Cardinal preaches on the meaning and importance of the sacrament of baptism

This is the text of Cardinal O'Connor's homily at Sunday Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral Jan. 11.

With the onset of winter, we begin to experience the dark ages here in the cathedral. We do not have the huge standing-room crowds that we have had up until this period. You may be interested to know that during this past Christmas, as far as we are able to discern, we have had the largest crowds in the history of the cathedral. So there is truly a reawakening, a revitalization taking place. I do not know how we can determine statistically what is taking place. But we come into a period of quiet now, which is perhaps fitting as we begin to prepare for Ash Wednesday and Lent. I notice that even these magnificent poinsettias are wilting, so God is telling us something.

There were announcements today, I understand, that because of an alleged event in Cuba that our Holy Father's trip to Cuba is in jeopardy. I have been advised this morning, at least if my informants are correct, that this is simply untrue, that the papal trip to Cuba is very much on schedule. We have a substantial group going from New York and from Boston. These are kind of the two main points of pilgrimage. Many others are joining us from adjacent areas.

It is reported that back in March of 1963, when the Soviet Union seemed to be at the peak of its power and when communism was achieving what seemed to be a death hold on the Soviet Union, on Moscow radio, under the theme "Religions Threat to Health," there was an all-out attack on religious practices. It said, for example, that life expectancy in the time of the Czars was only 32 years because religion was widespread and baptism was administered to almost all Russians. "Christian baptism was castigated as a 'health menace' and 'a senseless and dangerous rite.' " This is a weekly atheist broadcast. The commentator went on to say, "Thousands of babies died of pneumonia following christening ceremonies and that 'weak heart' and 'weak lungs' in adults had been traced to baptism in their early years."

With the conquering of Christianity by communism it was alleged that life expectancy had risen to 69 years, largely because of government health services and the fact that fewer baptisms take place. According to this, baptism can be very dangerous to your health. We hope that this is a totally anachronistic communist theme. It is fascinating, nonetheless, that they would have said anything of that sort, that they would have feared as they feared.

To a degree, it seems to me, it makes a certain amount of sense for two reasons. One, baptism achieves a solidarity with all of the baptized all over the world. The baby I will baptize this afternoon will become one with Christians throughout the entire world. Theoretically, this could be an enormous force, couldn't it, against "isms" such as communism, atheism, paganism, secularism, whatever kind of "ism" you want to speak of. Theoretically, this solidarity of Christians could be a mighty force indeed. This is one reason it would be understandable that the Soviets would fear baptism. Another, and of the very essence of baptism, of course, is that it is the beginning for each of us, the beginning of a life in Christ, a radical difference from what life was before.

I have at times in the past told the story about this concept of the solidarity of baptism that I think always bears repeating. During the Nazi regime, so comparable to the communist regime, the King of Denmark was told directly by Hitler that beginning immediately all Jews would have to wear a yellow arm band indicating that they were Jews. The King of Denmark knew that this meant death for the Jews as soon as they would be identified. He also knew that there could be great devastation if he did not comply with Hitler's order, so he issued the edict, but then he himself put on a yellow arm band and the whole country immediately followed suit so that it now was impossible to distinguish between Christian and Jew. This is a very important insight into the meaning of solidarity and its potential.

When John the Baptist baptized Christ, it was not the sacramental baptism that we practice today, the baptism to which our Lord referred when He said to the Apostles, "Go, teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Nevertheless, when He entered into the baptism of John the Baptist, a baptism of repentance, a baptism indicating a desire for conversion, what did He want to do? Christ wanted to show His solidarity with us, that He was taking upon Himself all of our sins, all of the sins of the universe, all of the sins of the entire course of history. He was taking these upon Himself to His death--and that death was initially symbolized by His entering into the waters of the baptism of John the Baptist, the waters of the Jordan.

We have many references to waters in the Old Testament and the New Testament, both as signs of life and as signs of death. The waters of the deluge, the great flood, for example, brought about death and destruction to all but those who were saved by God through the medium of Noah's ark. Simultaneously we are told the whole world was washed clean and the potential for new life began once again. Always we see this dual use of the symbolism of water with its cleansing, purifying properties, as well as the possibility that it can drown us, put us into death.

In the baptism that I will have this afternoon, we will be pouring water over the head of the baby. Baptism, perhaps in its purest form, should be carried out by total immersion in the waters. But it is adequate, we are told, to pour the waters of baptism, symbolic of entering into death with Christ that we might live with Christ.

It is said that baptism is the beginning of everything--that is the way it was for Christ Himself. It was the beginning of His public mission. Until then, Christ had not entered upon His public mission. There are some who say, and we reject this concept completely, that it was only at baptism that Christ came to know who He Himself was, that when the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove and the voice of God was heard saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," Christ knew what His mission was, that He was sent by God. We do not accept such an interpretation. We do accept the interpretation, however, that baptism was the beginning of the mission and that as He entered into the waters of death, so to speak, showing that He wanted all sin to die through Him, so one day He would hang on the cross where sin actually died through Him, and He made it possible for every one of us to get to heaven at the moment of our own deaths.

We are told that when the soldier drove a spear into the side of Christ a little blood and water flowed forth. We read this in the Gospel of St. John, and the Scripture scholars, who know infinitely more than I do about it, tell us that this is again a reference to the waters of baptism. He first entered into death by way of the waters of baptism and completed that action by the cross, shedding His blood so that there is a mingling of blood and water that comes from His side when the soldier pierces it with a lance.

The Second Vatican Council summarized these concepts very succinctly and, I think, very clearly, in these words:

"By the sacrament of baptism, whenever it is properly conferred in the way the Lord determined, and received with the appropriate dispositions of soul, a [person] becomes truly incorporated into the crucified and glorified Christ [A person actually becomes a member of the Body of Christ, His very corpus, His very body] and is reborn to a sharing of the divine life, as the apostle [St. Paul] says: 'For you were buried together with Him in Baptism, and in Him also rose again through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead.' [Col. 2:12, cf. Rom. 6:4]

"Baptism, therefore, constitutes a sacramental bond of unity linking all who have been reborn by means of it..."

This is crucial. Allegedly the communists were fearful of those baptized because beginning a new life in Christ they could be a powerful force of spiritual revolution that would overthrow the tenets of atheism. The Vatican Council reminds us:

"But baptism, of itself, is only a beginning, a point of departure, for it is wholly directed toward the acquiring of fullness of life in Christ. Baptism is thus oriented toward a complete profession of faith, a complete incorporation into the system of salvation such as Christ Himself willed it to be, and finally, toward a complete participation in Eucharistic communion."

So baptism, of inestimable importance, is nonetheless only the beginning. Without it, we are told, we can not reach salvation. It seems to be a strange teaching, doesn't it? What of those millions of babies who die without baptism? What of those millions of babies so tragically aborted, not even given a chance to be baptized? We can only commend them into the hands of Almighty God. We can only hope that in some mysterious way they share in what we call the "baptism of desire," a concept that we apply to the millions or hundreds of millions of people of good will throughout the world who have never even heard of Christ.

The teaching of the "baptism of desire" is that if by the goodness of their lives one can assume that if they were knowledgeable about Christ, if they were aware of the critical nature of baptism and that baptism is the key to salvation, that they would desire baptism and would have themselves baptized. This is an enormously charitable and generous teaching on the part of the Church, as well as a very ancient teaching. It has not been invented in modern times. This problem was foreseen almost 2,000 years ago--that if Christ indicated that baptism in water and the Holy Spirit is essential, as He told Nicodemus who came to Him at night and asked about salvation, and yet there were going to be millions who would never have heard of Christ or baptism, would that mean that they would all be lost? The answer to the question is the concept of the "baptism of desire."

It is so unfortunate, isn't it, that we too frequently run the risk with little infants who do live of delaying baptism almost inexplicably. There is a desire to bring some relative from a distant area who can come only at a certain time or the people want to have a reception or a party or whatever it might be. If we recognized the critical nature of baptism, quite apart from the possibility of the death of the infant, that this begins the divine life in the soul of the infant, I think it would change that.

When we administer the Sacrament of Baptism we anoint twice. We anoint first on the breast with what we call the oil of catechumens. This is before the actual baptism itself, the baptism that brings with it divine life. This anointing is very symbolic. We believe that this is necessary because of this mysterious thing called Original Sin, that we do not begin to understand but in which we intensely believe, which was caused by our first parents' revolt against God, their refusal to serve and, this is the very essence of their sin, the fact that they wanted to be gods themselves. When our first parents revolted then the whole human race was cut off from Almighty God and even cut off from the possibility of salvation. Christ came and restored that possibility but required that we be baptized.

Immediately before we pour the waters of baptism, we anoint with the oil of catechumens which is restorative, palliative and strengthening. This infant, we say, is spiritually dead, spiritually wounded by Original Sin. So we anoint the body to soothe, to restore, to prepare the baby or the adult for baptism.

Then we pour the waters in accordance with the formula received from Christ Himself: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." From the earliest days, certainly from the time of the document that we call the Didache, the writings of the Apostles about the year 100, this is the formula that is used. The water is poured, the individuals are immersed and the words are recited, "I baptize you" not simply in the name of God, not simply in the name of Jesus, but "in the name of the Father, and of the Son of the Holy Spirit." We believe that this formula is absolutely necessary.

Following the baptism with water we anoint once again. This time we anoint on the crown of the head as kings and prophets are anointed on the crown of the head or, as in the Old Testament, as priests are anointed. So we say to the new infant or to the adult being baptized, "You are now priest, prophet and king. You share in the royalty of Christ. You share in the prophetic power of Christ and the fact that He fulfilled all the prophecies. You share in the priesthood of Christ." Thus we speak of the priesthood of the laity.

King Louis IX of France so captured the meaning of baptism, most particularly that baptism is the beginning and that then we have to give ourselves to the Christian life. We have to engage in an act of solidarity with our fellow Christians. We have to make the world quake, as it were, by our presence. This is what the Soviets were afraid of. We have to be the Christians! We have to be the kingly people, the priestly people, the prophetic people! King Louis IX saw that and he never signed himself as Louis, King. He signed himself always as Louis of Poissy. In Poissy he was baptized and he said, "Poissy is the place where I was baptized. I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom: [this kingdom] I shall lose at death, but the other [to be a child of God] will be my passport to an everlasting glory."