The Rites of Sacraments

 

Johnastine Pantra, OMI  Sub: The Rites of Sacraments Theology 3r year Date: 0 7.12.2019

 

 

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.