Graced,
illumined and enlightened…
I
have an unusual story with my oldest son, an ongoing miracle that texts me
every day. I have told him more than once, “You are my beloved son, in whom I
am well pleased” (Mk 1:11). The words that came from heaven at the baptism of
Jesus are reminders of how lucky we are to have been sent a personal incarnate savior,
and that by adoption, we are also children of God. It also shows God as having
a well-loved child, a realization that was profound for me when I became a
parent.
I
see God as an artist and that all of our characteristics are thoughtfully and
carefully chosen. It helps to think of all of us as equally and lovingly well-crafted.
I try to look for what God sees in each of His children. Then whether I like
them or not is less important. “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my
mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made” (Ps 139:13-14).
So what does baptism look like to Him? He
joins the celebration with the best gift of all. St. Augustine says “All who
attain to this grace die thereby to sin…and they are thereby alive by being
reborn in the baptismal font” (Johnson 127). A christening for some Christians,
and a dedication for others, is the celebration of a child and a welcoming into
the community of faith. I am sure He shares in the joy and thanksgiving of the
child that has made it through the human process to be the center of this
sacrament. I guess God is gratified, as all parents are, when an older son or
daughter makes the choice to come in closer, and be baptized.
The word “’baptism:” sounds so plain versus being
illuminated, as Justin Martyr calls it. “This washing is called illumination since
those who learn these things are illumined within. The illuminand is also
washed it the name of Jesus Christ” (Johnson 107-8). Clement of Alexandria calls it enlightened, “ “When
we are baptized, we are enlightened; being enlightened we are adopted sons[see
Gal 4:5], becoming adopted sons we are made perfect, and becoming perfect we
are made divine.” Somehow this seems to capture better the wonder that grace
is. It is worth thinking about--that the gift we are given illuminates and
enlightens us, and those around us.
I obviously am the perfect person for the
word pictures in the Bible, and how sacraments are humanly 3-dimensional. I can
always use the reminder that the gift of the faith I carry is so much more than
the common place everyday things in my life. So illumined and enlightened, I
will remove the snoring dog from sleeping on my foot, put a load of wash in and
go make dinner….
Cooke, Bernard J., and Gary Macy. Christian Symbol and
Ritual: an Introduction. Oxford: New York.
2005.
Print.
Note: I still use my Catholic school training to
capitalize pronouns referring to God. I find it useful in
faith
based writing because so many biblical and historical references are to men. J.M.J
Photo from Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church
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Kathy,
ReplyDeleteYour blog on the importance of Baptism is thought provoking. I especially appreciate your third paragraph where you clarify the joy God must have when a child is baptized, or when an older son or daughter choses to be baptized.
I was raised in a Catholic home and was therefore baptized as an infant and then confirmed my sophomore year of high school. My brother and my sister who were also baptized as infants and then later confirmed both married Baptists and began exclusively attending Baptist Church services. My brother and sister have so far produced seven grandchildren for my mother. Much to her frustration, none are baptized (most Baptists do not practice infant baptism). Perhaps it will be an even greater joy for my mother if these children choose to be baptized later on.
Cooke and Macy point out that Confirmation is really just the end of the ancient baptism ceremony. Confirmation was only separated because the Bishop could not physically get to all of the infant baptisms (78). Although this separation of Baptism and Confirmation happened out of largely logistical reasons, I like the way it forced a double initiation into the Church. Parents of a baptized infant get to enjoy the ritual aspects of the sacrament with a visual sign that their child has been initiated into the Church. As the child grows, he or she will then have to make the decision to receive a 2nd anointing and be confirmed into the Church. To bring it back to your initial point, Kathy, God and the parent receives the joy of having young child baptized, and then God and the parents receive joy again when the child choses to be confirmed.
Source:
Cooke, Bernard J., and Gary Macy. Christian Symbol and Ritual: An Introduction. Oxford: New York, 2005. Print.
In reading The River of Grace by Esther De Waal, I found great delight in better grasping what the ritual of baptism was like for many in the early church. As you wrote about in your post, The River of Grace discusses the more adult/mature version of baptism (or enlightenment). Having been raised in the Catholic Church, I am very used to babies being baptized, but have often found that when adults decide for themselves to be baptized, it seems more meaningful. This seems similar to your experience with your son. Adults, who choose to go through their ritual, their baptism, their dying to the flesh and rising out of the waters with the new cloak of Christ, is such an amazing thing to experience. The description that De Waal portrays is similar to that of a rite of passage or that of a ceremonial death and resurrection in and of itself. Having been through some rites of passages as a teen and as an adult I can identify very much with the symbolic scrutiny places of the initiates as candidates interested in seeking the life of Christ. The portrayal of the candidates, then starting facing the darkness, and then turning toward the light, sends such a powerful message. The candidates, then shedding their physical clothes, becoming naked in preparation for a new life in Christ is also portrays a powerful symbol in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteAs stated in the Sacrosanctum Concilium, “the purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the body of Christ, and, finally, to give worship to God; because they are signs they also instruct. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called "sacraments of faith." This document offers for those of us who are already baptized, more insight into the bigger picture of what baptism is all about. This document offers guidance and instruction for understanding and implementing the ritual of baptism. In a way, this connects the individual being baptized to the larger community of faith. Such that when we support one who is in the process of being baptized, we also recall and remember our baptismal commitment.
I’d like to share with the class a painting of an artist from New Orleans, who I met a while back. He has a few painting of baptism which reminds me of the readings for this week. I hope it can be appreciated by the class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Ellis_(artist)#/media/File:TheebaptismII-webc.jpg
Thanks so much for sharing that picture! It reminds me of a song that is very simple, yet at the same time very profound: Down to the River to Pray (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eu85pZNoWY). It’s playing in the background as I write this post!
ReplyDeleteAs I read the myriad of material related to Baptism, I keep coming up with questions and not many answers. The questions aren’t bad ones, just questions!
I have been Catholic. I’m currently Baptist. I was baptized/illumined/consecrated/confirmed/sprinkled/dunked and just about everything else. Am I a better Christian because of all of this? Maybe. As a child, my mother made the choice of my Christian life. As a Sixth grader, I made the choice to follow Jesus and receive Confirmation. As an adult, I had to chose once again and take this faith into myself that had been held for me. We can argue the meaning behind each part of my Christian path, but, in the end, it’s my path – a path set between me and Christ. [By the way, to correct a portion of the Cooke and Macy book, Baptists do not believe that Baptism is anything except a symbol! We do not believe salvation is imparted as you are dunked or sprinkled. Instead, it is an outward symbol of an inward change that has already taken place at some point earlier – the personal acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior.]
Why do we always have to add to the initial or simple? Jesus walked into the river and was baptized. Was he really any different after that? Were his sins removed? Cooke and Macy note that the symbol of baptism was already very ‘ritualized’ by the 4th century (73). Is Baptism less meaningful, or any rite or ritual for that matter, if it is less ritualized? Or do the rituals obscure the original meaning of the symbol? Do we need elaborate rituals for the rites of passage of our faiths?
I have been privileged to witness a variety of baptisms: adult, child and infant; my father’s baptism; a baptism in a river. I love the symbolic nature of taking off the old garments of sin and donning clean white garments of God’s love and care. I love the idea of having baptisms at Easter. I love the symbols and the ritual. But...
I keep returning to the simple thoughts and ideas expressed in the beautiful picture and this song. Sinners - Let’s go down to the river of God’s love and pray together!
Cooke, Bernard J., and Gary Macy. Christian Symbol and Ritual: an Introduction. Oxford: New York.
2005. Print.
While reading this week’s material I had to chuckle at some of the pomp, circumstance and stylings of baptism as depicted in Johnson’s book … anointing the limbs so they become armor and invulnerable to weapons hurled by the enemy (118), Christ’s athletes ( p 125) exorcism of armies of the devil (149). This is quite different today where we have a baby, call the church and schedule a baptism. Many, I think, do this because we are supposed to or because it was done to us. Much of the actual rite of Baptism can be taken for granted. Sprinkle some water, the baby cries, anoint the little one, throw a white robe across him/her, light a candle and move on to the cake. That is glib of course but do we give enough reverence to this ancient rite dating back to Christ and still so similar in the Apostolic tradition (ca 217)?
ReplyDeleteThe most profound baptismal experience I’ve had was of my god-daughter at the Paulist Center in Boston. It took place at a packed Sunday mass and was the first time that I witnessed a baptism using immersion. After she was immersed the priest held her high above his head, Simba-style, wrapped in white for the congregation to see and he welcomed her into the community. She was Christ’s and she was ours. It was a joyful moment like in Antioch, “ As soon as they come up from those sacred waters all present embrace them, greet them, kiss them, congratulate them and rejoice with them because all who were before slaves and prisoners have all at once become free.” (119) Her two mothers stood beside the priest on the altar and in that moment there was no judging just a welcoming into the Body of Christ. There was no one in the margins. We were all of His beloved cleansed by salvific waters united in baptism to Christ and to one another. It was one of the most loving and joyful experiences that I have had in the Catholic Church.
I happened to be listening to Greg Boyle’s book Tattoos on the Heart in my car this week. He has a chapter entitled Water, Oil, Flame. He tells of the thousands of gang members he has baptized in prison. He describes these baptisms as “an awakening, a clearing of a new path and a declaration that life will look different because of this pronouncement and its symbols”. He tells of one particular kid, a 17 year old, beaming, ready to be baptized. This kid in detention camp does not know yet that his brother was killed the night before. Fr. Greg tells him this after the baptism. He, though very emotional, does not react with the usual rage and vengeance of gang members. Fr. Greg describes it as if his “commitment in water, oil and flame has taken hold and his grief pure and true resembles the heartache of God”. He calls it proof of the efficacy of sacrament.
In the light of these two different experiences of baptism in infancy and adulthood, I am torn between which is better. Do we baptize the young and try to raise them in faith and the knowledge that they have been washed in the waters of salvation and can re-commit during confirmation or do we let those who choose take on a new life in Jesus when they are ready? I think both of them are beautiful.