Martin McNamara<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reflection and Dialogue: <\/em><\/strong>Baptism\nand Christian spirituality; baptism and the belief in the heavens open to us<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflection<\/em>. Baptism\nand Christian Spirituality. <\/em>Our celebration of the baptism of Jesus is not\njust about an event in the life of Christ, or the beginning of his public life.\nAll the New Testament texts are at pains to point out that at his baptism he\nwas anointed with the Holy Spirit. In the power of that Spirit he went about\ndoing good and undoing the work of sin and Satan. The Church from the beginning\nhas looked on Christian baptism as intimate union with Jesus and his baptism,\nand with the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers. This Holy Spirit makes us\naware that we are children of God. Possession of the Spirit is an anointing\nthat gives confidence of faith in Christ and his church. The Holy Spirit works\nquietly to help believers live the Christian life in the spirit of the\nbeatitudes. Today in certain quarters there is much talk about spirituality,\nsometimes with the implication that while religion is inferior, spirituality is\ngood and respectable. In our world it is well to note that spirituality can be\nused in different senses. It can be used, and is used, by humanists with little\nregard for faith or belief in God or the other world. Spirituality in this\nsense is a quality or manifestation of the human spirit, irrespective of any\nbelief. For Christian believers spirituality is life under the guidance of the\nHoly Spirit, a life of grace. All believers, rich and poor, young and old,\nlearned and otherwise, have a spirituality, just a they possess the Holy\nSpirit, given at baptism and abiding all through life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Belief in the heavens opened. <\/em>All the Gospel narratives speak of the\nheavens being opened at the baptism of Jesus, and of the Father\u2019s voice\nspeaking from heaven. The open heavens mean that there is another world, with\nan absolute God, and that there is contact between the two \u2013 not an abstract or\nremote contact but a close and personal one. Profession of faith in this other\nworld and all it stands for is made at any baptism, be it of an infant or an\nadult. The pouring of the material element of water on the head at baptism is\nan expression of deep faith, and has sense only with such faith. Belief in an\nother world and contact with it, in the opened heaven, is naturally denied by\nhumanists and atheists, and because of this the ultimate sign of rejection of\nChristian belief is the refusal to have children baptised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Belief in this open\nheaven is sustained by faith and contact with the sacraments. This is one\nmessage for us of this feast of the Baptism of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (<\/em><\/strong>For reflections on the Sunday and Feast\nDay readings <\/em>see Martin McNamara, Sunday Readings with Matthew:\nInterpretations and Reflections<\/em>, Dublin,\nVeritas, 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Martin McNamara Reflection and Dialogue: Baptism and Christian spirituality; baptism and the belief in the heavens open to us Reflection. Baptism and Christian Spirituality. Our celebration of the baptism of … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}