by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap
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SUMMARY: The Baptism in the Spirit is not a sacrament, but it is
related to several sacraments. The Baptism in the Spirit makes real and
in a way renews Christian initiation. At the beginning of the Church,
Baptism was administered to adults who converted from paganism and who,
made on the occasion of Baptism, an act of faith and a free and mature
choice. Today it is substituted instead by intermediary parents or
godparents. In this situation, rarely, or never, does the baptized
person ever reach the stage of proclaiming in the Holy Spirit
"Jesus is Lord". And until one reaches this point,
everything else in the Christian life remains out of focus and
immature. Miracles no longer happen and we experience what Jesus did in
Nazareth: "Jesus could not perform many miracles because of their
lack of faith" (Mt.13.58). The Baptism in the Spirit's
effectiveness in reactivating baptism consists in this: finally man
contributes his part -- namely, he makes a choice of faith, prepared in
repentance, that allows the that allows the work of God to set itself
free and to emanate all its strength. It is as if the plug is pulled
and the light is switched on. The gift of God is finally "untied" and
the Spirit is allowed to flow like a ftragrance in the Christian life.
Before talking about the Baptism in the Spirit, it is important to try
and understand what the Renewal in the Spirit is all about. After the
Second Vatican Council, many things in the Church's life were renewed -
the liturgy, pastoral care, canon law, the constitutions of the
religious orders and their dress. Although all these things are
important, they are only external things and woe to us if we stop there
and think the task is finished, because it is not structures but souls
that are important to God. "It is in men's souls that the Church is
beautiful," writes St. Ambrose, and therefore it is in men's souls
that she must make herself beautiful.
God Is Author and Power
The Renewal is a renewal in which God, not man, is the principle
author. "I, not you," says God, "make all
things new" (Rev 21:5); "My Spirit -- and He alone
-- may renew the face of the earth" (see Psalm 104:30). From
the religious point of view, we tend to view things from a ptolemaic
perspective: at the foundation there are our efforts -- organization,
efficiency, reforms, goodwill -- with the earth here as the center
which God comes to strengthen and crown, by His grace and our
effort.
We must -- at this point the Word of God cries out -- "give
the power back to God" (Psalm 68:35) because "the
power belongs to God" (Psalm 62:12). For too long we have
usurped this power of His from God, by managing it as if it were ours,
as if it was up to us to govern the power of God. We have to totally
change our perspective. That is, to acknowledge simply that without
the Holy Spirit, we cannot do anything, not even say, "Jesus
is Lord!" (I Cor 12:3).
Baptism in the Spirit and the
Sacrament of Baptism
The Baptism in the Spirit is not a sacrament, but it is related to a
sacrament, to several sacraments in fact -- to the sacraments of
Christian initiation. The Baptism in the Spirit makes real and in a way
renews Christian initiation. The primary relationship is with the
Sacrament of Baptism. In fact, this experience is called the Baptism in
the Spirit by English-speaking people.
We believe that the Baptism in the Spirit makes real and revitalizes
our baptism. To understand how a sacrament which was received so many
years ago, usually immediately after our birth, could suddenly come
back to life and emanate so much energy, as often happens through the
Baptism in the Spirit, it is important to look at our understanding of
sacramental theology.
Catholic theology recognizes the concept of a valid but
"tied" sacrament. A sacrament is called tied if the
fruit that should accompany it remains bound because of certain blocks
that prevent its effectiveness. An extreme example of this is the
Sacrament of Matrimony or Holy Orders received in the state of mortal
sin. In such circumstances these sacraments cannot grant any grace to
people until the obstacle of sin is removed through penance. Once this
happens the sacrament is said to live again thanks to the indelible
character and irrevocability of the gift of God: God remains faithful
even if we are unfaithful because He cannot deny Himself (see Timothy
2:13).
In the case of baptism what is it that causes the fruit of the
sacrament to stay tied? The sacraments are not magical rituals that act
mechanically, without the person's knowledge or disregarding any
response on his part. Their effectiveness is the fruit of a synergy or
cooperation between divine omnipotence -- in reality the grace of Christ
or the Holy Spirit -- and human freedom, because as St. Augustine said,
"The one who created you without your cooperation, will not save
without your cooperation."
The opus operatum of baptism, namely, God's part or grace, has
several aspects -- forgiveness of sins, the gift of the theological
virtues of faith, hope, and charity (these, however, only as a seed),
and divine sonship -- all of which are operated through the effective
action of the Holy Spirit. But what does the opus operantis in baptism
-- namely, man's part, consist of? It consists of faith! Whoever
believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16). At the side of
baptism, therefore, there is another element: the faith of man.
"To all who received Him He gave the power to become children
of God: to those who believe in His name" (John 1:13).
Baptism is like a divine seal put on the faith of man: having heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and having believed in it,
you have received (of course, in baptism) the seal of the Holy Spirit
(see Ephesians 1:13)
Baptism and Confirmation of Faith
At the beginning of the Church, Baptism was such a powerful event and
so rich in grace that there was no need normally of a new effusion of
the Spirit like we have today. Baptism was ministered to adults who
converted from paganism and who, properly instructed, were in the
position to make, on the occasion of baptism, an act of faith and a
free and mature choice. It is sufficient to read the mistagogic
catechesis on baptism attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem to become aware
of the depth of faith to which those waiting for baptism were led. In
substance, they arrived at baptism through a true and real conversion,
and thus for them baptism was a real washing, a personal renewal, and a
rebirth in the Holy Spirit.
The favorable circumstances that allowed baptism, at the origins of the
Church, to operate with so much power was that the grace of God and
man's response met at the same time, and there was a perfect
synchronization
Infant Baptism in Non-Christian Environments
But now this synchronization has been broken, as we are baptized as
infants, and little by little this aspect of the free and personal act
of faith no longer happens. It was substituted instead by a decision by
intermediary parents or godparents. When a child grew up in a totally
Christian environment, this faith still could flourish, even though at
a slower rate. Now, however, this is no longer the case and our
spiritual environment is even worse than the one at the time of the
Middle Ages. Not that there is no normal Christian life, but this is
now the exception rather than the rule.
In this situation, rarely, or never, does the baptized person ever
reach the stage of proclaiming in the Holy Spirit, "Jesus is
Lord." And until one reaches this point, everything else in
the Christian life remains out of focus and immature. Miracles no
longer happen, and we experience what Jesus did in Nazareth:
"Jesus could not perform many miracles because of their lack
of faith." (Mt 13. 58)
God's Will
Here, then, is what I feel is the significance of the Baptism in the
Spirit. It is God's answer to this malfunctioning that has grown up in
the Christian life in the Sacrament of Baptism.
It is an accepted fact that over the last few years there has been some
concern on the part of the Church, among the bishops, that the
Christian sacraments, especially baptism, are being administered to
people who will not make any use of them in life. As a result, it has
even been suggested that baptism should not be administered unless
there are some minimum guarantees that it will be cultivated and valued
by the child in question. For one should not throw pearls to dogs, as
Jesus said, and baptism is a pearl, because it is the fruit of the
blood of Christ.
But it seems that God was concerned about this situation even before
the Church was, and raised up here and there in the Church movements
aimed at renewing Christian initiation in adults. The Charismatic
Renewal is one of these movements and in it the principle grace is,
without doubt, linked to the Baptism of the Spirit and to what comes
before it.
Release and Confirmation of Faith
It's effectiveness in reactivating baptism consists in this: finally
man contributes his part -- namely, he makes a choice of faith,
prepared in repentance that allows the work of God to set itself free
and to emanate all its strength. It is as if the plug is pulled and the
light is switched on. The gift of God is finally
"untied" and the Spirit is allowed to flow like a
fragrance in the Christian life.
In addition to the renewal of the grace of baptism, the Baptism in the
Spirit is also a confirmation of one's own baptism, a deliberate
"yes" to it, to its fruit and its commitments, and as such it is also
similar to Confirmation too. Confirmation being the sacrament that
develops, confirms, and brings to completion the work of baptism. From
it, too, comes that desire for greater involvement in the apostolic and
missionary dimension of the Church that is usually noted in those who
receive the Baptism in the Spirit. They feel more inclined to cooperate
with the building up of the Church, to put themselves at her service in
various ministries both clerical and lay, to witness for Christ -- to do
all those things that recall the happening of Pentecost and which are
actuated in the Sacrament of Confirmation.
The Baptism of the Spirit is not the only occasion known within the
Church for this reviving of the sacraments of initiation. There is, for
example, the renewal of the baptismal promises in the Easter vigil, and
there are the spiritual exercises, and the religious professions,
sometimes called a "second baptism." and at the
sacrament level there is Confirmation.
It is also not difficult to discover in the lives of the saints, the
presence of a spontaneous effusion, especially on the occasion of their
conversion. The difference with the Baptism in the Spirit, however, is
that it is open to all the people of God, small and great, and not only
to those privileged ones who do the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises or
make a religious profession.
The Will of God in History
Where does this extraordinary force that we experienced when we were
Baptized in the Spirit come from? What we are talking about is not just
some theory, but something that we ourselves have experienced and
therefore can say with John, "What we have heard, what we have
seen with our own eyes, what our hands have touched, this we also
announce to you, so that you too be in communion with us."
(see l John 1:1-11). The explanation of this force is in the will of
God -- because God was pleased to renew the Church today by this means
-- and this is enough.
There are certainly some biblical precedents, like the one told in Acts
8:14-17, when Peter and John, having heard that Samaria welcomed the
Word of God, went there, prayed for them, and laid hands on them so
that they could receive the Holy Spirit. But these biblical precedents,
are not sufficient to explain the vastness and depth of the
contemporary manifestation of the effusion of the Spirit.
The explanation therefore is in God's plan. We could say, by
paraphrasing a famous saying of the Apostle Paul: Because Christians,
with all their organization, were not able to transmit the power of the
Spirit, God was pleased to renew the believers through the foolishness
of the Baptism in the Spirit. In fact theologians look for an
explanation and responsible people for moderation, but simple souls
touch with their hands the power of Christ in the Baptism of the Spirit
(1 Cor 12:1-24).
We men, and in particular we men of the Church, tend to limit God in
His freedom: we tend to insist that He follows a compulsory pattern
(the so called channels of grace) and we forget that God is a torrent
that breaks loose and creates its own path and that the Spirit blows
where and how he wants (notwithstanding the role of the teaching of the
Church to discern what actually comes from the Spirit and what does not
come from Him). What does the Baptism of the Spirit consist of and how
does it work? In the Baptism of the Spirit there is a secret,
mysterious move of God that is His way of becoming present, in a way
that is different for each one because only He knows us in our inner
part and how to act upon our unique personality. There is also the
external community part which is the same for everyone and consists
mainly of three things: brotherly love, laying on of hands, and prayer.
These are non-sacramental but simply ecclesiastic elements.
Holy Spirit Proceeding from the
Father and the Son
Where does the grace we experience in the Baptism of the Spirit come
from? From those around us? No! From the person who receives it? No! It
comes from God! We can only say that such grace is related to baptism,
because God acts always with coherence and faithfulness and He does not
do and undo. He honors the commitments and institutions of Christ. One
thing is certain -- that it is not the brothers who impart the Holy
Spirit, but they do invoke the Holy Spirit on the person. The Spirit
cannot be given by any man, not even the Pope or a bishop, because no
man possesses by himself the Holy Spirit. Only Jesus may give the Holy
Spirit; all the others do not possess the Holy Spirit, but rather are
possessed by Him. As to the manner of this grace, we may speak of a new
coming of the Holy Spirit, of a new mission by the Father through Jesus
Christ, or a new anointing corresponding to a new degree of grace.
Fr. Cantalamessa has been the Papal preacher to Pope John Paul II's
Pontifical household since 1980. Originally from the (ICCRS) newsletter, this
article is apparently based on a talk given to a gathering of
religious men.
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