THE BAPTISM OF JESUS

 

You know, after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Acts of the Apostles. 10:34-38

 

Today, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by his cousin, John, that led to the beginning of his ministry of "going about doing good," "healing those oppressed by the devil" and knowing that "God was with him."  

Today, we also remember our commitment to be a partner with Jesus in “going about doing good,” and “healing those oppressed by evil” and knowing that "God is with us!"  Most of us were baptized as infants. Our parents and godparents spoke for us and taught us by their examples to honor our baptismal commitments until we were able to personally take over the responsibility to live out our commitment - usually at our Confirmation. 

Since so many of us are being challenged these days about our practice of baptizing infants, today I thought it might be a good idea to do a little catechesis about the practice of infant baptism. 

Why do we baptize children? We baptize children because the practice of baptizing children has been a consistent tradition in the Church, both in the East and in the West, since the very beginning. It was challenged, of course, during the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century when they broke from that practice and adopted the practice of what they called “believer baptism” for adults only. That was about 400 years ago. The practice of infant baptism precedes that change by about 1600 years.  

The Scriptures, of course, say very little about infant baptism because the New Testament Scriptures were written at a time when adult Jews and Gentiles were being converted to Christianity. However, there are several passages in Scripture where we are told that “whole households” were baptized. The stories about Stephanas, Cornelius, Lydia and the Philippian jailer are cases in point. The language of the New Testament was Greek and the word used when “whole households” were baptized is oikos which has traditionally included infants. There are no examples in secular or Biblical Greek of the word oikos being used which would restrict its meaning only to adults.   

Even more amazing are some of the extent writings outside the Scriptures. Hippolytus, in his manuscript “Tradition of the Apostles,” writing 1800 years ago, only about 100 years after the Gospel of John was written, describes, in detail, a typical baptism in 215 AD.  It is amazingly close in detail to what we still do today. Listen to his 1800 year old description of a baptism. 

At dawn a prayer shall be offered over the water. Where there is no scarcity of water the stream shall flow through the baptismal font or pour into it from above. If water is scarce, then use whatever water is available. Baptize the children first; and if they can speak for themselves, let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them. Next baptize the men and last of all the women. 

It goes on to describe the anointings, the rejection of evil and the profession of the Creed.   Remember, he is describing the way baptisms were celebrated in the church 1800 years ago! 

What we do today is not very much different from what was done at baptisms very, very early in the church: rejection of sin, profession of faith, the pouring of water and the anointings for men, women and children in the presence of a congregation! 

Personally, I was baptized by my grandmother, a country midwife who had just delivered me, because I almost died in the process of childbirth. (Today is her 135th birthday!) I am told that I was taken to church later, not to be re-baptized, but to supply the official anointings and the other symbols that traditionally go with baptism. When Catholics receive new members into the church, it is important to remember that we are forbidden to re-baptize them, because we accept valid Protestant baptisms. Also, we already consider them members of the church. All they need to do is profess the Catholic faith as understood by our church. 

Let me point out a couple of things that are especially important in the baptismal ritual. 

(1)  The first question is about the name the parents have given to their child – a name of a saint to inspire him as he grows up. My parents chose the name "James," one of the apostles, brother of another apostle, "John." They chose the first name of my father who's was “James.” St. James is the only apostles whose martyrdom is recorded in the New Testament. (Acts 12:2) He and his brother, John, are nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” in two of the gospels, perhaps referring to their fiery personalities. St. James was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in 44 AD. Sadly, this tradition of being named after a saint, is slowly being replaced by names like the weather, the seasons of the year, some natural phenomenon, a movie star or a musician. Sometimes, you have to talk them into adding a saint's name at the last minute or a derivative of a saint's name so they will have an example of how to heroically live the Christian life.  

(2) Even though parents and godparents “speak for the child” in infant baptisms, they are asked point blank, “Do you accept the responsibility of training the child in the practice of the faith?” The emphasis is on training the child in the practice of the faith! How sad it is when parents and godparents bring their children for baptism without themselves practicing the faith or being seriously committed to training the child they present for baptism in the practice of that faith! It can be an uncomfortable moment while they publicly renew their own baptismal vows with no intention of living them!   

(3)  When the child is anointed on the chest, with a prayer, that he will be protected from evil, that comes from the world of Roman wrestling. Before a wrestler entered the ring, he was completed smeared with oil so that his opponent could not get a secure grip on him. The early church thought that was a great outward sign that the new Christian would not be overcome by evil and evil could not get a grip on him.  

(4)  Those being baptized are baptized into a “community of believers.” We will all hopefully be models of faith for him or her, practicing what we believe. Therefore, we are all given a chance to renew our profession of faith and our own baptismal commitments.

(5)  When the child is anointed on the top of the head with the perfumed oil called chrism, the same oil used in the coronation of kings and queens of old (England’s Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III were anointed with chrism at their coronations) and used even today to anoint the hands of priests when they are ordained, poured on the heads of bishops when they are consecrated and used to anoint the baptized at Confirmation, they are designated as royal children of God,  royal heirs to his kingdom and sent as ambassadors of Christ to the world.

(6)  The baptized were dressed in a white garment to wear and their old clothes burned symbolizing their new life in Christ. If you saw a person on Roman streets in the early days dressed in a white robe, you might assume that they were newly baptized.    

(7)  Most baptisms took place early in the morning in a place separate from where the Eucharist was celebrated – maybe a stream. They would need a light to walk that path – probably a torch. The symbol of a candle was adopted to remind the new Christian that he would need the light of Christ to walk in the dark world. The words used when a lighted candle, taken from the big Christ candle, is handed to the parents is quite pointed. “Your child has been enlightened by Christ. He or she is to walk always as a child of light. This light is temporarily entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. We pray that, someday, he or she will still be carrying that light himself when he goes out to meet Christ along with all the saints.” 

(8)  Finally, my fellow baptized members of the church, we will have a chance to remember our baptisms every Sunday when we dip our fingers in holy water font and sign ourselves with the sign of the cross. It’s a “little baptism.” Finally, when we are brought to church for our funerals, our caskets will be sprinkled with water from the baptismal font and our caskets will be covered in a white baptismal pall – recalling our baptisms.  

(9) We completed our initiation into the church by celebrating our Confirmation and First Communion. In the early church, all three of these “Initiation Sacraments” were given at one time, even to children. The Eastern Orthodox Churches still carry on that ancient practice today. In the Roman Catholic Church, in the West, they are normally separated from Baptism over a few years – traditionally at @ 7 years of age for Eucharist and @13 for Confirmation.

I suppose the last, and most important point of our baptisms is the fact that we are “commissioned for ministry,” become "ambassadors" for Christ,” and sent into our world so that we can “go about doing good,” “healing those oppressed by evil” and showing others that "God is with us!"