What is Baptism, Really?
From
St. Azariah’s commentary for the Mass of the Sixth Sunday after
Pentecost.
The
saint expounds on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 6:3-11.
Following is the Epistle from the online Douay-Rheims Bible
https://www.drbo.org/chapter/52006.htm
“Know
you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized
in his death? For we are buried together with him by baptism into
death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the
Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in
the likeness of his resurrection.
“Knowing
this, that our
old man
is crucified with him, that the body
of sin
may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer. For he
that is dead is justified from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we
believe that we shall live also together with Christ: Knowing that
Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no
more have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died
once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God: So do you also
reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus
our Lord.”
Notes:
“Our
old man":
Our corrupt state, subject to sin and concupiscence, coming to us
from Adam, is called our old man, as our state, reformed in and by
Christ, is called the new man.
"Body
of sin":
The vices and sins, which then ruled in us, are named the body of
sin.
St.
Azariah, the guardian angel of Maria Valtorta, dictated to her
fifty-eight detailed mystical meditations and commentary on all of
the Sunday Masses, plus a few others, found in the Traditional Roman
Missal of the Catholic Church. No Traditional Catholic should be
without this collection.
For
the Mass of the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, he told her: “[…] I
propose to you the meditation in Paul’s epistle, so little
understood even by those calling themselves fervent Catholics. What
is Baptism, exactly? Most would answer, ‘A ceremony which is
usually performed at the beginning of life to show we are Catholics’;
another, smaller group would say, ‘It is the Sacrament which
cancels out original sin and restores Grace to us.’ They would,
indeed, have answered well, showing themselves sufficient to live in
a Catholic way […] if good will is joined to knowledge.
“But
very few would go further in thought to the point of thoroughly
examining what Baptism truly is, what it is formed of, its real
nature, hidden under the substances used for the rite. If many
thought of the ‘nature’ of Catholic Baptism and if many did their
best to make their children or godchildren understand this nature
from the most tender age, there would truly arise in both these
children and their parents or godparents a profound love for Christ,
such a love that it would restrain them from sinning, such a strong
love that it would lead to holy works […]
and
with love pay the debt we owe to Christ, and also pay our debt to the
Most High with pain.
“[…]
This restraining from sin, this loving gratitude to Him who restores
your nature as children of God – the sharing, through Grace, in
Life, glory and divinity – comes spontaneously in whoever is able
to contemplate Baptism for what it really is.
“It
is immersion in the suffering of Christ, in His tears, in His blood,
in His humiliations, in His death. This is under the species of
water.
“The
Victor over Death died to destroy the truest death: that of sin. And
He opened His veins to give you the means to make your souls white,
and He let His chest be rent to gather you into the hollow of His
Heart. And have you rise from there to a life of Grace.
“[...]
But it is required that man second Him so that the blood of the Lamb
will not cry out against you, as against sacrilegious mockers and
dissipators of His Sacrifice.
“If
the Catholic considered these things, he would no longer call Baptism
a ‘ceremony’; he would see it not only as a Sacrament which
restores Grace and cancels out sin, but as the holocaust of Christ,
who opened his veins to give you the lavacre which takes away evil
and makes you sharers in Good […], to infuse into you the Virtues
indispensable to save yourselves and, therefore, to make you capable
as well of understanding Wisdom, believing, hoping in Mercy.
“Whoever
is born and rises again in the Blood of Christ and remains faithful
to that Blood no longer dies, but lives in Jesus Christ the Savior,
having, like Him, overcome the world and Satan in taming
concupiscences.
“[Addressing
Maria Valtorta:] Rest soul of mine. I gave you few words so that you
would not tremble at being abandoned. […] Offer your suffering as
a sharing in the Holy Sacrifice of this Sunday.”
Websites
where you can find the English translation of The
Book of Azariah.
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