Sacraments of Initiation
Part 2 History of Initiation

Chapter 22 Initiation in the Early Church

(Origins of the liturgical rites for Christian Initiation)

Preliminary Questions

Make a list of the symbols used in the rites of Christian Initiation. List as many symbolic actions and metaphors as you can. Put them in order as they occur in the rites of initiation. Compare your list with that given in this chapter.

What are the theological conclusions which follow from the initiation symbols?

When you close your eyes and say "BAPTISM" what image comes to mind?

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Bibliography

Robert M. Grant, "Development of the Christian Catechumenate," Made, Not Born pp 32-49.

R. Cabié. "The Organization of the Ritual of Initiation Until the Spread of Infant Baptism (Mid-second to Sixth Century)," pp 17-63 in A. G. Martimort (editor). The Sacraments. Volume III of The Church at Prayer. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, new edition 1987. ISBN 0-8146-1365-9. [Updates of the lecture notes from my master’s level courses at the Institut Catholique.]

Shape of Baptism pp 35-78.

Raymond Burnish. The Meaning of Baptism: A Comparison of the Teaching and Practice of the Fourth Century with the Present Day. Alcuin Club Collections (London: SPCK) 67, 1985.

Justin, Hermas, Irenaeus, Origen, Augustine, etc.

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Two Stories And A Point

I would like to begin this lecture by quoting from the introduction of Martin Marty’s book Baptism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962). Marty begins with two stories which I would like to read to you now. (Note that Marty is not a Roman Catholic and his second story is from his own Protestant liturgical experience, but you will be able to make the necessary adaptations in your imagination as I read the story.)

STORY ONE

It is dark.

A shivering band of people has commandeered a cistern. In the depths of the earth the sound of moving water is heard. The slightest shuffling of feet echoes throughout the chamber. Most of the band are quiet, though a few whisper. Above the ground, heard only faintly from below, a rooster crows, marking the day’s beginning. Soon farmers and merchants will be rising from sleep to take up their daily occupations, unaware of the activity underground. They would not understand the quiet rites, nor approve of them, and might even take action against the participants if they had knowledge and opportunity.

Meanwhile, below, a leader has come to the fore, a man of serene but slightly severe appearance. He whispers some words in the almost eerie setting. Some of the people begin to take off their clothes, folding them and setting them aside. With great solemnity and in many cases no little fear they approach the bowl of the cistern where water bubbles and flows. The children are put forward and dipped in first, after some questions which in many cases are answered for them. Then come the older children and the men. They are asked a number of very serious questions; after answering, and being placed under the water, they come out struck dumb by an experience of both physical and spiritual shock. Finally the women remove all their ornaments and loosen their hair. They are to have no alien objects, no rings or jewelry or bandages on them. Warily they step into the water and come out, dressing again in the now brightening glow of candles and torches.

The leader is very busy with various kinds of oil which he seems to be blessing and pouring on the people. He is asking questions and hearing answers and repeating formulas. Somehow his magisterial appearance and manner assuage the fright of the people near him. He seems satisfied with the proceedings, and gives orders for an exit to be prepared. The group makes its way through some passageways into a larger room. Here others who have themselves undergone the experience on an earlier occasion greet them warmly and lead them to an older man who seems to be in charge of this assembly. He lays his hands on their heads and nods approval of all that has gone on in the other room. He then invites them to pray with the assembly and to join at table for a meal of bread and wine at which sacred words are spoken and hymns are sung. The people now seem relieved and are obviously happy.

They have been baptized.

The event — with all the hazards of the mystic and the over dramatic — has been described more or less after the manner of the traditio apostolica, the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus in the earliest Christian centuries.

STORY TWO

It is light.

A group of people are gathered off to the side in front of a large room full of onlookers. The sun is streaming in, its light broken into colorful fragments as it passes through a window. This window is different from most; it is made of stained glass, and under it is a very large bronze plaque which says: "To remember the good works of Mary Taylor, placed here by her husband." A man wearing long black and white and green clothes — for this time and place a strange combination as all the other people are wearing street clothes — beckons the smaller gathering of people over to a sort of finger bowl on a marble stand.

They move toward it, somewhat ill at ease, but generally undisturbed by the whole procedure. Some are moving to a better position to take photographs. Outside, the motor of a lawn mower starts to roar, for it is 1:15 on Sunday afternoon and American suburbanites are beginning their sacred outdoor Sunday rites. The accumulation of cars in the parking lot and the sound of song coming through the open windows suggest that something is going on inside the big building. But the gardeners and grass cutters are neither disturbed by the noise nor curious about the ceremonies. They do not even turn their heads to look in, though some heads inside are turned to look out. A soothing ripple of sound emanates from an electronic organ which provides quiet background music for the ceremony — silence is abhorred by the gathered people. The man with the long clothes on begins to read.

One of the people up front is carrying a baby, a healthy-looking half- year-old who through careful overfeeding has been induced into a deep peaceful sleep — nothing he does should be allowed to disturb the decor and manners of this impressive setting. The child wears a blue suit with pink lambs embroidered on it. His hair is combed to perfection, and his mother is hoping that the man will not have to mess it up too much. Passingly she wonders whether she turned off the oven and whether her dinner for all the guests will be ruined. The child’s Father, too, is watching the proceedings, with an envelope in his pocket which he will give the minister as payment for his trouble. He is happy with himself: he was able to arrange a Sunday on the church schedule when both sets of the baby’s grandparents could be here, and to lay in a supply of the best vintage champagne for a christening dinner. He hopes to get out of the building afterwards without becoming too involved in conversation with the man in the long clothes who will move to the door before the rest of the people.

The godparents, meanwhile, are smiling down at the baby; he seems so cute — lying there smiling while the man traces a cross on his forehead and breast. They were glad they talked to the parents into "having it done." It’s better to be on the safe side, they figured; anyway all children really ought to be christened. The man dips his finger into the little bowl three times and says some words: they hear a prayer. The godmother turns and walks down the aisle, conscious of how the child’s light blue matches her own new dress. The other people in the room smile, pleased at how things have gone: the baby was just precious and the whole thing provided a bit of variety from the usual Sunday routine.

The child will probably be back in six years. His parents will want to drop him at the door of the church for elementary religious education and for preparation for First Communion. When he reaches the eighth grade he may even be sent back to prepare for simultaneous graduation from Church. The cycles of the generations will move on — before too many years he may even be having all this done for his child too.

He has been baptized.

The event — with all the hazards of the non-mysterious and the under-dramatic — has been described more or less after the manner of the traditio protestantica, the Protestant tradition in the twentieth Christian century.

THE POINT

The Christian believes that God can give us the same benefits in both these baptisms. The Christian asks whether we can receive the same benefits from both.

COMMENTS

Grace is always a FREE gift of God: a gift, freely given.  We control only the RITUAL: words / symbolic actions.

Christian rituals are not magic [= a ritual which gives a creature control over the divinity; e.g. God does not want it to rain, but I perform certain actions and say certain words and it rains whether God wants it to or not.]

Roman Bathing Customs: When you finished washing up, you dried off and freshened the skin with after bath oil. Bathing and oiling were "imaged" as one act. As our bathing and drying off. Bathing, and then oiling five years later for them would be analogous for you to take a shower and dry off five years later. They were "imaged" as one act.

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Imaginary Polaroid Baptism Picture

Step one: Close your eyes and with an imaginary mental Polaroid camera, take a picture of the image that comes to your mind when you hear the word: BAPTISM.

Step two: Let the picture develop. Look at it.

Step three: Answer the following questions.

Who is being baptized? An infant? An adult? Both? Lots of people?
How many people are there? Five? Ten? Fifty? Hundreds?
How much water is there in the picture?
How much oil is there in the picture?
How much bread and wine is there in the picture?

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Ten Finger History

(Review the explanation of the "Ten Finger History" grid.)

Summary of the History of Initiation

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Johnson Chapter 2

Maxwell E. Johnson. Chapter 2:  Christian Initiation in the Pre-Nicene Period

Part I: Christian Initiation in the Pre-Nicene East
 
East and West Syria
The Didache
The Witness of Justin Martyr
Didascalia Apostolorum  
Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

Egypt
Clement of Alexandria
Origen of Alexandria

Part II: The Pre-Nicene West

North Africa
Cyprian of Carthage

Rome
The (so called) Apostolic Tradition, Ascribed to Hippolytus of Rome

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To Think About

1. Where did the rites of Christian Initiation come from?  Discuss the development of these rites.

3. What does "Confirmation" look like during this historical period?

4.  Compare and contrast the symbolism of baptism by immersion and by infusion or aspersion in the light of the biblical statements on baptism, conversion and initiation. Down into the river, Down into the tomb, etc.

5.  Symbols speak to the whole person. They are more than any one given intellectual explanation of them. What connotations or families of meaning are evoked from Scripture, Tradition, Culture and Ritual Experience for the following: Birth, Initiation, Water, Oil, Imposition of hands, light and darkness, down and up, East and West, signing and marking (with oil, a cross, etc), nakedness. Explain how the symbol functions in a contemporary understanding of the rites of initiation.

6.  EXERCISE FOR THE RIGHT LOBE We are often so logical and left lobe (especially theologians, and seminarians) that it is good to exercise the right lobe so that it does not atrophy. Work with these symbols as an artist would to become familiar with the medium of the art. Take each of the initiation symbols, e.g. being plunged into the water. Trace it through our story, both the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian Scriptures. Use a concordance. Make a list. What role does this symbol play in our story and vision? Then get in touch with your feelings about the symbol as archetype. Make a list of your experience of the symbol as archetype. Then examine how you are praying and might pray with this symbol, archetype, metaphor. EXAMPLE: PLUNGING INTO WATER (Note: Symbols are more verb than noun.) Scripture: Genesis, flood, flowing from temple, Jesus in Jordan, Water and blood from his side, etc. Experience: thirst, bath, swimming, life from water, our physical composition mostly water, etc. Compose a Berakah.

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© Copyright: Tom Richstatter, Franciscan Province of St. John the Baptist, Cincinnati Ohio, Order of Friars Minor. All Rights Reserved.  This page was created by Fr. Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M.  Every effort has been, and is being made, to acknowledge sources when the ideas are not my own.  Any failure to comply with the United States Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code) will be corrected immediately should I become aware of it.  This site was updated on 10/07/08 .  Your comments on this site are welcome at tomrichs@psci.net.