Our Lady of Lourdes Church Blog

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Baptism, Part 5

      We have been considering Christ’s command to the Apostles to baptize, and last week began to look at the effect baptism as making one a child of God. This is so important that we might look a little more at what it means.

      St. Paul says, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ” (Gal 3:25-26). Baptism incorporates us into Christ and makes us children of God. This is God’s intention: God the Father predestined believers “for adoption to Himself  as sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5).

      It is the Holy Spirit, given in baptism, which makes one a son or daughter of God (Ro 8:14) for the Holy Spirit is a “Spirit of sonship” or “Spirit of adoption as sons” (Ro 8:15), and thus also heir of God and fellow-heir with Christ (Ro 8:17; Eph 1:11). As children of God and heirs, if we are faithful to the end (Mt 24:13; Mk 13:13; cf. Mt 7:23), our resurrection will be through the same Holy Spirit who resurrected Christ (Ro 8:11; Phil 3:10-11). Further, like Christ, we will be glorified with Christ (Ro 8:17; Phil 3:21). But even in this life, the adopting Spirit is gradually changing us into the likeness of the glorified Christ (1 Cor 3:18).

      Acts chapter 10 gives us the story of St. Peter and the Roman Centurion Cornelius. While Peter was sharing the Gospel “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word” (v. 44). Others who had come with Peter were amazed that the Holy Spirit should be given to the Gentiles, but Peter declared, “Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (V. 47.) Peter knew from his own experience that the signs of speaking in tongues and praising God (v. 46) are effects of the charisms of the Spirit given for unbelievers (Ac 2:4-12; cf., 1 Cor 14:22); but he also knew (from Christ’s teaching) that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, accomplishes a person’s incorporation into the Body of Christ and adoption as a child of God only through baptism, as Jesus had taught and commanded.

      This action of God, the grace given in baptism, is a mystery. The Greek word “musterion” is typically translated “mystery” or sometimes “secret.” St. Paul speaks of the “mystery” of God’s will (Eph 1:9) in the context of believers being predestined to be children of God, being bestowed in Christ and through the redemption in His blood, of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ, with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit which is the guarantee of our inheritance (Eph 1:3-14; cf. Eph 3:3) – all baptismal images and graces. Similarly, he speaks of the “mystery” that the Gentiles are fellow heirs (as children of God) and are in the same Body of Christ (incorporated into Him) (Eph 3:4-6; Col 1:26-27). And this “plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God” is now revealed through the Church – the Church! (Eph 3:9-10; cf. 1 Tim 3:15-16).

      We see that in the various ways Paul speaks of the “mystery” of Christ he uses the same concepts of incorporation into Christ and adoption as a child of God that he also uses – along with Peter, John, and Jesus – to speak of baptism, the “washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Tit 3:5). Therefore it is not surprising that gradually baptism (and the Eucharist) came to be called “the Mysteries” (as they still are sometimes today). These “Mysteries” were instituted by Christ as a means for God, in Christ, acting through His Body, the Church, to give the grace Christ intends for believers to bring them into union with God.

      The Greek term “musterion,” which English translates as “mystery,” was later translated into Latin as “sacramentum,” which English translates from the Latin as “sacrament.”

      So you see “sacrament” is really a very Biblical term which refers to all the richness of the “mysteries of Christ.”

Dibby Green

Originally published in the print edition of the Mojave Desert News  dated October 8, 2020.

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org. 

Reference:

Wulstan Mork, OSB, Transformed by Grace, Scripture, Sacraments & the Sonship of Christ (Cincinnati, OH: Servant/St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2004; originally published 1965, Bruce Publ. Co.), p. 97, 119, 127.