by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
“Why isn’t it sufficient for discipleship to know the teachings of Jesus, to know the Christian values? Why is it necessary to be baptized?”
— Pope Benedict XVI, “Lectio Divina,” St. John Lateran, June 11, 2012.
“I was born not because I made myself man, but I was born because being human was given to me.”
— Pope Benedict XVI, June 11, 2012.
I.
Benedict XVI speaks often and at length on baptism. At first sight, it seems a rather messy and inconvenient ceremony, all that water, candles, oil, and—not infrequently—crying babies. The first thing we must know about baptism is that it is not a human invention, though it is a human thing. It is unlikely anyone would sit down and figure out that pouring water over the head of someone would mean anything but normal cleansing. John the Baptist, however, was said to baptize with water, but Christ, to whom he witnessed, baptized with water and the Holy Spirit.
In a reflective “reading” at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Benedict again took up the importance of baptism. Over the course of his Pontificate, the Holy Father has given fourteen other homilies on baptism when he himself has administered the sacrament—seven on the Sunday after the Epiphany and seven at the Easter Vigil. In Spe Salvi, he also recalled the rite of Baptism, the part where the priest asks the parents or the one to be baptized what he wants from the sacrament. The answer is: “Eternal life.”
Ultimately, this eternal life is why we exist, that we may obtain it. It is a gift to us. It is not the result of our own enterprise or of our own nature.
Benedict begins by pointing out that baptism repeats the last recorded words of Christ in the Gospels. The Apostles were charged with going forth to make all nations His disciples and to baptize each one in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are baptized in the name of the Trinity; we mention each Person. We are to be “immersed” in God—we, who are human beings.
The Pope recalls a conversation Christ had with the Sadducees. These latter only admitted as legitimate scripture the first five books of Moses. In them, resurrection is not mentioned, which was the Sadducees’ reason for not believing in this teaching. But Jesus responded to them in words that reflected the books they did accept. “Did you not know that God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” (Matt 22:31). That is, He is the God of the living, which includes the three figures found in these early books. In other words, Christ gave the Sadducees enough challenge to see their own contradictions.
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