The Seven Sacraments: Baptism: Entrance into New Life (Part 2)

The Seven Sacraments
Part Two: Baptism: Entrance into New Life
 
Baptism is the first of three sacraments of initiation by which a person is brought into the community of the Church, the Body of Christ. The other two sacraments of initiation are Confirmation and the Eucharist. But before one can be confirmed and before one can receive the Eucharist, one must be baptized into Christ. Baptism then is the gateway into the Christian life, the sacrament without which there is no Christian life. So what is Baptism?  What happens when we are baptized into Christ?  In his great letter to the Romans, St. Paul describes Baptism in this way:
How can we who died to sin yet live in it? Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into his 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 6:2-4)
 
Notice what the great Apostle says. First, by our Baptism we were associated with  Christ’s death with the result that we died to the power of sin over our lives. Second, through our baptism we were buried with Christ so that we might be raised with Christ into “newness of life,” by which St. Paul means the life of grace, the life of God’s Spirit.
Baptism into Christ’s death transfers us from one realm to another realm. Previous to our baptism we were under the power of sin, a force that controlled our life. We were still in the realm of the old Adam who had rebelled against God. In other words, we were under the power of what we traditionally call “Original Sin.” But when we were baptized into Christ’s death, we were freed from the power of this Original Sin. We were transferred into the realm of the new Adam, Jesus Christ, who was obedient to God. We were transferred to the realm of God’ grace; we were transferred to the realm of the Spirit. Baptism, then, is a “new birth in Christ.” It makes us a “new creation in Christ.” Listen to what St. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians. 
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)
 
Baptism breaks down every barrier of race, social class, and sexuality because through Baptism we are “clothed” with Christ; that is, we become a new creation in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Given this new dignity that is ours in Christ, St. Paul exhorts us to flee from all immorality by reminding us of what happened in our baptism:  “you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
Baptism, then, is the gateway to the Christian life, the first of the sacraments of initiation. By being baptized we enter into the crucified and risen body of Christ; we entered into the community of the Church. By this sacrament we are changed and transformed so that we become a “new creation” in Christ. By this sacrament we are freed from the power of Original Sin so that we may live in the realm of God’s grace, the realm of the Spirit.  Given the importance of this sacrament it is not surprising that Jesus says, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, “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).
 
The next time you see a child being baptized, or the next time you bring a child to be baptized, think of what is happening in Baptism. Give thanks for your Baptism and renew your baptismal promise.
 
Father Matera