Baptism

Baptism
Confirmation
Eucharist

We call the first three Sacraments the “Sacraments of Initiation” because through them we begin our lives in Christ: we become members of the Church, we share in the mission of the disciples, and we eat at the table of the Lord.

The Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism

“Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments” (CCC 1213).

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

“Baptism washes away the hold original sin has on our lives, and we die to our old lives so that we can live in Christ.”

Like all the Sacraments, Baptism uses tangible signs and symbols to point to the real transformations which occur through the sacramental ritual. Baptism washes away the hold original sin has on our lives, and we die to our old lives so that we can live in Christ. This reality becomes visible to us through the water of baptism. Sometimes the life-giving, cleansing waters are poured over the head of the person to be baptized, and sometimes they are fully immersed in the water!

The earliest baptismal traditions of the Church developed around adult baptism. In the first several centuries, when Christians were persecuted and martyred for their faith, anyone who asked for baptism participated in an initiation process called the catechumenate which gave them a chance to understand more fully the teachings of Jesus Christ and to begin to conform their lives to those teachings, especially if they were coming to Christianity from one of the pagan religions of the time, rather than from Judaism. These steps also helped ensure the safety of the existing Christian communities, who met in secret and justly feared “pretenders,” insincere candidates who sought information to take back to political leaders.

Later, after Christianity became the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire, so many people flocked to receive the sacrament that it became impossible to maintain the extended preparations of the earlier days. Additionally, infant baptism became more and more the norm in a culture and time when infant mortality rates were high and people believed that unbaptized babies could not be saved.

Until the latter part of the twentieth century, both infant and adult baptisms remained private affairs, with inconsistent – and often little – formation beforehand. The Second Vatican Council, however, called for a renewal of the earliest traditions of baptismal preparation, leading to the development of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Now, adults who seek baptism or who wish to come into the Church from other Christian traditions participate in communal and individual preparation, including public rituals leading up to the sacrament of Baptism. The R.C.I.A. has also restored the original unity of the Sacraments of Initiation, so that an adult coming into the Church receives Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist in the same liturgical celebration, usually at the Easter Vigil.

When parents come to the Church seeking to baptize an infant, they receive formation to assist them as the “first teachers in the faith” of their child. Catholics believe that Baptism is so important that the parents and godparents – and indeed the whole faith community – may take responsibility for bringing the infant into the Christian family. In many Catholic parishes, babies are baptized during a regular Sunday Mass, so that the entire community can celebrate the welcoming of new lives in Christ and remember the blessings and graces of their own baptisms.

Throughout all the centuries, and for both adults and infants, water has remained the essential sacramental symbol of Baptism. The priest either pours water over the forehead of the person being baptized, or immerses them in the baptismal font, and baptizes “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20)