ON BAPTISM - What to expect after it?

[rep2k 2478]

 

RITE OF ABLUTION - BAPTISM

What to expect after it?

As written by Fr. Anton

It is a sad fact that the vast majority of our people, who consider themselves to be Canonists, do not see any mystery of faith and an essentially new beginning of life in the Sacred Ceremony of Baptism. Alas, it remains indeed in the domain of some customs that have a completely different meaning, and too often pagan background...

 

Faith - as hope in the invisible, invisible yet real, as a manifestation of our real life in the Church, which is the Home of His - expects from everyone who either went out himself or who was taken out of the church by his godfather after baptism - a little more serious understanding and living our baptism, as the beginning of a new life under the Light of His. And here we already have a terrible encounter - a collision between faith and superstition!

 

How many more times will you see today, in our towns, in our villages - those children, babies who are brought to baptism, have also brought with themselves, of course not willingly, someone who questions the sacrament in one way or another, even if it is in the least amount! My Lord, but keep in mind, against the worst! Sometimes We have to remind our faithful that the children, or even adults, come to live a new life! The fault lies in that enormous amount of superstition. Certain ‘philosophers’ of our kind say: “Well, the child is coming to take a bath for the first time, you never know what can happen...” But do remember that we are, in fact, witnessing a HEAVENLY ACT - where person emerges from the water of the old person, from death, and begins to live a new life, as commanded by Him.

 

As written in the Scroll of Virtue:

"So I am the Most High, and in pursuit of My Virtue, I bid my faithful this:

You shall keep fast to your word and station, and aspire not to greatness among men, but to My glory." 

 

Regardless of whether you were baptized as a baby or an adult, maybe you have some justification to allow yourself to say: "I don't remember all that, it was in the long forgotten past..." - The Holy Mother Church gives you the opportunity every day, every week, every month and every year to remember what it was and to renew your covenant with the Saints, the Exalted, with the Lord God - the Creator. Our walk around the sacred temples, with lighted candles, is nothing but a continuation of those ancient baptismal liturgies, when the newly baptized, in the long sung past - and baptisms were then usually performed in some living water, on a river, on lake, on the sea - when they would return to the temple, to the place of worship in a procession, that day or night, and together with the faithful, they would participate in the liturgy, sometimes even a pilgrimage. And that is why we cheer and sing about the great holidays of our Holy Mother Church. Let us keep in mind that it is not just a song or a thesis, but a confirmation of a fact, and if a person clothed themself in a new life of faith, he had to take off his clothes first, to take off his old person.

 

That undressing of the old person is renunciation. Every person has in themself the pagan, as well as that which opposes the dogmas well known to us. But, when we compare how much is in us, we will see that that clean washed man, that man of love, simply cannot get a word from his old self, the man of the opposing truth, or very often, from that pagan in us.

Final Reflections of Fr. Anton;

 

The strong inspiration for this thesis came from my recent first baptism of a little girl, whom I had the honor to baptize over a small stream not far from the walls of Veletz. Alas, the sacred church was in the renovation phase, but for those who have the will, even a fifty-meter-high wall is not a problem for them, so the wonderful parents agreed to the baptism over the water stream, in the nature given to us by God. It is also important for me to emphasize the importance of the place where little Helene was baptized, because this is an indicator of what is written in this thesis, but something much more important is what the believing people concluded - your obligation to God does not magically stop after baptism, on the contrary, we enter through the new door of our life, while closing the old, dilapidated door so as not to fall into the temptation of Ibless.

[Gandhi 2718]

Alfred Barclay read his cousin's work over his morning tea.. He smiled - offering a simple nod.