing agent in his baptism of repentance and conversion.
     
     Theological Note: By entering into the baptism of John the Baptist Jesus plunges Himself (drowns Himself) in all of human history and in all that it means to be human, even into the condition of sin, that is to say, the condition of being alienated from God our Father. Jesus "takes on" sin, though He Himself remains personally innocent of committing sin, and experiences the depth of human alienation from God our Father.
     
     
  9. JEWISH BAPTISM: The baptism employed by John the Baptizer signified a conversion, a moving from one version of living to another version of living. It implied a total change in life-style; an entirely new version of living. It meant moving from living in sinful practices (hence dis-integration with God) to a restoration of integrity or truthfulness in living. It implied moving from brokenness and living a fractured life to wholeness or holiness. [Heal = whole = holy].
     
     
     
     
     1. Note the Jewish practice of washing with water prior to eating and worshiping. Baptism washes us in preparation for the coming of the Messiah into our lives, prior to our sharing in the Messianic Banquet, prior to our coming into God's Presence.
        
        
     2. Converts to Judaism were inserted into the Exodus Event by passing through water. What a Jew received through natural birth, a convert to Judaism received through waters that immersed them into the Exodus Community.
        
        Theological Note: Hence Christian Baptism brings us through death and into life. Not only does it take us through the waters of death, in births us in the waters, the womb waters of Holy Mother Church, the waters of life. Christian Baptism brings us entrance into that common union, that community that is founded, flows from, and is nourished in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, a sharing in the very Life of the Messiah. Thus the rationale for infant baptism. Baptism initiates us into the Life of God; it brings us to the threshold of Holy Communion. Once again, it is to be noted that we are saved by belonging to a Community. We are not saved in our isolated, individualistic, autonomy, much to the chagrin of our intellectual arrogance.
        
        
        
        
        
        1. The Exodus Event was re-present-ed, made present to us again. For a Jew remembering wasn't simply a recollection or a recalling or a mere bringing back into awareness again. For a Jew a memorial was making the individual present again into the historical event.
           
           Re-membering is making one a member again.
           
           Theological Note: The profound meaning of Christ's command at the Last Supper, "Do this and remember me" now begins to become evident! Enormous theological realities are hidden within the words of the priest at Mass when he utters the words of the Messiah: "Do this in remembrance of me". It is Christ Who, in the Mass, is making us a part of Him again, to sanctify us and take us back home to His Father in heaven!
           
           
        2. A Jewish ceremonial washing was the re-entrance into the waters of Genesis and Exodus in order that the person might thereby be prepared to offer sacrifice to Yahweh. The convert was baptized in order to be inserted into the historical events of the Jewish Community.
           
           The repenting sinner who was already Jewish (like those who approached John the Baptizer) was reinserted into those saving events of Yahweh in Salvation History.
           
           
        3. Con-version = living a new version of life with God, replacing an old version of living life apart from God. This movement can only be done with God.
           
           
        
        
     
     
  
  
  
• OTHER NOTIONS OF WATER IN SALVATION HISTORY:
  
  
  
  
  
  1. It was seen as a cleansing agent; it does, after all, remove dirt! But the cleansing part is of much lesser significance than the fact that it is both death dealing and life giving.
     
     Theological Note: It was only when sin was seen as a "black mark" or a "stain" on one's soul that the waters of Baptism were seen as "washing away Original Sin". But that is a theologically weak understanding both of sin and of the sacramental effect of the waters of Baptism. Much more profound realities are in force here, namely incorporation into the Spirit-filled, glorious and risen Humanity of Christ.
     
     
  2. In an arid and dry land it water was a fantastic symbol of LIFE! In an arid environment water is the stuff of life itself; it is absolutely essential for life. In such a situation one is truly saved by water.
     
     
  3. Waters of the Jordan: This is precisely where Jesus begins His public ministry. Those waters represent the Genesis waters, Exodus waters, and the waters through which Israel entered into the Promised Land. They are at the threshold of the Kingdom. Christ's baptism by John the Baptizer immerses Christ in our human origins, our sin and our history. Spiritually we are Jews, descendants of Abraham. Abraham is our father in faith. From Abraham and the history of his descendants we can claim the Promise which God gave to all mankind. Note the family tree of Christ presented by Matthew in his Gospel and contrast it with the family tree presented by Luke in his Gospel. Ask yourself why one traces Jesus' origin from Adam and the other from Abraham?
     
     
  
  
• THE MEANING OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM:
  
  
  
  
  1. What does Baptism mean to you? What does it do for you?
     
     
  2. Who is acting in Baptism? Why?
     
     
  3. Does it simply take away Original Sin? (And just what is Original Sin?)
     
     
  4. What happens to you as a person as a result of Baptism?
     
     
  5. What happens to babies who die without having been baptized?
     
     
  6. Baptismal waters are death-dealing as well as life-giving. How does this paradox apply to your life?