Christian Initiation, General Introduction: Ignity OF Aptism
Christian Initiation, General Introduction: Ignity OF Aptism
General Introduction
1. In the sacraments of Christian initiation we are freed from the power of darkness and
joined to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. We receive the Spirit of filial adoption
and are part of the entire people of God in the celebration of the memorial of the Lord’s
death and resurrection.1
2. Baptism incorporates us into Christ and forms us into God’s people. This first sacrament
pardons all our sins, rescues us from the power of darkness, and brings us to the dignity of
adopted children,2 a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit. Hence we are called
and are indeed the children of God.3
By signing us with the gift of the Spirit, confirmation makes us more completely the im-
age of the Lord and fills us with the Holy Spirit, so that we may bear witness to him before
all the world and work to bring the Body of Christ to its fullness as soon as possible.4
Finally, coming to the table of the eucharist, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the
Son of Man so that we may have eternal life5 and show forth the unity of God’s people. By
offering ourselves with Christ, we share in the universal sacrifice, that is, the entire com-
munity of the redeemed offered to God by their High Priest,6 and we pray for a greater
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that the whole human race may be brought into the
unity of God’s family.7
Thus the three sacraments of Christian initiation closely combine to bring us, the faithful
of Christ, to his full stature and to enable us to carry out the mission of the entire people
of God in the Church and in the world.8
DIGNITY OF BAPTISM
3. Baptism, the door to life and to the kingdom of God, is the first sacrament of the New
Law, which Christ offered to all, that they might have eternal life.9 He later entrusted this
sacrament and the Gospel to his Church, when he told his apostles: “Go, make disciples of
all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.”10 Baptism is therefore, above all, the sacrament of that faith by which, enlightened
by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we respond to the Gospel of Christ. That is why the
Church believes that it is its most basic and necessary duty to inspire all, catechumens,
parents of children still to be baptized, and godparents, to that true and living faith by
which they hold fast to Christ and enter into or confirm their commitment to the New
Covenant. In order to enliven such faith, the Church prescribes the pastoral instruction of
catechumens, the preparation of the children’s parents, the celebration of God’s word, and
the profession of faith at the celebration of baptism.
4. Further, baptism is the sacrament by which its recipients are incorporated into the Church
and are built up together in the Spirit into a house where God lives,11 into a holy nation
and a royal priesthood.12 Baptism is a sacramental bond of unity linking all who have been
signed by it.13 Because of that unchangeable effect (given expression in the Latin liturgy by
the anointing of the baptized person with chrism in the presence of God’s people), the rite
of baptism is held in highest honour by all Christians. Once it has been validly celebrated,
Christian Initiation, General Introduction 1
even if by Christians with whom we are not in full communion, it may never lawfully be
repeated.
5. Baptism, the cleansing with water by the power of the living word,14 washes away every
stain of sin, original and personal, makes us sharers in God’s own life15 and his adopted chil-
dren.16 As proclaimed in the prayers for the blessing of water, baptism is a cleansing water
of rebirth17 that makes us God’s children born from on high.The blessed Trinity is invoked
over those who are to be baptized, so that all who are signed in this name are consecrated
to the Trinity and enter into communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
They are prepared for this high dignity and led to it by the scriptural readings, the prayer
of the community, and their own profession of belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
6. Far superior to the purifications of the Old Law, baptism produces these effects by the
power of the mystery of the Lord’s passion and resurrection. Those who are baptized are
united to Christ in a death like his;18 buried with him in death, they are given life again
with him, and with him they rise again.19 For baptism recalls and makes present the paschal
mystery itself, because in baptism we pass from the death of sin into life.The celebration of
baptism should therefore reflect the joy of the resurrection especially when the celebration
takes place during the Easter Vigil or on a Sunday.
Endnotes
1
See Vatican Council II, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad gentes, no. 14.
2
See Colossians 1:13; Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:5. See also Council of Trent, sess. 6, Decre. de iustifica-
tione, cap. 4: Denz.-Schon. 1524.
3
See 1 John 3:1.
4
See Vatican Council II, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad gentes, no. 36.
5
See John 6:55.
6
See Augustine, De citivate Dei 10, 6: PL 41, 284. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church Lumen gentium, no. 11; Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, no.
2.
7
See Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, no. 28.
8
See ibid., no. 31.
9
See John 3:5.
10
Matthew 28:19.
11
See Ephesians 2:22.
12
See 1 Peter 2:9.
13
See Vatican II, Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis redintegratio, no. 22.
14
See Ephesians 5:26.
15
See 2 Peter 1:4.
16
See Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5.
17
See Titus 3:5.
18
See Romans 6:4-5.
19
See Ephesians 2:5-6.
20
See Codex Iuris Canonici, can. 873 and 874, §§1 and 2.
21
See Vatican Council II, Constitution on the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 32; Pastoral Constitu-
tion on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, no. 29.
22
See Vatican Council II, Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops Christus Dominus, no. 15.
23
See Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, no. 26.
24
See Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, nos. 375-399; Rite of Baptism for Children, nos. 157-164.