Questions of Faith

I have a friend who says baptism is just a symbolic act and has nothing to do with salvation. How can I answer them?

In order to address the topic of baptism and salvation, we first have to look at our understanding of a sacrament. A sacrament is a visible sign instituted by Christ of an invisible grace to assist us in salvation. As human beings, we are both body and soul, so material symbols (things and words and gestures), which our mind and body can perceive, allow our spiritual souls to receive God’s unseen grace, which is “the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1996).

The outward signs of the sacraments have two parts: The matter, which is the “thing” itself used along with the accompanying action (for example, pouring water for baptism), and the form of words which give significance to what is being done (“Mary Catherine, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”). We believe there are seven sacraments, and each imparts grace. They provide sanctifying grace, which is sharing in God’s own divine life. In addition to the sanctifying grace, each sacrament also gives the sacramental grace of that sacrament, which are other supernatural helps God wills to give us to aid our particular spiritual needs and our particular state in life.
 
Ultimately, the sacraments enable us to believe the truths of the faith, live according to God’s moral code, and grow in the gift of divine life. Therefore, not just baptism, but all the sacraments are not just a symbolic act with no connection to salvation. Each is an important means to grace and salvation. While God can work outside the sacraments to provide grace and salvation to the soul, these are the ordinary means by which God offers an extraordinary way of living out our faith lives.

If we look specifically at baptism, we come to see it as something more than a symbolic act. There are a number of effects that come from baptism. First is the forgiveness of sin. It gives supernatural life to a soul that had been cut off from God by original sin, that had been supernaturally dead. Baptism then becomes the gateway sacrament to all the other sacraments, the door that allows a person to enter the dwelling of divine life with God and also absorb the grace of the other six sacraments. Baptism opens the soul to the flow of God’s love and establishes union between the soul and God.

Secondly, certain sacraments leave an indelible mark or character that permanently alters the soul. The sacramental character configures the baptized person to Christ, so that Christ dwells within him or her. St. Paul explains, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:19-20). Through baptism, we are formed in the likeness of Christ and share in his office as priest, prophet and king.

Additionally, baptism gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who also confers sanctifying grace to the one baptized and provides the sevenfold gifts—wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. The seven gifts are given to every baptized Christian from his or her earliest days. They are given at baptism for us to develop through experience and are indispensable to the successful conduct of the Christian way of life. Confirmation will give us the fullness of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the associated gifts.

The Holy Spirit, who is not just an impersonal power or force, brings about a personal union with Christ and unites us as adopted sons and daughters with the father, which is another effect of baptism. We share in the divine nature of God. St. Paul reminds us, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17).

Baptism also incorporates us into the church, the body of Christ. The union with the church involves communion of faith and looks forward to the reception of Holy Eucharist so that, as we hear at Mass in Eucharistic Prayer III, we “who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ.”

In the end, the symbolic action of baptism brings about the reality of salvation from sin and death to a life united within the Triune God. Baptism makes visible the fact that God’s salvation in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit has taken hold of the baptized person so that sins are forgiven, and he or she is put in right relationship with God and truly has been called to a newness of life, a rebirth. “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5).