Baptism

Today where we celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordon I wanted to explore this sacrament a bit.  I remember a talk given by Fr Robert where he talked about how there where 3 baptisms available to people in which they might enter heaven; water, spirit, and fire.  It lists in the Bible these three baptisms very clearly.

⁴Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him ⁶and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, ⁹and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ¹⁰And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹²His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Mat 3:4-12

John baptised with water a baptism of repentance which prepares man to receive the Will of God.  While Jesus' baptism is of the Holy Spirit and fire.

²⁹And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. ³⁰But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

Lk 7:29-30

 

The Pharisees and lawyers reject the Will of God because they never got to the point of resignation through repentance which open the door of the soul to the Will of God.  In the Volumes Jesus speaks to Luisa about how crosses also prepare a soul to this point.

This morning, on coming, blessed Jesus told me: “My daughter, crosses, mortification's, are as many baptismal founts, and any kind of cross which is dipped in the thought of my Passion loses half of its bitterness and its weight decreases by half.”
Vol. 6, June 5, 1905
The second baptism of the Holy Spirit comes through Jesus and the Holy Spirit and restores the soul, purifying it of the stain of original sin and allowing the action of grace to move in the creature. 


²he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

 

So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

³And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”

So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

⁴Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

Acts 19: 2-6 

 

 

But in the Volumes Jesus laments over the sorrows that he receives in this Sacrament. How it can be administered disrespectfully and how souls can still be lost despite the greatness of it.

 

 

If I see a newborn being baptized, I cry with sorrow, because, while through Baptism I restore his innocence, I find my child again, I give back to him the rights over Creation which he had lost, I smile at him with love and satisfaction, I make the enemy flee from him, that he may no longer have any right over him, I entrust him to the Angels, and all of Heaven makes feast for him – soon my smile turns into sorrow, the feast into mourning. I see that the one who is baptized will be an enemy of mine, a new Adam, and maybe even a lost soul. Oh! how my love moans in each Baptism; especially, then, if one adds that the minister who is baptizing does not do it with that respect, dignity and decorum which befit a Sacrament that contains the new regeneration. Ah! many times they pay more attention to a bagatelle, to whatever show, than to administering a Sacrament. So, my love feels itself being pricked by the baptizer and by the one who is baptized, and it moans with unutterable moans. Would you not want, then, to give Me a requital of love, a loving moan, for each Baptism, so as to keep company with my sorrowful moans?

Vol. 18, Nov. 5, 1925

  

The third baptism, that of fire, is mentioned in the gospels the reference being taken to foreshadow the crown of the death the apostles were to receive.

  

 

³⁶And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

³⁷They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”

³⁸But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

³⁹They said to Him, “We are able.”

So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; ⁴⁰ but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared."

Mark 10:36-40

 

 

In the Volumes it speaks of the limitations of sacrament of baptism and how the baptism of fire/victim is more perfect.  I remember Fr. Robert cited this as the baptism that aborted babies received which gave them access to Heaven.

 

 

“My daughter, the baptism at birth is by water, therefore it has the virtue of purifying, but not of removing tendencies and passions. On the other hand, the baptism of victim is baptism by fire, therefore it has not only the virtue of purifying, but of consuming any passion and evil tendency. Even more, I Myself baptize the soul, bit by bit: my thought baptizes the thought of the soul; my heartbeat baptizes her heartbeat; my desire her desire, and so on. However, this baptism is carried out between Myself and the soul, according to whether she gives herself to Me without ever taking back what she has given Me.

Vol. 11, March 13, 1912

 

 

 

The best way to maintain the gifts of baptism is to live in his Divine Will.  As he says below, his Will is the source and therefore contains the fullness of the gifts of Baptism, which is not limited to being received only once but is constantly renewed overcoming the inherent weaknesses of the creature in which his baptism by grace is limited. 

 

 

“My daughter, I recommend that you not get out of my Will, because my Will contains such power as to be a new Baptism for the soul - and even more than Baptism itself.  In fact, while in the Sacraments there is part of my Grace, in my Will there is the whole fullness of It.  In the Baptism, the stain of original sin is removed, but passions and weaknesses remain.  In my Will, since the soul destroys her own volition, she also destroys passions, weaknesses and all that is human; and she lives of the virtues, of the fortitude and of all the Divine qualities.”

Vol. 9, March 23, 1910