ROMAN CATHECISM

THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

Importance Of Instruction On Baptism

From what has been hitherto said on the Sacraments in general, we may judge how necessary it is, to a proper
understanding of the doctrines of the Christian faith and to the practice of Christian piety, to know what the
Catholic Church proposes for our belief on each Sacrament in particular.
Whoever reads the Apostle carefully will unhesitatingly conclude that a perfect knowledge of Baptism is
particularly necessary to the faithful. For not only frequently, but also in language the most energetic, in
language full of the Spirit of God, he renews the recollection of this mystery, declares its divine character, and
in it places before us the death, burial and Resurrection of. our Lord as objects both of our contemplation and
imitation.
Pastors, therefore, can never think that they have bestowed sufficient labor and attention on the exposition of
this Sacrament. Besides the Vigils of Easter and Pentecost, days on which the Church used to celebrate this
Sacrament with the greatest devotion and special solemnity, and on which particularly, according to ancient
practice, its divine mysteries were to be explained, pastors should also take occasion at other times to make it
the subject of their instructions.
For this purpose a most convenient opportunity would seem to present itself whenever a pastor, being about to
administer this Sacrament, finds himself surrounded by a considerable number of the faithful. On such
occasions, it is true, his exposition cannot embrace everything that regards Baptism; but it will then be much
easier to develop one or two points when the faithful
can contemplate with a pious and attentive mind the meaning of those things which they hear and at the same
time see it illustrated by the sacred ceremonies of Baptism. Each person, reading a lesson of admonition in the
person of him who is receiving Baptism, will call to mind the promises by which he bound himself to God when
he was baptised, and will reflect whether his life and conduct have been such as are promised by the profession
of Christianity.

Names of this Sacrament

In order that the treatment of the subject. may be clear, we must explain the nature and substance of Baptism,
premising, however, an explanation of the word itself.
The word baptism, as is well known, is of Greek derivation. Although used in Sacred Scripture to express not
only that ablution which forms part of the Sacrament, but also every species of ablution, and sometimes,
figuratively, to express sufferings; yet it is employed by ecclesiastical writers to designate not every sort of
bodily ablution, but that which forms part of the Sacrament and is administered with the prescribed form of
words. In this sense the Apostles very frequently make use of the word in accordance with the institution of
Christ the Lord.
This Sacrament the holy Fathers designate also by other names. St. Augustine informs us that it was sometimes
called the Sacrament of Faith, because by receiving it we profess our faith in all the doctrines of Christianity.
By others it was termed Illumination, because by the faith which we profess in Baptism the heart is illumined;
for as the Apostle also says, alluding to the time of Baptism, Call to mind the former days, wherein, being
illumined, you endured a great fight of afflictions Chrysostom, in his sermon to the baptised, calls it a purgation,
because through it we purge away the old leaven, that we may become a new paste. He also calls it a burial, a
planting, and the cross of Christ, the reasons for all which appellations may be gathered from the Epistle to the
Romans.
St. Denis calls it the beginning of the most holy Commandments, for this obvious reason, that Baptism is, as it
were, the gate through which we enter into the fellowship of the Christian life, and begin thenceforward to obey
the Commandments. So much should be briefly explained concerning the name (of this Sacrament) .

Definition Of Baptism
With regard to the definition of Baptism although many can be given from sacred writers, nevertheless that
which may be gathered from the words of our Lord recorded in John, and of the Apostle to the Ephesians,
appears the most appropriate and suitable. Unless, says our Lord, a man be born again of water and the Holy
Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; and, speaking of the Church, the Apostle says, cleansing it by
the laver of water in the word of life. Thus it follows that Baptism may be rightly and accurately defined: The
Sacrament of regeneration by water in the word. By nature we are born from Adam children of wrath, but by
Baptism we are regenerated in Christ, children of mercy. For He gave power to men to be made the sons of
God, to them that believe in his name, who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God.
Constituent Elements Of Baptism
But define Baptism as we may, the faithful are to be informed that this Sacrament consists of ablution,
accompanied necessarily, according to the institution of our Lord, by certain solemn words. This is the uniform
doctrine of the holy Fathers, as is proved by the following most explicit testimony of St. Augustine: The word is
joined to the element, and it becomes a Sacrament.
It is all the more necessary to impress this on the minds of the faithful lest they fall into the common error of
thinking that the baptismal water, preserved in the sacred font, constitutes the Sacrament. The Sacrament of
Baptism can be said to exist only when we actually apply the water to someone by way of ablution, while using
the words appointed by our Lord.

Matter of Baptism
Now since we said above, when treating of the Sacraments in general, that every Sacrament consists of matter
and form, it is therefore necessary that pastors point out what constitutes each of these in Baptism. The matter,
then, or element of this Sacrament, is any sort of natural water, which is simply and without qualification
commonly called water, be it sea water, river water, water from a pond, well or fountain.