Theological
Reflections on Blessing of Baptismal Water
Blessing of baptismal water is the
proclamation of salvation history. God created the world and all creatures in
the world. Very especially He created Human being in his image. Therefore His
grace was always upon human being. In the prayer of baptismal water, there
exists from History of Salvation, God’s creation to Christi’s baptism. So
general theology of blessing of baptismal water prayer is God is creator, His
existence and presence, life giving and savior.
When
the priest prays on the baptismal water, the Holy Spirit descends upon the
baptismal water. By prayer of a priest and through our faith, God will be
present in water. That makes understand that water is no longer ordinary but
became sacred through the presence of our Lord.
The general theology of blessing of Baptismal water is the presence of
God. The blessing of this water reminds us of Christ, the
living water and of the sacrament of Baptism, in which we were born of water in
Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Natural
water is an appropriate matter for the sacrament of Baptism because it
symbolizes generation into spiritual life and t it is also a principle of
generation in the natural life of men, animal and plants. Baptismal Water is
transparent because it allows light to pass and it symbolizes illumination of
faith. Water portatrays twofold: destruction of sin and bestow life holy spirit.
So the meaning of Baptism can be briefly summarized in three ways: a) Symbolic dying & rising with Jesus
Christ b) Symbolic cleansing & washing away of our sins c) Public entrance
into & membership of the church of Jesus Christ
Theology according to the Catechism
of Catholic Church: Since the beginning of the world,
water was so humble and wonderful a creature and has been the source of life
and fruitfulness. Sacred Scripture sees it as "overshadowed" by the
Spirit of God.
“At the very dawn of creation
your Spirit breathed on the waters,
making them the wellspring of all holiness.’’
In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, during the blessing
of the baptismal water, the Church solemnly commemorates the great events in
salvation history that already prefigured the mystery of Baptism .The
Church has seen in Noah's ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it
a few that is, eight persons were saved through water.
‘The waters of the great flood
you made a sign of the waters of Baptism,
that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness.
If water springing up from the earth symbolizes life, the
water of the sea is a symbol of death and so can represent the mystery of the
cross. By this symbolism Baptism signifies communion with Christ's death.
But above
all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from the
slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by Baptism:
“You freed the children of Abraham
from the slavery of Pharaoh,
bringing them dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea,
to be an image of the people set free in Baptism.”
Finally, Baptism is prefigured in
the crossing of the Jordan River by which the People of God received the gift
of the land promised to Abraham's descendants, an image of eternal life. The promise
of this blessed inheritance is fulfilled in the New Covenant.
Christ's Baptism
All the Old Covenant was fulfilled
in Christ Jesus. He begins his public life after having himself baptized by St.
John the Baptist in the Jordan. After his resurrection Christ
gives this mission to his apostles: "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."
In the baptism of Christ the Holy
Spirit came upon Him. The Spirit who had hovered over the waters of the first
creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation, and the
Father revealed Jesus as his "beloved Son."
In his Passover Christ opened to all
men the fountain of Baptism. He had already spoken of his Passion, which he was
about to suffer in Jerusalem, as a "Baptism" with which he had to be
baptized.22 The blood and water that flowed from the pierced
side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the
sacraments of new life. From then on, it is possible "to
be born of water and the Spirit"24 in order to enter the
Kingdom of God.
Consecration
of Baptismal Water: The blessing of the water to be used for
baptism is superb example for the power of liturgy to teach and inspire. It is
full of sign of baptism. It gives a rich insight into what baptism does. It is in the tradition of the patristic
explanation of the sacred mysteries based as it is on the Biblical images and events;
it throws light on the whole economy of Salvation.
The Spirit of God brooding over the waters
prefigured the waters of baptism which the same spirit is about to sanctify and
so make the vehicle of his grace. In the same way the waters of the deluge
showed that baptism engenders to the life of God men who were the beginning of
a new life, one and the same element was, in mystery, the end of vice and the
beginning of virtues.
The rapid succession the preface of the blessing of
the water recall the waters divided from the firmament by the creator (Gn.
1:6), the four rivers which watered a garden of Eden (Gn 2:10), the bitter
water changed into sweet during the Exodus (Ex. 15:23f), the water that Moses
made spring from the rock (Ex. 17:6), then some New Testament events associated
with water; the miracle of Cana and the walking on the water. By his baptism in
the Jordan Christ sanctified the water, the water and blood flowing from the
side of Christ on the cross is the
classic symbol of t he sacrament of baptism and Eucharist.
The blessing which affirms the twofold function of
the baptismal bath. It is the water that purifies and that gives birth to new l
life in Christ. Side by side with such words as wash, purify, blot out and
heal, we see regenerate, renew, recreate, bring forth, give birth to. May it be a fountain that purifies that all
those who will be washed in this bath may obtain the grace of perfect
purification by the action from all the failures of the old nature.
During the course of the blessing the priest plunges
the paschal candle into the water to signify the sanctifying descent of Christ
into the waters of the Jordan. He pours in oil and Chrism, in t he form of the cross, to signify
that the Spirit symbolized by the oil makes these waters his own instrument of
Baptismal holiness.
Symbolic
Meaning of Baptismal Water:
Water is a natural symbol. Water is symbol of life. Water also
cleanses our body and water cleans our sins in the Baptism. Water both destroys
death and gives life. Prefigured in the Old Testament, especially in
the crossing of the Red Sea, water expresses liberation and freedom, as well as
death or destruction to sin.
In baptism, it symbolizes birth to a new life in in Christ
and the power of the Holy Spirit. Sins are buried and washed away as we die
with Jesus and rise with him from immersion in the water or from being cleansed
by the pouring of water.
Water gives life and so initiation rituals which mark
the beginning of a new way of life often involve washing or immersion in water.
Water is always blessed before it is used at a baptism. The blessing has three
main themes which reflect the purpose of baptism. The prayer reminds us that
water represents: Life in Christ, Death, and Cleansing of sin.
So we are reminded in the sign of the baptismal water that
in baptism:
We die with Christ – to selfishness and sin.
We rise with Christ – to the new life of love.
Finally a person immerses in the water and comes out from
water. Immersion in water is death in
Christ with our sins and coming out from water is a new life with Christ.
Person receives forgiveness of sins through baptism and the Holy Spirit. Having
being received the baptism person is capable of union with Christ. The peptize
person with the water belong to new creation. Person also becomes the adopted
child of God the father and member of the His church.
