Faith & Baptism
In a previous segment, we explained the meaning of salvation, justification, and sanctification. We discussed them in terms of a transformation of a person, by the free gift of God’s grace, from servitude to sin, death, and the devil, to holiness and participation in the divine life of God, leading to eternal happiness in God’s presence. Now we will talk more about Faith and Baptism as instruments of this salvation.
What activates this entire process of salvation is the gift of faith. Faith is the assent a man makes of his whole self to the God who reveals Himself. Faith is the origin and root of all justification. We can never enter Heaven without first embracing God by faith. And that faith is first given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Faith has two dimensions: personal and communal. The personal dimension is the voluntary response of an individual to the gift of grace that illuminates his intellect with God’s divine revelation. But this personal Faith necessitates a communal expression in the Church. This is necessary because we are not saved alone, but together with others, united to Christ together – in His one Body.
This life of faith – personal and communal — also demands repentance from one’s sins and the full embrace of the Way of Christ. Faith requires, indeed necessitates conversion! We are called to be holy as Christ Himself is holy! So we run this race, we live this faith, with the inspiritment of the Saints in Heaven, that we may receive that eternal crown! But the gift of faith, when at all possible, must be made complete by the Sacraments, most especially Holy Baptism.
The Lord gives or increases sanctifying grace within us through the means of the sacred signs of the seven sacraments. The Sacraments, then, are important instruments for our sanctification and salvation. This is especially true of the Sacrament of Baptism because it is the first sacrament we receive and the gateway to the other sacraments. Baptism initiates us into the life of God that we spoke about earlier.
To illustrate the meaning of baptism, the Catechism recounts for us a beautiful prayer of the Church from the Easter Vigil. 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.
In this prayer, we learn that at the beginning of the world, God created water as a humble, docile, wonderful, versatile creature, ordained to be a source of life and fruitfulness for man. We learn that at creation, the primordial waters were overshadowed by the Spirit of God. We learn that the Church is depicted as the new Ark of Noah. The waters of the earth continue to purify the world, and the Church functions as this vessel that carries and saves mankind.
Furthermore, the waters of baptism represent dying to the old, sinful self through the cross of Jesus. The Catechism tells us that, “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.”
Baptism also finds symbolism in the events surrounding the Exodus. When we look to the crossing of the Red Sea in the Book of Exodus, Israel experienced, in a literal sense, liberation from slavery. This liberation from physical slavery by means of crossing through the waters of the Red Sea correlates to liberation from the slavery and bondage of sin by means of being immersed in the waters of baptism.
Christ himself affirms that baptism is necessary for the salvation of mankind. In commanding his Gospel message to be proclaimed by his disciples to all nations, Christ also commands them to baptize all who listen to and accept the Gospel. Peter’s first homily to the crowd was a rousing call for repentance and faith by means of baptism.
The Sacrament of baptism is inseparable from faith. The Church declares baptism as the “Sacrament of faith.” It is Sacramental entry into the entirety of the life of faith. The Church has no other means to assure entry into eternal beatitude, at least, no means that is more concrete and visible than Baptism. Therefore, the Church continues to fight across the ages to preserve her mission of conferring the gift of baptism on all who believe, and upon their children.
Baptism also signifies liberation from the old way of sin and even from its instigator and tempter, the devil. This is why in the rite of baptism, as the Catechism tells us, “one or more exorcisms are pronounced over the candidate. The celebrant then anoints him with the oil of catechumens, or lays his hands on him, and he explicitly renounces Satan. Thus prepared, he is able to confess the faith of the Church, to which he will be ‘entrusted’ by Baptism.”
Baptism, furthermore, works a multifaceted grace in the person’s soul. A person who is baptized is conformed into the image of Christ. They receive what the Church calls an “indelible mark” (in Greek “sphragis”). This mark is likened to a tattoo that a Roman soldier received upon being enlisted in the Roman army for life. It serves to identify him as belonging to this military corps, and therefore to this mission.
Spiritually speaking, Baptism does the same thing to the believer. It invisibly marks the individual as entirely belonging to Christ. If someone was to lose faith and commit apostasy, this mark still can never be erased from the soul, owing to its spiritual permanence. The mark itself doesn’t guarantee salvation. Rather, it connotes being “set apart” for God. Furthermore, precisely because of the permanency of this mark, baptism is an unrepeatable Sacrament.
Salvation is a miracle beginning in God’s free divine initiative. It is He who brings to us the gift of salvation. The Sacrament of baptism itself is first and foremost a grace. It is a gratuitous gift from the divine heart of the Father. The heart of our Father will stop at nothing to work in us the gift of salvation. All that is required of us is a response to this divine initiative, a simple “Yes, Lord, I believe! I entrust my life to you!” and to become part of His Church.