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My brother-in-law prefers to celebrate his “birthday” in AA to celebrating his traditional birthday.  His last one was his 35th.  Most of us just celebrate one birthday.  Shortly before that day our mother knew what was about to happen when her water broke.  That is the “water” that is involved in the ceremony of Baptism.  In my childhood catechism some 70 years ago, the element of water was for cleansing Original Sin and restoring an individual relationship with God.  St. Augustine’s explanation of Original Sin was that Eve stole from Adam control over his God-given and exclusive power of procreation.  Happily, that explanation is no longer in the catechism  When we look up the sacrament of Baptism in the new catechism, we read what else St Augustine taught:  Both the Words and the Elements give power to the sacraments.

The mystery of the birth of each one of us from the waters of our mother’s womb has been symbolized from time immemorial by the waters of the sea.  Immersion in the waters of the Jordan with John the Baptist symbolized rebirth to a new life from the deep waters of the universe.  The second aspect of Baptism is the Word.  In John the Evangelist’s explanation of John the Baptist’s ceremony with Jesus, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”  The air we breathe in and with which we speak immediately follows birth and that air is symbolized by the birds that fly through it.  Sea and Sky symbolize the whole universe.

Before the new liturgy was introduced, every Mass ended with “The Last Gospel”.  Because of that, I imagine most Catholics my age, can say it off by heart. 

In the Beginning was the Word

And the Word was with God

And the Word was God.

He was in the Beginning with God

And through Him all things were made.

And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us.

(Perhaps over the years I have mixed lines up.)  At any rate, the second aspect of Baptism is the Word.

Baptism is a ceremony and ceremony is a way for us to pay attention to the reality that surrounds us and that we are a part of.  Our consciousness of our place in the universe informs our conscience.  Today, Science has taught us way too much about our DNA and our connection to the past history of Mother Earth and the molecular structure of everything small and huge.  But it is still religion that helps us “call upon” a power “greater than myself” when we are in need of guidance.

Religions began by an awareness of that power through some particular experience (for example, Moses and the Burning Bush).  However, the pitfall of religion is to mistake the object of that experience for God.  To “define” God is to worship an idol, because God is infinite.  Religions must always renew themselves in the light of new revelations (including scientific discoveries).  In his recent encyclical, Pope Francis is attempting to guide Catholics away from merely using the earth and its wonders for personal gain, towards a moral responsibility: to be the consciousness and the conscience of the universe.

Agnes Beirne