Christians are made and not born. The Sacrament of Baptism.

Essay Assignment, the Sacraments of the Church

BA Theology and Lifelong Education 2011

Albert Fiedeldey
 Introduction

In the year 772, Charlemagne or Karl der Grosse, captured the Saxon stronghold Eresburg
and destroyed their holiest of holies, the Irminsul, a sacred Oak tree. Widukind gathered
Saxon warriors and led a long but in the end futile guerrilla war against the Franks. At the
bloodbath of Verden 4800 Saxons were beheaded and Widukind’s resistance broken. He
realised that he was check-mate, accepted baptism and in so doing brought a whole people
1
into the fold of the church. It is for this reason that Charles the Great is remembered by
some, to this day as the Butcher of Saxons and a Maker of Christians.

Who is a Jew?

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal
process of conversion to Judaism.

Being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe in or what you don’t believe in. A
person born to non-Jewish parents has to undergo the formal process of conversion. Even
though he might believe everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observe every law and
custom of Judaism, he is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of
Judaism. On the other hand, a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never
practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this
sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a
citizenship.2

How does someone become a Muslim?

By stating that ‘there is no god apart from God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.' the
believer announces his or her faith in all God's messengers, and the scriptures they brought.3

1
Compare http://www.ottonenzeit.de/ottonen/widukind/widukind.htm
2
Compare http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm
3
Compare http://www.islamicity.com

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 Taking Refuge in the Triple Gem

A person can be considered to be a Buddhist when he or she takes refuge in the Triple Gem.
The Triple Gem is the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. It is called the Triple Gem because it
represents three excellent qualities. The Triple Gem is very special to Buddhists. They pay
respect to the Buddha, learn the Dharma (the teaching of the Buddha) and follow the advice of
the Sangha (monks or nuns or enlightened lay people). By doing this, Buddhists believe they
can achieve their goal of achieving wisdom and happiness.4

Who is a Christian?

‘If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved.’ 5 There seems to be urgency here and even the inkling
of desperation. Now all of a sudden we are talking about being saved by what we believe and
profess. But the term being saved implies an imminent danger of being lost or worse even of
looming death. Is being saved though, the ultimate goal of a Christian? Being saved seems to
be only the first step on the road to becoming holy: ‘You shall be holy; for I the Lord your
God am holy’6. Jesus Christ says: ‘If you wish to enter life, keep the commandments’. 7 In
other words life as Jesus sees it is not the natural biological process but rather a condition
achieved by way of adhering to the moral rules set out by God through the people of Israel
and more specifically to the Ten Commandments of Moses:

The Ten Commandments teach us true humanity. They shed light on the essential duties and so indirectly
on the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of every person. The beginning of freedom is to be free of
crimes such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege and so forth. When once one is
without these crimes, one begins to lift up ones head towards freedom. But this is only the beginning of
freedom.8

4
Compare http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/pbs2_unit08.htm
5
Rom. 10:9
6
Lev.19:2
7
Mt. 19:17
8
Veritatis Splendor 13, pg. 24

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 What is the Human Condition?

Now the question is who is free of these crimes? Humans seem to suffer from a fundamental
inability to be completely free of immoral practice or more subtly even, immoral thoughts.

What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his
heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from
the good creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship
which should link him to his last end; and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign
within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures. 9

There is in other words an inherent tendency within the human being towards the evil that
should not be done or thought. It is from this dilemma that we need to be saved. There is an
inward struggle.

And really I know of nothing good living in me - in my natural self that is - for though the will to do
what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: the good thing I want to do I never do; the evil thing
which I do not want – this is what I do….. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this
body doomed to death? God- thanks be to him- through Jesus Christ our Lord.10

Where does this tenacious tendency towards evil stem from? We only have to see the world
for what it is to sense a strong pull in the direction of that evil. As soon as certain criteria are
realised the influence of evil seems to grow. It is in situations of extreme poverty and extreme
wealth that evil seems to thrive, but it also in the everyday normal scenario that evils happen
which shock everybody, once uncovered, by their proximity and brutality. The mask of Satan
is removed and we look straight into the face of horror. As somebody once said: ‘Evil lives in
a thousand forms, it occupies the pinnacles of power, it bubbles up from the abyss of hell.
Love has just one form- Jesus Christ’. The human condition seems to be, be it unwillingly,
one of submission to the powers of evil. It is from this dependency and resulting death, in
body and in the spirit, that Jesus came to save us. If there was not a pressing reason there
would have been no action: ‘Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who
have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try
to associate man in their revolt against God.’11

The Conversation with Nicodemus

9
Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Profession of faith, par. 401, pg. 90
10
Rom. 7:18-25
11
Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Profession of faith , par. 414 pg. 93

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The Pharisee and religious leader Nicodemus realised that Jesus was sent by God through the
signs that Jesus was doing. The conversation that develops between him and Jesus is the key
to understanding the reality and the theology of baptism in particular but the whole process of
becoming holy, as God is holy, in general:

Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you
do unless God were with him. Jesus answered: ‘In all truth I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God
without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said: ‘How can anyone who is already old be born?’ Jesus
replied: ‘In all truth I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born through water
and the Spirit; what is born of human nature is human; what is born of the Spirit is spirit:’12

In other words, there is a link between keeping the commandments and so entering life and
being born from the spirit and entering the Kingdom of God. What Jesus is saying is that the
dilemma between wanting to do good but doing evil is lifted when someone becomes a new
creation in the Holy Spirit. At baptism a new person is born, born by the power of the Holy
Spirit. All sins are forgiven and the seed to eternal life is planted: ‘Baptism, by imparting the
life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the
consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to
spiritual battle.’13 Jesus was surprised that Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel did not know these
things (compare Jn. 3: 9) just as I am surprised that many contemporary teachers of catholic
theology do not know these things either.

Baptism

In the sacrament of baptism, the spiritual birth to new life takes place. It is a result of the
incarnation and self emptying or kenosis of God. The sacrament makes it possible for humans
to live the same life of the risen Christ. This is a dimension of baptism about which St. Paul
writes: ‘We who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death, so that just as
Christ was raised from the dead, we too might live a new life.’14 In other words Baptism
means being personally united to the paschal mystery of Jesus, the one priestly sacrifice
which is perfect and pleasing to God. What is this new life? It is a self emptying or kenosis of

12
Jn. 3:4-6
13
Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Profession of faith , par.405 pg. 91
14
Rom. 6:3-4

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ourselves, a life lived away from the ego towards one another and towards God, It is made
possible and set into action by baptism and pinnacles in the love for our brother to the point of
giving our lives for our friends: ‘This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved
you. No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.’ 15 The laying down
of our lives begins with baptism, is given new fervour and depth in the other sacraments and
reaches it goal at our death out of love.

Conclusion

Just as Widukind the Saxon warlord clung to his old Oak tree, we very often cling to certain
ideas and concepts, which we believe give us safety in this world. As Peter was afraid to leave
his nutshell of a boat to walk on the lake towards Jesus, we are often afraid to let go of our
convictions and embrace Jesus. As he is all in all, there is nothing to loose, except our old self
and some seemingly valid and seemingly logical viewpoints which lack truth however, as
they are often remnants of the old self and not the new creation born out of water and Holy
Spirit.

15
Jn. 15:12-13

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 Bibliography

 Catechism of the Catholic Church, Popular and Definitive Edition, (London, Burns &
Oates, 2000)
 http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/pbs2_unit08.htm

 http://www.islamicity.com

 http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm

 http://www.ottonenzeit.de/ottonen/widukind/widukind.htm

 The New Jerusalem Bible, Readers Edition, ( London, Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd,
1990 )

 Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, (London, Catholic Truth Society, 1993)