← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 169: The Mystagogy of Baptism (2025)
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Together with Fr. Mike, we continue our examination of the sacrament of Baptism, specifically the mystagogy of the rite of Baptism. The Catechism explains each and every element of the Baptismal rite, from the Sign of the Cross to the baptismal water. Fr. Mike concludes with a reflection on Baptism as the beginning of our sacramental journey and how we are called to walk as children of God throughout our lives after our Baptism. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1234-1245.
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 169. We're reading paragraphs 1234 to 1245. 1234 to 1245. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism and year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. It's day 169, and yes, I think I'm clever because I said paragraph 1234. Paragraph 1234 to 1245. Today the title is called Mystic OG of the celebration. What's that mean? Mystagogy is, you know, the unpacking of the mystery, essentially the teaching of the mystery of the celebration of sacrament baptism. What we're going to do here is virtually every paragraph is another aspect of the rite of baptism and then its explanation. So at the beginning, we're in paragraph 1235. It's the sign of the cross. We do this at the beginning of the celebration in Mark's with the imprint of Christ, the one who's going to belong to him, and signifies the grace of the redemption. Christ is won for us by his cross. And we go through that every step, basically, in baptism, like the white garment, the candle, the anointing of the sacred Chrism. We're going to hear about all of those and there's going to be an explanation of why we do all of those things with each of these paragraphs, which I think is pretty incredible. That's called mystagogy, an explanation teaching of the mystery. So as we enter into mystery, let's call upon our God and Father in prayer. Father in heaven, we give you thanks. We praise you for your glory. We praise you for who you are. We thank you. We thank you for the gift of baptism. We thank you for the gift of not only declaring us to be your children, but making us into your children. We thank you for allowing us to have access to your Father's heart. We thank you for giving us your only beloved Son as our Savior, our Lord, our God and our Brother. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that dwells in us. Thank you for making us the temple of your Holy Spirit. Lord God, as we unpack the mystery of the celebration of baptism, we ask that you please give us a fire of love, a fire of faith and hope, a fire that wants to rekindle what you placed in our hearts at our own baptism. Give us a love for you that will never end, so that in you our lives will never end. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 169. We're reading paragraphs 1234 to 1245. The mystagogy of the celebration the meaning and grace of the sacrament of Baptism are clearly seen in the rites of its celebration. By following the gesture and words of this celebration with attentive participation, the faithful are initiated into the riches. This sacrament signifies and actually brings about in each newly baptized person. The sign of the cross on the threshold of the celebration marks with the imprint of Christ the one who is going to belong to him, and signifies the grace of the redemption Christ won for us by His Cross. The proclamation of the Word of God enlightens the candidates and the assembly with the revealed truth and elicits the response of faith, which is inseparable from baptism. Indeed, baptism is the sacrament of faith in a particular way, since it is the sacramental entry into the life of faith. Since baptism signifies liberation from sin and from its instigator, the devil, one or more exorcisms are pronounced over the candidate. The celebrant then anoints him with the oil of catechumens or lays hands on him, and he explicitly renounces Satan. Thus prepared, he is able to confess the faith of the Church to which he will be entrusted by baptism. The baptismal water is consecrated by a prayer of epiclesis either at this moment or at the Easter vigil. The Church asks God that through His Son, the power of the Holy Spirit may be sent upon the water, so that those who will be baptized in it may be born of water and the Spirit. The essential rite of the sacrament follows baptism. Properly speaking, it signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the paschal mystery of Christ. Baptism is performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal water. However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by pouring the water three times over the candidate's head. In the Latin Church, this triple infusion is accompanied by the minister's n I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the Eastern liturgies, the catechumen turns toward the east and the priest says, servant of God is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. At the invocation of each person of the Most Holy Trinity, the priest immerses the candidate in the water and raises him up again. The anointing with sacred chrism, perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop, signifies the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly baptized who has become a Christian, that is, one anointed by the Holy Spirit incorporated into Christ, who is anointed priest, prophet and king. In the liturgy of the Eastern Churches, the post baptismal anointing is the sacrament of chrismation. In the Roman liturgy, the post baptismal anointing announces a second anointing with sacred chrism to be conferred later by the bishop confirmation, which will, as it were, confirm and complete the baptismal anointing. The white garment symbolizes that the person baptized has put on Christ, has risen with Christ. The candle lit from the Easter candle signifies that Christ has enlightened the neophyte in him. The baptized are the light of the world. The newly baptized is now in the only Son, a child of God, entitled to say the prayer of the children of God, Our Father, First Holy Communion. Having become a child of God, clothed with the wedding garment, the neophyte is admitted to the marriage supper of the Lamb and receives the food of the new life, the Body and Blood of Christ. The Eastern churches maintain a lively awareness of the unity of Christian initiation by giving Holy Communion to all the newly baptized and confirmed, even little children, recalling the Lord's words, let the children come to me, do not hinder them. The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who have attained the age of reason, expresses the orientation of baptism to the Eucharist by having the newly baptized child brought to the altar for the praying of the Our Father. The solemn blessing concludes the celebration of baptism. At the baptism of newborns, the blessing of the Mother occupies a special place. Alright, there we have it. Paragraphs 1234-1245. The mystagogy of the celebration. I don't know if you caught that. Every little element of the baptismal rite is recaptured and Explained everything from the sign of the cross. You know, when we have the sign of the cross here in the. In the Latin rite, it's not merely. It is, but it's not merely, you know, the priest standing in the front and everyone kind of mimicking the priest, right? We touch our forehead, touch our chest, touch our shoulders, and make, say, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But there's also. There's also a claiming of the child. There's a claiming of this one to be baptized. By tracing the sign of the cross on this child's forehead and inviting parents and godparents to do the same, there's something so powerful and that moment not only because, you know, as a priest who does baptisms, I get to do that, but because I get to see parents trace the sign of the cross on the foreheads of their children and essentially saying, I claim you for Jesus Christ. That's, of course, what baptism is. But by tracing that sign of the cross as I claim you for Jesus Christ. And that's something that, as parents do on the day of the baptism of their child, they can do for years and years to come. I remember being at a men's conference once years ago, and the priest presenting is an awesome priest out of. Out of Pennsylvania. And he had invited all the men, all the fathers. He said, if you're a father and, you know, you're in this relationship with your children and you're praying for them, you want them to choose the right thing. Although we're in the middle of a broken world and we all suffer and all struggle, he said, you know, praying with your children, praying over your children, even sometimes making the sign of the cross. Tracing the sign of the cross with your thumb on your children's foreheads can be so powerful. I remember at one point, my dad. I was sitting next to him during this men's conference, and not too long later, maybe months, maybe a couple years later, one of my siblings was having a really rough time. I remember being in the kitchen, standing there with the family, you know, and whatnot. And there was heartbreak going on, and there was disagreement, and there was being misunderstood. All the things like normal families experience. And at one moment, my dad walked over to this sibling of mine, and he placed his hand on this person's head and just trace the sign of the cross on it, on the forehead. And it was one of those. You know, my dad doesn't do that often, but it was one of those moments. And then he embraced him, then he. Then they hugged, and. But it was one of Those moments where it was just, wow, this is. Yeah, this is. You know, I gave you to Jesus on the day of your baptism, and you're still his. You know, the Father's blessing is so incredible. And you can do that. That's part of the rite of baptism. And then what happens after that? Proclamation of the word of God. Right. God's word is read because the response to that must be faith and the sacrament. Yeah, Baptism is a sacrament of faith. And then there's also 1237, a rite of exorcism. That's. That happens in the. In the rite of baptism. And the reason why the rite of exorcism belongs there is because we recognize that Scripture says it pretty clearly that when we're born, we're born under the reign of darkness. We're born under the domain of darkness, under the dominion of the evil one, and we need to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God. And so there's an exorcism that does call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and explicitly renounces Satan and transfers that person from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light to the kingdom of Satan, to the kingdom of God himself. And that helps us take the next step towards baptism and the essential rite. You know, all these rites, you know, there's anointing with Chrism later on, there's a white garment and the candle. All those pieces are. Those are good pieces that are part of the rite of baptism. But in 1239, it highlights this. It says the essential rite of the sacrament follows baptism, basically saying that all these other things are very good, they belong there, they mean something. But the essential rite of sacrament is baptism itself. And it signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the most Holy Trinity by our being configured to the paschal mystery of Christ. Right? His life, death and resurrection. And it's performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion. That's meaning like, you know, dunking, getting all the way under the water, triple immersion. And yet, even from the very, very beginning, baptism has also been able to be conferred by pouring water three times over the candidate's head. And so keep that in mind. That baptism, yes, it means immersion, means washing, that kind of sense. And that is, again, that's the fullness of the expression of the symbol, but also can be effective. Right? The baptism is still effective if there's merely the pouring of water over a person, that they're both legitimate and they both accomplish the task. And the task is Transferring us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The task is bringing about a death of sin and new life in Jesus. The task is that our sins are forgiven. The task is that we're adopted as God's beloved sons and daughters. All those things are happening even if I'm not immersed in the water. But the words must be along the lines of, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In the east says so, and so is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and Holy Spirit. That trinitarian formula must be there. Water must be there. The intention to baptize must be there. So that is the. Those are the essential elements of the sacrament of baptism, which I think is just remarkable. But we know that this is the last thing. But that's not the last thing, right? Baptism is just the beginning. Because baptism is just the beginning. The next steps are preparation for first Holy Communion. The next steps are preparation for confirmation. And in the Eastern Church, as we noted, that happens right away in the Eastern Church. Someone is. A child is baptized. They're immediately Chrismated or confirmed, and they immediately receive Holy Communion. How do you give a baby Holy Communion? Well, there's a little spoon and there's a whole thing. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. And it's part of the Eastern, Eastern rite in the church. And that's how they do that, of course, in the west later on. But this is the big piece, is that baptism is just the beginning. It's the beginning of this new life. And the idea, the implication is that after taking this first step, a person would continue to walk. Right? After taking this first step, the person realizes, I am not done. This is just the first step. How do I continue to walk as a child of God? And that is what I The challenge every one of us gets to face every single day. If you've been baptized, you get to ask that question, okay? Lord, that was not the end when you made me your adopted son or daughter. That was not the end. When you made me a temple of your Holy Spirit. That was not the end. That was just the beginning. And I'm called to now walk as a child of God. God, how do you want me to walk today? How do you want me to walk today? How can I walk in courage? How can I walk in faith? How can I walk in hope? How can I walk in love? How can I walk in justice and fortitude? How can I walk in prudence and temperance? How can I walk in generosity and graciousness and patience. All of those ways are the questions we get to ask the Lord today. Because our baptism was not the end. It was just the beginning. And I think that's incredibly exciting. Anyways. Ah, man. I'll tell you this. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.