The Gifts of Baptism

TAN Books Editors

TAN Books Editors have over the years put together and edited a marvelous selection of booklets on spiritual themes. These same booklets have been priced moderately for wide distribution and have been distributed by the thousands.

Discover the gifts of the Holy Spirit endowed to you at your baptism. Read this beautiful excerpt from Pentecost with the Church Fathers.

Meditation

Sin robs us of the “love, joy, and peace” for which God has created us. But what is really scary is that some people are so accustomed to living in fear, anxiety, and feeling disconnected to anything, to anyone, they settle for the rotten fruit of their self-imposed tiny world. But the Spirit’s indwelling at Baptism has lifted us out of the world, allowing us to die to such temptations and live a heavenly life, if only we are willing to die with Jesus and then ascend to the Father with Him.

How can we become like him in his death? By being buried with him in baptism. What kind of burial is it, and what is gained from such imitation? First, it is necessary that the old way of life be terminated, and this is impossible unless a man is born again. . . The image of death is fulfilled in the water, and the Spirit gives us the pledge of life. Therefore it is clear why water is associated with the Spirit: because of baptism’s dual purpose. On the one hand, the body of sin is destroyed, that it may never bear fruit for death. On the other hand, we are made to live by the Spirit, and bear fruit in holiness. The water receives our body as a tomb, and so becomes the image of death, while the Spirit pours in life-giving power, renewing in souls which were dead in sin the life they first possessed.

The threefold immersion or the thrice outpouring of baptismal water symbolizes the three days of death God endured for our waywardness. But Baptism is not about simply salvaging a sunken ship; it is about giving that ship the sleekest sails in the fleet. That is what the gifts do: enable us not to trudge through the Christian life but to swiftly and joyfully fulfill the commandments and live life in the Spirit. On account of this new life, we have been made “good,” but God is “Goodness” and continually looks for ways to share that life with us:

“But let us see whether the Holy Spirit has goodness, since he is the source and principle of goodness. For just as the Father and the Son have goodness, so also the Holy Spirit has goodness. This the Apostle also taught when he said: ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is peace, charity, joy, patience, goodness’ (Gal 5:22). But who doubts that he is good whose fruit is goodness? For ‘a good tree yields good fruit’ (Mt 7:17).”

What is important to stress at the beginning of this week is that the Holy Spirit is one and He is ultimately love. Yet this love comes to us in various ways, as the sun in the sky is one but can be refracted and received in a myriad of ways depending on where we stand or what we wear. The graces of the Holy Spirit are like this: although one, the Spirit comes to us and affects us in so many varied ways.

At Baptism, each of us underwent our own personal Pentecost: the Holy Spirit descended and began to live personally and uniquely in each of our souls. He was released through the words of Jesus, echoing in every Rite of Baptism, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Chances are your baptism occurred many years ago, but that should be no reason to think of it as an event only in the past. Every Church you enter has holy water available—in the large baptistery or in the smaller holy water fonts on the doorposts as you make that symbolic move from “secular” into “sacred” space. Find where you can buy some plastic holy water bottles and ask your pastor to fill those up—bless yourselves at home, bless your children, and use such sacramentals to consecrate the place where you pray, the place you love, the place you argue and ask forgiveness! For the holy waters of Baptism not only cleanse us of sin, they transform us into extensions of Christ Himself.