Baptism Ritual in The Catholic Church

There are many rituals in different religions; however, baptism has always had a central part and role in Christianity. This is very significant, especially among the Catholics who firmly believe that it is only through baptism that a person is fully initiated into Christianity. This is one of the significant rituals in Catholicism even though there are other rituals like mass, the last rites of a dead person, the anointing of the sick, matrimony and other rituals which are performed in the catholic church with relation to faith and trying to affirm the faith of the individuals who attend the church to fully believe that God is what is expressed in the bible as well as in the traditions of the church. This paper discusses the baptism ritual, the reasons why it is done and how it is done, and how this impacts the whole aspect of being a Christian.

Baptism existed even during the time of Jesus, and john the Baptist is the primary prophet renowned for making baptism resound with great importance just before the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus Christ. However, a lot has changed from the time of Jesus to the present time (Ferguson, 2009). During the time of Jesus, baptism was explained in two ways: baptism by the fire and baptism by the water. However, as Jesus stated to Lazarus, for any person to see the kingdom of heaven, they had to be reborn against through water. This is the firm belief of most Christians regarding the eligibility of one to be a Christian. It is from these beginnings and backgrounds that the ritual has developed into what it is today.

In the bible, there is no explicit statement that a person had to reject the devil or make a vow to stick to God for them to be baptized, and this explains the ‘puritan’ baptism practiced during the time of Jesus and the contemporary Christianity baptism which requires a person to do a lot of things and which is in an orderly manner (Spinks, 2017). In the current catholic church, baptism is done both for children and also for adults. The children are baptized believing that their baptism will change their place in heaven due to the original sin and place them closer to God. However, the baptism of the adults is the type of baptism that ensures that a person has a change of heart and they begin following Christ with new inspiration and faith.

Firstly, a person is trained on how to run and go on with Christian life, and after being trained about Christian faith and what it entails, the person is then initiated into the Christian faith through the ritual of baptism, which is done in a process. Firstly, in some places, the members undergo mandatory retreat before they are baptized, while this does not happen in most places. During the day of baptism, several things happen, including vows rejecting the devil and stating clearly that one will follow Christ from the time of baptism henceforth. The other part of the ritual is cleansing using water (Spinks, 2017). In the catholic church, this is done by pouring water on the head or the forehead of the person to signify that the sins committed from birth and the original sin are all washed away. There is also lighting a candle to symbolize that the person will be a light to those around him to spread the good news. These rituals are significant and serve a significant role in changing a person from a non-believer into a believer.

In conclusion, these rituals are significant to catholic Christians, and it means a lot to them. Without baptism, Catholics do not recognize a person as being fully catholic or Christianity.

References

Ferguson, E. (2009). Baptism in the early church: history, theology, and liturgy in the first five centuries. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Spinks, B. D. (2017). Reformation and modern rituals and theologies of baptism: from Luther to contemporary practices. Routledge.