At your Baptism, did you notice the heavens opening? The Spirit of God descending like a dove? Perhaps a voice coming from the heavens? No, you probably did not.
Even if you were old enough to know what was going on, you would not have noticed these things. Because they happened spiritually. But they happened nonetheless.
At our Lord’s Baptism these things happened visibly and audibly: “The heavens were opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased’” (Mt 3:16-17). These happened at our Lord’s Baptism not because He needed instruction, but because we do. The heavens, the dove, the voice — these teach us about our own Baptism.
First, “he heavens were opened for Him.” So also heaven was opened for each of us at Baptism. In fact, not until Baptism is heaven opened for us. As children of Adam, we are born in the state of original sin and deprived of the vision of God. We suffer the loss of heaven due to Adam’s sin. Baptism makes us children of God and therefore able to enter heaven. Baptism, and Baptism alone, opens heaven for us.
What is more, Baptism opens heaven for us not only as a possibility, but also as a right, as our proper inheritance. Just as children have a right to what their parents will leave them, so also the baptized have a right to what their heavenly Father will give them. The right to heaven, lost for us by Adam’s sin, is restored to us by Baptism into Christ. Second, at our Lord’s Baptism He “saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him.” So also for us: at Baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon us and made His dwelling within us as His temples (cf. 1 Cor 6:19). Baptism initiates us into an interior relationship with God. In the Person of the Holy Spirit, God Himself now dwells within us as the “Soul of our souls,” bringing us His gifts and virtues, directing our thoughts, words and actions. From now on, the Holy Spirit intercedes not just on our behalf, but even from within our very souls (cf. Rom 8:15).
So why does He descend “like a dove”? The dove symbolizes peace between God and man. For Noah a dove signaled the end of the flood and the establishment of peace: sinful men had been washed away and God initiated a new covenant with man. Thus the Holy Spirit coming “like a dove” indicates that we who had been cut off from God by sin are now reconciled with Him by Baptism. Sin is washed away, and God establishes with us the new and everlasting covenant.
Finally, at our Lord’s Baptism “a voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” Baptism is the sacrament of rebirth. It makes us adopted children of God. But we should not think of that adoption in purely legal terms, as if it makes us “like” His children. God’s adoption differs dramatically from adoption in this world. We are His children in more than just a legal or moral sense. By Baptism He places His life within us. We can truly call Him Father because we now share His divine nature. In turn, He truly calls us His children. Not merely creatures. Not slaves or servants. But children. What a great source of consolation and confidence, to know that God looks upon us as His own children, with whom He is well pleased.
Fr. Scalia is parochial vicar of St. Patrick Parish in Fredericksburg, VA.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
