Everything is Sacred: A Complete Introduction to the Sacrament of Baptism

Everything Is Sacred: An Introduction to the Sacrament of Baptism

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This ritual action expresses that the mystery of the cross is at the heart of our faith. The immersion in water or pouring on of water of the one being baptized reminds us that we die with Jesus to conquer sin and rise with him so we might enter into new life. In this action we are reminded of how Moses led the Hebrews on their escape from Egypt and how he parted the waters of the Red Sea as the gateway to liberation, away from slavery and into the Promised Land. Many new or remodeled churches have the baptismal font near the main entrance to symbolize that we all enter the church through the waters of Baptism.

The newly baptized is anointed with sacred oil to signify that the Holy Spirit dwells within the heart of this new Christian. A baptismal candle, lit from the Easter candle, represents the one true light of Christ, a light to guide the new believer throughout his or her life. Everyone present gets a chance to hold the new baby and offer his or her blessings and best wishes for a life of happiness, holiness, and faith. What happens at a Baptism? The Church rejoices because we have welcomed a new member and because we have once again celebrated the mysteries of God's love for us and of our salvation.

Shipping Notice Loyola Press offices will be closed beginning at 2: What Happens at Baptism? An Overview of the Sacrament. Theological Baptism is a sacrament of initiation, cleansing, strengthening, and welcoming. Physical Like any sacrament, Baptism makes visible an invisible reality. The symbols you see at a Baptism ceremony include the following: Find information about baptism at Loyola Press.

The seven sacraments are an integral part of the Catholic faith. Find information about matrimony at Loyola Press. We are enabled to love others more than ourselves; to love others even as Christ has loved us, by suffering and dying on our cross out of love for others; to love others out of love for God constantly, patiently and generously beyond all human power and expectation. The Sacrament of Baptism incorporates a person into the Church founded by Christ. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, it means that All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.

Here we must distinguish. Every validly baptized person belongs to the Catholic Church no matter how unaware the person may be of belonging to the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church militant here on earth. However, we distinguish between belonging to the Church and being a member of the Church founded by Jesus Christ.

To be an actual member of the Catholic Church, the baptized person must also be ready to profess what the Catholic Church teaches, and accept her laws and obligations with an open heart. To belong to the Catholic Church further means that Baptism is the door to obtaining such graces as only baptized persons have a claim to. Certainly the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation and sanctification. All the graces that anyone receives from God are channeled through the Catholic Church.

Those who are baptized have a special right to these graces to which no one else has a claim. The final and most mysterious effect of Baptism is to receive a permanent, irremovable character or seal.

Baptism imparts a likeness to Christ, especially to Christ the priest. The seal will remain throughout our lives on earth and into the endless reaches of eternity. The baptismal character grafts a person into Christ the. Vine so that all the baptized share in a unique way in the graces of Christs humanity. As a result, Jesus Christ has a claim on the baptized that no one else enjoys; and they have a claim on Him that no one else on earth can share.

Everything Is Sacred: An Introduction to the Sacrament of Baptism by Thomas Scirghi

The baptismal character is permanent because it is timeless; it is indelible because nothing, not even the loss of faith can remove it. Therefore a baptized person always remains a Christian. Because the baptismal seal confers a permanent relationship with Christ. How to Grow in the Gifts of Baptism. Gone is the day when a Catholic can simply possess the gifts of grace received at Baptism.

These gifts must grow and develop at the risk of losing the divine blessings which Baptism confers. I would single out especially the need for growing in the most fundamental gift we received when we were baptized, namely the gift of faith. Either we grow in our faith or we risk losing not only the virtue of believing in Gods revealed truth, but even the prospect of eternal salvation.

We are living in the most critical century of Christian history. Only firm believers who have grown in their faith will survive. Only firm believers will be used by Christ as channels of His grace to others. How do we grow in our faith? We grow in our faith by studying our faith, by praying our faith and by putting what we believe into generous, even heroic practice.

By studying the faith, I mean that no Catholic today, no matter what his age or state in life or previous education, can be excused from learning more and more deeply what Christ has revealed and what the Church He founded teaches about the faith. A word of warning, however make absolutely sure that in studying the faith you read authors who support the faith, and consult people who themselves are staunchly Catholic, and listen to speakers and attend conferences and discuss with those who will fortify what you believe. Let their faith nourish yours and your faith nourish theirs.

Never has it been more necessary to choose your close friends and companions. Studying the faith must be done with faithful persons, using faithful sources, and its purpose should be to acquire a clearer understanding, a deeper certitude and a greater appreciation of what the Holy Spirit has revealed. He wants the seed of His Word to grow.

The first means for assuring that growth is study. Study has to be joined with prayer.

This can be meditation on the mysteries of faith, or petition for more light on the meaning of faith. It should always be a humble recourse to God if only with a moments aspiration whenever a difficulty in the faith arises or when, as so often happens these days, we are faced with malicious attacks against our beliefs or forced to witness some conduct or read some writing or hear some statement that betrays the true faith.

In order to grow in the faith, we must use it. The duty is that simple, but also that necessary. Let me illustrate we believe that nothing happens by chance, but that everything that occurs is part of the mysterious Providence of God. If we believe it, and we do, let us act on our belief no matter how painful the things God sends us ah, but we must believe that God sends it or how painfully He takes pleasant things away. And no matter how unwelcome a duty, we do it; doing it infallibly strengthens the faith. We believe that Christ is really, truly and entirely present in the Holy Eucharist.

We should act accordingly by visiting Him often in the Blessed Sacrament where we adore Him, telling Him how much we love Him and asking Him for whatever we need. That is why He is there, the same Jesus who raised the dead. Confirmation, the Sacrament of Spiritual Strengthening. When the Roman Catechism was published in , the faithful were warned regarding the Sacrament of Confirmation, There are found in the holy Church of God many by whom this sacrament is altogether omitted; while very few seek to obtain from it the fruit of divine grace which they should derive from its participation.

The same could be said today. Only the Lord really knows, but in my judgment, Confirmation is the most ignored sacrament of our faith. The biblical grounds for our faith in Confirmation are Christs promise to send the Holy Spirit on the apostles. Not surprisingly, it is the evangelist St. Luke who records the Saviors promise. Just before His ascension, Jesus told His disciples, I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high Lk On the same occasion, the Lord promised His followers, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses, not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth Acts 1: In the same context, we are told that converts to the faith were first baptized, and then the Apostles laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit Acts 8: Immediately we see that the basic reason why Christ instituted the Sacrament of Confirmation was that His followers would witness to Him, even to the ends of the earth.

The original revealed Greek term for witnesses, as quoted by St. There is a mountain of implications hidden in this precious sacrament.

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We shall therefore concentrate on the effects of Confirmation and our responsibility to live as not only baptized, but confirmed Christians in our day. We define Confirmation as the sacrament of spiritual strengthening, in Latin, roboratio spiritualis. Our English word robust comes from the Latin robur, which means oak wood or hardwood. More concretely, Confirmation strengthens the supernatural life we receive in Baptism. Confirmation increases our sanctifying grace in every way, but mainly in deepening our capacity to remain spiritually alive.

It gives us the power of resistance, the ability to resist dangers, and the strength to become more Christ? Confirmation gives us, even before the age of reason, the title to such fortitude as no one else except confirmed believers can claim. It does nothing less than provide us with superhuman strength against hostile forces from within our own fallen nature and from the world and the evil spirit who is literally hell-bent to destroy us.

There are three sacraments that give a person what we call an indelible character. They are Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. Confirmation confers the character of assimilation to Jesus Christ, the priest, teacher, and king. On each of these levels, the assimilation is associated with Christs role as Savior. As we know, the priesthood of Jesus is the mission that He came into the world to fulfill by offering Himself in sacrifice on the cross.

We cannot repeat too often what sacrifice means. Sacrifice is the voluntary surrender of something precious to God. On Calvary, Jesus offered His human life for our salvation. But the heart of His bloody sacrifice was in His human will, freely surrendering Himself to the Father. On this first level of assimilation to Jesus Christ the priest, Confirmation gives us the strength to bear suffering passively in union with Him and the courage to sacrifice pleasant things actively out of love for the One who died on the first Good Friday out of love for us.

Confirmation assimilates us to Christ the teacher. We acquire a strong will in adhering to the faith in the face of obstacles, a strong mind in not doubting the truths of faith, a strong humility of spirit in professing the faith, and a strong wisdom that knows how to communicate the faith to others effectively. Finally, Confirmation assimilates us to Christ the King. It gives us a quality of leadership that can direct others on the path of salvation. It gives us a strong character that can withstand the ravages of bad example or the snares of seduction, and a strong personality that will attract even the enemies of Christ to His standard.

We might describe the sacramental character of Confirmation by calling it the sacrament of witness to Christ, in the Church and before the world. In other words, Confirmation is the sacrament of fearless apostolic zeal.

What Happens at Baptism?

Having said this, we are ready to spell out in as clear words as possible what this sacrament gives us the grace to do. In the words of the new canon of law, issued by Pope Jolu1 Paul II on the first Sunday of Advent in , we are told that by the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are made strong and more firmly obliged by word and deed to witness to Christ and to spread and defend the faith. Immediately we see that Confirmation is exactly what its name implies.

It is the supernatural, which means superhuman, courage we receive to be apostles of Jesus Christ. To witness means to testify to others of what we are absolutely sure is true. To be sure of the faith means to be certain that what God has revealed is unchangeably true. Certitude of faith is in the mind, convinced that the mysteries of our faith cannot be questioned because they are revealed by the all? We get some idea of what Confirmation does by what happened on Pentecost Sunday. In the Churchs tradition, it was on Pentecost that the disciples received the graces of their Confirmation when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, gathered with Mary, awaiting the coming of the power that Jesus had promised to send them.

Remember, it was just over fifty days before that Peter, the coward, three times denied that he even knew Jesus Christ.

Yet now he stood before several thousand people in Jerusalem and spoke to them with such courageous conviction as he never had before. Men of Israel, listen to what I am going to say: Jesus the Nazarene was a man sent to you by God. Miracles and portents and signs God worked through Him when He was among you, as you all know. This man, who was put into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you took and had Him crucified by men outside the law.

You killed Him, but God raised Him to life Acts 2: The lesson is obvious. No less than what the Holy Spirit did to Peter on Pentecost Sunday, the same Spirit has done to us when we were confirmed on our Pentecost day. We have received nothing less than miraculous power to witness to Jesus Christ.

Confirmation develops our sense of mission and inflames our desire to share with others what others had so generously shared with us. John Chrysostom, on the Last Day, we shall be judged mainly on our practice of charity in spreading the faith. The number of ways of spreading the faith is beyond human reckoning. But the one way that has been most effective from the dawn of Christian history has been by living a life of selfless charity. The charity of which we are speaking is not only, or even mainly, the charity of the corporal works of mercy.

Certainly, as Christ tells us, we are to do everything we can to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and care for those who are in physical need. However, the principal form of charity, which is nothing less than a miraculous means of spreading the faith, is the interior charity of selfless love for others. Charity, he says, bears all things.

Charity is longsuffering in all things. There is nothing mean in charity, nothing arrogant. Charity knows no schism, does not rebel, does all things in concord. In charity, all the elect of God have been made perfect. Is it any wonder that by the end of the first century of Christianity, over one hundred dioceses were established along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea? Without exception, the Church spread because Christians were confirmed by the Holy Spirit to love others with heroic charity.

They loved those who hated them. They loved those who persecuted them. Like Jesus, they even loved those who crucified them. We are talking about spreading the Faith as one of the gifts of the sacrament of Confirmation. It is especially by our love of others that we communicate our Faith to them.

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This spreading of the Faith is not only evangelizing unbelievers or converting sinners estranged from God. Confirmation so deepens the faith of a sincerely believing Catholic that he is the conduit for deepening and strengthening the faith of others in the measure of his own practice of self-sacrificing love. How misguided we can be! We see all around us millions who either do not believe in Christ at all, or whose Christianity is confused, or whose faith in the Churchs teaching is shallow at best and make? How to bring to this ocean of souls the fullness of the true faith?

Surely, our understanding of the faith is important. Our ability to prove the truth of our faith is imperative. But, the infallible talisman for spreading the faith, far beyond our wildest dreams, is living a life of loving surrender to the will of God and of selfless generosity in our dealings with everyone who enters our lives.

In one sentence, the key to putting the gift of our Confirmation into practice is to share with others the treasure of our Catholic Faith. Here we could begin all over again. The Sacrament of Confirmation provides us with nothing less than miraculous power to defend the faith that we profess. We cannot defend what we do not understand. Nor can we defend what we are not ourselves convinced is true. On this basic level of defending the Catholic Faith, there is no substitute for knowing what we believe.

But, to know what we believe means more than just understanding what God has revealed. Strange to say, we must also know how to cope with the prevalence of so much erroneous teaching that pervades our society like the air we breathe. In an age like our own, when heresy is so pervasive and error has been elevated as master of human thought, we confirmed Catholics had better know why God permits heresy in the first place and how we are to benefit from the prevalent errors in faith and morals.

There are two statements of St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr of the third century, that deserve to be memorized. The first statement is his description of heretics. Whoever has been separated from the Church is yoked with an adulteress, is separated from the promises made to the Church.

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