FOR THE JOURNEY

Cathy Pressimone
EMCC Parish Life Coordinator
Master Catechist

BAPTISM

When I sat in the pew for the funeral of an elderly member of my parish in Pennsylvania, I was struck by the hope-filled message that the priest offered in his homily. “Bob,” he said, “didn’t die last week. He merely continued the journey he began with his baptism. His death actually  occurred many years ago when, as an infant, through the waters of Baptism, he died to sin and rose with Jesus to seek out the promise of eternal life. Bob has completed his journey.” 

Baptism is a word with Greek origins that means bathe or immerse. The waters of baptism are an efficacious sign; the triple dousing as the catechumen is baptized, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit” signifies the death of sin and rebirth into the newness of the life attained for us through Christ’s death and resurrection. Through our baptism, we become members of the Body of Christ -  a community that is called to imitate Jesus’ example and “strive in thought, word, and action, to live his love.” In Baptism, we receive the grace to embrace the dignity of all people, to reject sin and practices opposed to Christ, and help to navigate the world so that we can always make our way back to Christ.
Since the earliest days of Christianity, Baptism has been the rite of initiation into the Christian community.  When people responded to his call to repent, John the Baptist began baptizing them in the Jordan River. The washing in the river was an outward sign of an inward conversion; the people were washed clean as they repented their sins. John spoke of his baptisms in light of a greater promise; that One, greater than he, would come and “baptize in the Holy Spirit.” When Christ, himself, approached John to be baptized:  

John tried to refuse him with the protest, “ I should be baptized by you, yet you come to me!” Jesus answered: “Give in for now. We must do this if we would fulfill all of God’s demands.” So John gave in. (Mt 3: 14-15)

“Baptism is at once a death and a new birth, a washing-away of sin and the gift of the living water promised by Christ, the grace of forgiveness and regeneration in the Spirit, a stripping-off of our mortality and a clothing with the robe of incorruption.” (USCCB)

Christ submitted himself to be baptized as an act of self-emptying. His baptism underscores his human condition and his great desire to journey with us through life and into heaven. This is the Jesus that we meet in our baptism and who will accompany us through and into Life. The same Jesus that walked with Bob and showed him the way to Eternal Life.