The Life-Saving Danger of Baptism

There is a true and factual story of mine that illustrates the incredible theological truth that baptism is dangerous.

When I was a campus minister at St. Mary’s at Texas A&M University, the run-down church needed a new air conditioning and heating system. It can get chilly in December in Texas—particularly if you are fully submerged in water during the Easter Vigil. As director of RCIA (now OCIA), I was worried that the Aggies would be chattering by the end of it.

“Deacon Bill,” I said, “will you warm the water before the baptisms at the 9am Mass?” He did his duty but overshot the time it would take for the water to cool—so the water was slightly scalding! Father (now Bishop) Mike Sis usually took his time in baptizing. But this time, seeing that their bodies were turning slightly red from the heat, he rushed the words of baptism to get the Aggies out of that dangerous water.

The next day at daily Mass, Father (now Bishop) David Konderla, referring to the baptisms, quipped, “Baptism is dangerous. We burned the hell out of them!”

Indeed, during this Holy Week, any catechumens who will be baptized will have the “hell” burned out of them. What is this hell and how is it burned away? We might say that this hell is the autonomous self, our ego that thinks it knows better than anyone else, including God. Hell is life without God, without interaction with others. Hell is where everyBODY is alone, lacking all love.

How can baptism burn away hell, which is the lack of love? Pope Benedict, referring to Holy Saturday, answers this question:

Love penetrated hell! Jesus Christ on the Cross and in His descent to the dead unites the faithful to Himself in a mystical way. In the very act of our baptism, Jesus Christ leads us out of a life without God, into the communion of persons where love flourishes: “Are you not aware that those of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have been baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3). And as we have been baptized into His death, so we have been baptized into the Resurrection of a new life in Christ—a life of love.

When we were baptized, the love of Christ burned the hell out of us. When we renew our baptismal vows publicly this week, do we ask Christ to burn away our sins again in a new way? Think about your answer to this when the priest asks you at Easter: “Do you reject Satan? And all his works? And all of his empty promises?” Let’s firmly reject Satan, a fallen angel who hates the body, and enter more deeply into the Resurrection power of Jesus, the Incarnate Word, who burns the hell out of us!