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Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)
With these words, Peter urged the crowd at Pentecost to surrender their lives to Jesus, Israel’s promised Messiah. Newly filled and emboldened by the Holy Spirit, Peter proclaimed the resurrection to those who had gathered around him, and he pointed the way for them to receive salvation. Peter also promised that everyone who embraced Jesus would receive the same Holy Spirit that had filled him with such conviction, boldness, and joy. That day, Luke tells us, “about three thousand” Jews were baptized and began to live together as a church (Acts 2:41-42).
A Tale of Two Patterns. This is just one of many stories in the Book of Acts that describe the way in which people were converted during the early days of the church. Whether it was the crowd at Pentecost, a jailer from Philippi (Acts 16:20-34), or an Ethiopian government official traveling home from Jerusalem (8:26-39), we read how people who heard the gospel and turned to Jesus for salvation were baptized. In fact, this threefold pattern of evangelization, conversion, and then baptism seems to be the way that the church grew for much of its first few hundred years.
According to this pattern, “candidates” for baptism learned about Jesus and his cross and resurrection. They were prayed with, and they themselves learned how to pray. They were called to repent of their past sins, and they were urged to take up the good fight against further sin and temptation. Only when it was clear that these candidates had experienced some degree of conversion were they baptized, welcomed to the Eucharist, and made full members of the church.
This is quite a different picture from what we see today. Instead of baptism coming after evangelization and conversion, it usually comes at the beginning of a person’s faith journey—typically when that person is just a baby. While there are many good reasons why this pattern has become more common, there remains one unfortunate consequence: Infant baptism can lead us to minimize the power of this sacrament and the impact that it is meant to have on our lives. In our articles this month, we want to take a look at baptism, which the church calls “the basis of the whole Christian life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1213). We want to try to recapture a sense of what we received when we were baptized, and ask how we can begin to unwrap the gifts that God so graciously gave us on that day.
What Is a Sacrament? Before we dive into baptism, however, it’s a good idea to say a few things about what a sacrament is. We all know that every sacrament has its own set of symbols: The bread and wine at Mass; the water, oil, and candle at baptism; the vows spoken and rings exchanged at marriage. Each of these elements symbolizes some aspect of the way God wants to work in our lives—whether to feed us, to wash away our sin, or to knit us together as husband and wife.
But there is so much more to the sacraments than a set of symbolic actions. They also bring about the very things they symbolize. For instance, the bread and wine, now changed into the body and blood of Christ, really do fill us with Jesus’ presence. The vows we speak at our wedding really do carry God’s grace, empowering us to live what we are promising. Likewise, the water poured over us at baptism not only symbolizes a cleansing from sin; it ministers that cleansing. When the priest or deacon says the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we are really and truly “born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5).
A few months ago, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Pope Benedict XVI baptized thirteen children in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. In his homily, he told the parents and godparents of these children that the words spoken at the moment of baptism are crucial: “These words,” he said, “are not merely a formula; they are reality. They mark the moment when your children are reborn as children of God” (Homily, January 7, 2007).
Pope Benedict touched on a vital key to baptism, and to all sacraments: As we perform the ritual acts and recite the prescribed prayers that are part of that sacrament’s celebration, God is also at work in a powerful, definitive, and life-changing way. So with this in mind, let’s take a look at how one of the most influential people in the early church—St. Paul—understood the power inherent in the Sacrament of Baptism. And to do this, we need look no further than his Letter to the Romans.
Buried with Christ. For the first five chapters of this letter, Paul traced out the “power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). He described how all people were bound in sin, and how God graciously sent his Son, Jesus, to redeem us by his death and resurrection. These chapters are a dramatic piece of writing, encompassing heaven and hell, good and evil, sin and redemption; and they have become the basis for much that is at the heart of the church’s teaching.
But as stirring as these chapters are, Paul knew that they were incomplete. It is one thing to describe what God has done to rescue his people. But it is just as important to describe how this salvation reaches down to us and actually gives us the freedom from sin that Jesus won for us. And this is precisely where baptism comes in. “Are you unaware,” Paul asked, “that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
This is the miracle of baptism. When the water flowed over us, we were united with Jesus and his death on the cross. All the power, grace, and mercy that God released into the world on Good Friday flowed into our lives on the day we were baptized—and we were made into a new creation.
This is how generous and loving our heavenly Father is! He has done everything he could to bring us back to himself. He has even given us this beautiful sacrament, in which our sins are washed away and we are filled with his light and his life. He doesn’t wait until we have earned these blessings, for he knows we never could earn them. Instead, he takes the initiative and works wonders in us—even if we are too young to know what is going on!
The Full Story. Yet as generous and gracious as God is, the sacrament of baptism is only one part of the equation. As we said above, in the early church people were usually baptized after they had already experienced conversion. Something had already happened to awaken them to the power of God and the call to live in Christ. They had already experienced the Holy Spirit touching their hearts, and they had already begun to look to him for help, consolation, and forgiveness.
Today, however, because baptism typically comes before conversion, all the grace and power of this sacrament can lie dormant in a person’s life—perhaps for a very long time. It’s only as we turn to the Lord that we will begin to experience the blessings of baptism taking root and growing in our lives. Just as Peter urged his first listeners at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is calling out to us: Repent and be baptized! Believe that Christ is in you! Put your faith in the new life you have been given! Trust that you are a new creation, and let that new creation come to life within you!
Brothers and sisters, God has given us amazing gifts. He has washed away all of our sins; he has made us his sons and daughters; he has opened the kingdom of heaven to us; he has even placed his own divine life within us. And it all happened the moment we were baptized. Now he is asking us to take up these gifts and let them change our lives. And not only is God asking this of us. The saints and angels gathered around his throne are urging us to embrace our inheritance so that we can become like them. The Holy Spirit is cheering us on, eager to share with us all his wisdom, power, and love. Even the church is calling us to live as children of heaven so that those who have yet to believe can be converted.
All it takes is one or two small steps on our part, and God will respond with a flood of grace. We have been baptized into Christ. Let us all now live in Christ!
Interseting piece. i was baptized last year and confirmed in the Anglican church as an adult. my experience one day after confirmation was electric as i felt i was in a deep love and this has lasted for a long time. the feeling after was varstly different than before which i was amazed about since no one told me to expect it.
i am very glad i was able to have that experience as it has made me much more a believer that the spirit really do work wonders and the importance of this sacrament.
John