Tonight our instructor began by saying that she is convinced that Christianity is not that obvious to some people. Christianity is about becoming another Christ for the life of the world. After all Christ, through the Sacraments, transforms us. Not everyone is called, it is not, “and we like Christ and love others, and shall not kill". In dying in Him we come to know Christ personally. Since baptism is often seen as the "forgiveness of original sin", it should be transforming and a little bit terrifying.
One of the biggest gains of Vatican II has been the recovery of the symbol of baptism. From the beginning Christians believed that the Holy Trinity would do anything to bring us to God. Everyone saw the stars, sky, flowers; they saw the beauty around about them and said yes, others continued to say no. So God sent us Jesus who was born in human form, God speaking to us directly saying, "I Love You, I believe in you, I hold you". Some heard and said yes and still others said ... what are you talking about?
Sacrament is God's communication to us, but we must be able to open our hearts to hear. St Augustine counted about 304 sacraments, although through the centuries those have been reduced to seven. Why, seven? Because it is Jesus who is there, God is uniquely active in the sacraments that we celebrate. They are encounters with Christ, through personal faith, in community with others. Transformed in Christ, we are called to go out into the world to serve.
The early church had no priests and no laity. Jesus was the high priest and we were his priestly people. In baptism we became a new creation, in which we received the gift of Holy Spirit. We were born again! The experience of re-birth through water fills us with the Spirit of Jesus Christ and results in our incorporation into the Church as members of the Body of Christ. For the early church the symbol of baptism was a circle, like a mother’s womb. Later, for John, re-birth came through death. Jesus pours out his spirit for us; we are buried with Him and united with Him in death. For John, the symbol of baptism was a rectangle, the shape of a coffin. With Christ within us we become Christ (our goal) and in doing so we become a part of the Trinity. Today we recognize both death and re-birth in baptism. Our old life dies in the water and we are born to our new life in Christ. For us the symbol of baptism is the cross.
These signs need to speak to us! The Eastern rite speaks of the divinization of the members of the Church. This idea of baptism is that we are adopted sons and daughters; God is claiming us as his own. The Son of God who is divine became human that we might become divine. We are already living as the divine adopted sons and daughters of God. We can't simply approach the cross, we must pass through it, choosing to die with Christ that we might become God's children.
John was familiar with the Jewish washing and bathing rituals and he taught that they should be open to everyone. Baptism means "to immerse", and he was baptizing people as an individuals sign of acceptance for the coming of the messiah. Christian baptism is not a continuation of Jewish ritual however, nor does it hold the meaning John gave it; it is nothing less than Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus was baptized He was revealed as God's Son, and as it was with Jesus the Spirit descends upon us and dwells within us.
As adults proclamation of the word is our faithful response to conversion resulting from our initial desire for repentance. We are baptized into Christ. It's not just informational; it's a re-birth into a new life, with freedom from death and freedom from sin. We are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and receive membership into the community. It's a commitment to a Gospel way of life. As Christianity became tolerated, and then preferred, the catechumenate process began to change. Once Christianity became the official religion, citizenship required a baptismal certificate. Rituals that started out with Biblical roots became more organized and developed. The long period of training, sponsors, prayers, and welcoming, along with the sending out or mission continued to evolve.
In both the East and the West the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist were originally performed at the same time. By the 4th century however, because Christianity was the state religion, everyone was getting baptized and no one was left except babies. Parishes were growing rapidly and were so big that Bishops couldn't be everywhere, and delegation of authority gave rise to infant baptism. The East didn't see this as a problem, since the Bishop had blessed the Chrism Oil, they felt that with "Bishop in a bottle" they could baptize babies without a Bishop present.
The West felt that the Bishop must be present and they decided to wait. However, there was the question of what happens regarding infant mortality, because if baptism "forgives sin" and it's a child how does sin enter the picture? St. Augustine tried to explain this as "original sin" using the story of Adam and Eve as a guide. Unfortunately, parents were being told that their baby wouldn't go to heaven unless it was baptized. Obviously, this was not the teaching of God, so the Church came up with another idea, called Limbo. Of course neither of these is taught today, and we have a different understanding. John Paul II helped us understand sin the way Saint Paul did, " What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate". There is something about the nature of the human heart in that it is broken.
The West moved baptism and Eucharist to childhood, and made confirmation wait until even later. As parishes continued to grow, the interval to confirmation was becoming longer and longer, and finally reached the age of 10 - 13. Once confirmation was separated from baptism and Eucharist, it lost its meaning and eventually parents were not even sure what confirmation was about. They felt that since baptism freed one from sin and prepared them for heaven, then once you were baptized you were "good to go". This disconnect occurred only in the West since the East had maintained the connection between Baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist.
In the West another problem developed. Eventually, because of a deep sense of un-worthiness, people simply stopped coming to Mass. The Bishop had blessed the bread and no one was taking the Body of Christ, so the tabernacle was developed to store it, and at the same time they simply stopped offering the Blood. The un-intended consequence was that infants lost the Eucharist (which was being given to them as a drop of Blood on the tongue). For this reason the West moved Eucharist to childhood, immediately following confirmation (with penance inserted in the middle). Pope Pius X decided that 1st Holy Communion at the age of 10 - 13 was too late so he moved it to the age of reason, with the understanding that the child should understand that it was not ordinary bread and that they should desire it. He left confirmation until later.
So at this point, Baptism was available to infants, penance and Eucharist was made available at the age of reason (~10-11) and confirmation was kept for childhood (~11-13). The hope was to promote reception of the Eucharist by the laity.
