For those who are baptized, most probably remember little to nothing of the actual event. I was three and while I remember some of standing on the altar, looking at the baptismal font, and feeling the cool water on my head, I can’t remember the exact words that were spoken over me when I was named as received by my community as a beloved child of G-d. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be told now that my baptism was invalid because the pastor used the wrong word. An unknown number of people are in that very position in a Catholic parish in Arizona.
Yesterday I read a CNN report that a priest in Phoenix has used the wrong word in his baptism liturgy over the course of more than 20 years and now every baptism he performed is considered by the Catholic church to be invalid.
The word? Instead of saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” this priest said, “We baptize you…”
The Bishop of Phoenix wrote in a recent message to parishioners: “The issue with using ‘We’ is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Him alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes.”
In the Catholic church, since baptism is considered the first sacrament, if a baptism is later considered invalid, then any subsequent sacrament is also considered invalid; Like some version of the fruit of the poisonous tree legal doctrine. But while the legal doctrine is meant to protect a constitutional right, I’m not so sure we can say the same for this church doctrine.
I realize that my opinion on this matter is not the most relevant – me being a non-Catholic, woman, preparing for discernment to holy orders for priesthood in a different denomination and all. Yet, here I am with an opinion.
Sacraments are outward signs of inner grace. When a clergy person officiates a baptism, they’re not bestowing grace or transferring grace. They’re naming that grace that is already there. Grace isn’t some sort of holy currency. Grace is intrinsic to all human beings as G-d image bearers.
This is not to say that liturgies don’t matter. In speaking ancient words and old orders of faith, we join into a mysterious communion with all who have gone before us, all who are with us now but in different places, and all who will come after us. These words matter, but it is their spirit and not their literal verbiage that thins the space to invite us to see the holy present.
It may seem useless to question a church body with a storied history of dogmatism, but these are the moments where the concern for getting things right gets in the way of naming each other’s belovedness. These are the moments that can cause real harm to people. I think one of the most crucial tensions in the Christian religion as a whole is the tension between continuously assuring a held belief or practice and realizing the spiritual damage we’re capable of causing when we lose sight of Jesus’ imperative to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus didn’t put exceptions on this imperative.
As someone who has experienced my share of religious trauma, and seen it over and over again in other people, I can’t overstate how serious it is when we lose sight of this imperative. Bad theology is toxic and the stakes for causing trauma are high.
I fear for the individuals at the heart of this decision: those who are being told by their church – a place of safety and community and love – that their baptisms, confirmations, communions, confessions, marriages, and holy orders are all invalid in one fell swoop. I’m sure that some of the involved baptisms were for people who have already died, and their loved ones have to face the anxiety of what this all means now.
In his explanation for the church’s decision here, the Bishop said that “We baptize” implies that the church community along with the priest is doing the baptizing. But what if the “we” speaks to the Mystery and Largeness of G-d? There’s a curious creation narrative in Genesis that says, Let us make man in our own image. Then, John’s gospel describes the Mystery of G-d: G-d’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit. This baptism revelation should have been an invitation to consider the Mystery of G-d, not to limit it because of human error. This should have been an invitation to marvel at the way G-d uses dust and ash and Breath to form us, the way G-d takes death and turns it into life, the way G-d shows up in all the places we never imagined or thought they would be.
It is my hope that even now, in this decision that has and will undoubtedly impact so many in unfathomable ways, G-d will redeem this ash and dust.
May all who are weary and burdened find rest in the knowledge that we are still beloved. We still bear the image of G-d. We still remain. And nothing can take that away from us.
Amen +
Image is from Gardening Know-How website.
evergreen vox 