| Readings: | Isaiah 40:1–5, 9–11 |
| Date: | January 12, 2025 Baptism of the Lord |
The one who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
How many people here have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire? I suggest that one of the things that makes it hard for us to even understand this question, is that the symbols in our liturgy and sacraments can be really complex.
The primary symbols that we use in our Catholic sacrament of Baptism are: water, oil or chrism, a lit candle, a white garment, touch, and words. And as is the case with many of the symbols we use in other sacraments, including Mass, any particular symbol can represent or symbolize more than one reality.
I would like to reflect on just two of the major symbols we use in Baptism because when I do that Baptism is so much more than I grew up thinking.
What would you think if I told you that the water we use in baptism is, in part, a symbol of our being baptized with fire? Let me try to explain that.
Over the years I have asked a lot of couples who are bringing their child for baptism what the water used in baptism symbolizes. Without exception, the answer has been cleansing. The water symbolizes that baptism washes away the effects of original sin from the person being baptized. And that is true, but the prayer that is said over the water during baptism highlights several other important things that the water symbolizes.
That last one is why I said that the water used in baptism is, in part, a symbol of our being baptized with fire. From very ancient times in the Church, the water primarily symbolizes the tomb of Christ. The person being baptized goes down into the tomb 3 times to represent the 3 days Jesus spent in the tomb, and then rises, with Christ, from the tomb to new life in Christ. This symbolism is much more apparent when full immersion is used in baptism. Jesus himself refers to his suffering and death on the cross as a baptism of fire. And so in dying to our old self in the waters of baptism we are able as St. Paul says, to rise with Christ. In baptism we participate in Jesus' baptism of fire so that we might rise with Christ, born again not just as our old selves without sin but as adopted co-heirs with Jesus, sharing in his divinity.
The second symbol I want to reflect on with you is oil. From antiquity, oil has been used to anoint people who were initiated into jobs that required courage, persistence, and strength. Jobs like being king or priest or a knight. Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus at his baptism, at the start of his public ministry. One of ways it does this is the way that oil covers us so closely that it is hard for us to it wipe off. This symbolizes that the Holy Spirit fills us through and through so thoroughly that like oil on our skin, it is hard to tell where the spirit ends and we begin. The person being baptized is anointed with oil that represent the Holy Spirit because baptism is an initiation into a job, a calling, that requires courage, persistence and strength. We are initiated into being the Body of Christ, the incarnation of God's love and forgiveness that is to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth. We are to be instruments in God's plan to bring salvation to the world.
So let me ask again, how many people here have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire??
So let us all go out into the desert as Jesus did, and prepare ourselves to carry out the mission given to Jesus and to us by the Father. Let us make our Father well pleased with us, as He is with Jesus.