Christian Art | A Boy At Prayer With Jesus | Clothed For Baptism
Office Of Readings | Easter Thursday | A Reading From The Instructions To The Newly Baptized At Jerusalem | Buried In Water, Born Into Light
‘Baptism, symbol of Christ’s passion.’
Buried In Water, Born Into Light | Mystery Of Baptism In The Jerusalem Catecheses
On Easter Thursday, the Church offers us a rich excerpt from the Jerusalem Catecheses, a fourth-century instructional series traditionally attributed to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem. These catechetical homilies were addressed to the newly baptized—those who had just undergone the great mystery of Christian initiation at the Easter Vigil. Today’s reading draws us into the heart of what baptism meant in the early Church—and what it still means for us now.
A Drama Of Death And Life
‘You were led down to the font of holy baptism just as Christ was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb.’ With this vivid image, the catechist begins not by explaining doctrine, but by evoking drama. Baptism is not presented as a mere rite of passage, but as a personal participation in the Paschal Mystery of Christ—his death, burial, and resurrection.
The newly baptized are invited to see their immersion into water as a symbolic descent into the grave, and their rising from it as a real share in the resurrection. The triple immersion corresponds to the three days Christ spent in the tomb. But, as the homily insists, what is symbolic in act is real in grace: ‘We have been saved in actual fact.’
Font As Tomb And Womb
One of the most arresting aspects of this catechesis is its paradoxical imagery: baptismal water is both tomb and mother. Borrowing from Ecclesiastes, the catechist speaks of ‘a time to die, and a time to be born’—but in baptism, these two times become one. This paradox echoes the early Church’s understanding of salvation as a kind of new creation. The believer dies to sin and is reborn in Christ. The water buries the old self; it also gives birth to a new one.
This image of the baptismal font as a maternal space—a place of rebirth—was common in early Christianity. Baptisteries were often constructed in circular or octagonal shapes to symbolize the womb of the Church and the eternal life to which baptism gives access. The catechist captures this beautifully when he says, ‘[T]he saving water was both your tomb and your mother.’
Sacramental Realism Of The Early Church
Modern readers may be struck by the intensity of the early Church’s sacramental imagination. For the Jerusalem catechist, baptism is not merely a sign or symbol—it is an actual entry into the mystery of Christ. While it was Christ, not the catechumens, who truly suffered and died, ‘all this has been attributed to us’. In other words, what Christ accomplished in history is mysteriously applied to the baptized in the present. This is the theological heart of the piece: baptism unites the believer to Christ’s death and resurrection in a real, transformative way.
This line of thinking is rooted in the theology of Saint Paul. In Romans 6:3–5, Paul writes, ‘Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?… If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.’ The Jerusalem Catecheses make Paul’s language concrete, visual, and personal.
More Than Forgiveness: Baptism as Participation
The homily takes care to distinguish Christian baptism from that of John the Baptist. John’s baptism, we are told, conferred only the forgiveness of sins. Christian baptism does more: it brings the Holy Spirit, it marks a new birth, and it incorporates the believer into the suffering, death, and triumph of Christ. The catechist writes, ‘Let no one imagine that baptism consists only in the forgiveness of sins… it is a symbol of the sufferings of Christ.’
In this light, baptism is not a one-time rite we leave behind. It is a life-altering identity. The baptized person carries within them a spiritual reality: the dying of the old self and the rising of the new. This truth shapes the Christian’s ethical life, prayer, and ultimate hope. To be baptized is to live continually as one who has passed through death into life.
The Easter Lens
Placed within the Easter season, this catechesis becomes even more poignant. The resurrection of Christ is not a distant event—it is something the Church invites us to enter into. At the Easter Vigil, when catechumens descend into the waters of baptism and rise again, they act out the Paschal Mystery. As the early Church saw it, Easter is not simply the commemoration of Christ’s victory—it is the moment in which that victory is applied to us, sacramentally and personally.
For the newly baptized, Easter is their true birthday. And for all the baptized, this season is a call to return to that first grace—to rekindle the reality of our dying and rising in Christ, and to live from it anew.
Path Of Resurrection
The Jerusalem Catecheses remind us that the Christian life begins not with moral effort, but with divine grace poured out in the sacraments. Baptism is not simply the washing away of past sins; it is a participation in Christ’s own passage through death to life. Through the waters, we become Easter people—those who have died with Christ and now walk in the light of his resurrection.
As the Church sings in the Easter psalm: ‘This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.’ For those baptized into Christ, every day becomes a new opportunity to walk in resurrection light.
A Reading From The Instructions To The Newly Baptized At Jerusalem
You were led down to the font of holy baptism just as Christ was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb which is before your eyes. Each of you was asked, ‘Do you believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?’ You made the profession of faith that brings salvation, you were plunged into the water, and three times you rose again. This symbolised the three days Christ spent in the tomb.
As our Saviour spent three days and three nights in the depths of the earth, so your first rising from the water represented the first day and your first immersion represented the first night. At night a man cannot see, but in the day he walks in the light. So when you were immersed in the water it was like night for you and you could not see, but when you rose again it was like coming into broad daylight. In the same instant you died and were born again; the saving water was both your tomb and your mother.
Solomon’s phrase in another context is very apposite here. He spoke of a time to give birth, and a time to die. For you, however, it was the reverse: a time to die, and a time to be born, although in fact both events took place at the same time and your birth was simultaneous with your death.
This is something amazing and unheard of! It was not we who actually died, were buried and rose again. We only did these things symbolically, but we have been saved in actual fact. It is Christ who was crucified, who was buried and who rose again, and all this has been attributed to us. We share in his sufferings symbolically and gain salvation in reality. What boundless love for men! Christ’s undefiled hands were pierced by the nails; he suffered the pain. I experience no pain, no anguish, yet by the share that I have in his sufferings he freely grants me salvation.
Let no one imagine that baptism consists only in the forgiveness of sins and in the grace of adoption. Our baptism is not like the baptism of John, which conferred only the forgiveness of sins. We know perfectly well that baptism, besides washing away our sins and bringing us the gift of the Holy Spirit, is a symbol of the sufferings of Christ. This is why Paul exclaims: Do you not know that when we were baptized into Christ Jesus we were, by that very action, sharing in his death? By baptism we went with him into the tomb.
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Office Of Readings | Tuesday, Lent Week 5 | A Reading From The Sermons Of Pope Saint Leo The Great ‘The cross of Christ is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces.’ Context And Authority Of The Preacher Pope Saint Leo the Great served as Bishop of Rome from 440 to 461, during a time of both doctrinal dispute and political upheaval in the Western Roman Empire. A formidable theologian and administrator, Leo is perhaps best known for his Tome to Flavian, which played a decisive role at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 in defining the doctrine of Christ’s two natures, divine and human, in one person. In his sermons, Leo combined robust doctrinal teaching with pastoral urgency. His Lenten and Paschal homilies frequently dwell on the mystery of the Passion of Christ—not as an occasion for pity, but as the moment of divine triumph. This sermon reflects that theme with particular clarity, inviting believers to see the cross not as a defeat, but as the very axis around which salvation and history turn. The Hour Of The Cross As The Hour Of Glory Leo begins with the Johannine declaration: ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’ (John 12:23) This ‘hour’ is the Passion—Jesus’ betrayal, suffering, crucifixion, and death. But for Leo, as for John, this hour is not one of defeat but of exaltation. The cross is the throne from which Christ reigns, the place where he exercises judgment, mercy, and kingship. ‘Now is the judgment of the world,’ Christ says. ‘Now will the prince of this world be cast out.’ (John 12:31) The cross, Leo teaches, is the instrument by which the dominion of sin and the devil is overthrown. It is not merely a historical event, but an ongoing act of cosmic redemption. When Christ is ‘lifted up’, he draws all people to himself—not just by example, but by the objective power of his redemptive act. The Cross As The Fulfilment Of All Sacrifices Leo then turns to the sacrificial character of the cross. In doing so, he places Christ’s Passion in continuity with the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant. The temple rites, the offerings of animals, the ministry of the Levitical priesthood—all of these are fulfilled and transcended in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ. ‘The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfilment of all the different sacrificial offerings.’ Here Leo anticipates later Eucharistic theology by linking Christ’s self-offering on the cross with the offering of the Church in the Mass. He draws a typological line from the foreshadowings in the Law of Moses to their perfection in the Paschal mystery. Importantly, Leo emphasizes that the cross did not simply end the old order; it transformed it. There is now a ‘more distinguished order of Levites’, referring to the Christian priesthood, and a ‘greater dignity for the rank of elders’. The Christian sacramental economy flows directly from the cross. The Cross And The Unity Of The Church One of the most profound claims in this sermon is that the cross is not only redemptive but unitive: ‘There is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples.’ This is a subtle but powerful statement of ecclesiology. The cross unites the scattered children of God into one body—the Church. It is through the cross that division, especially between Jew and Gentile, is overcome (cf. Ephesians 2:14–16). Christ’s Passion creates a universal communion, not merely by calling all nations, but by reconciling them through his blood. For Leo, the Church is not an afterthought to the cross but its very fruit and fulfilment. Christ Died For Sinners | The Unmerited Nature Of Grace Leo next turns to the soteriological core of the Christian message: ‘Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful.’ This line echoes Romans 5:8 and stresses the unmerited nature of divine mercy. There is no room for self-righteousness or spiritual pride in Leo’s theology. Salvation is the free initiative of God, who meets humanity in its need, not in its strength. Leo uses the language of substitution: though the divine nature cannot suffer, Christ assumed a human nature ‘so that he could offer something on our behalf.’ The idea is not that God required suffering, but that only by taking on our condition could Christ redeem it. His death is a confrontation with death itself—a defeat of death by means of death. The quotation from Hosea 13:14—’O death, I will be your death’—highlights the dramatic reversal: death, once the master of humanity, has been overcome by the dying and rising of Christ. The Cross As The Pattern Of Christian Life While the sermon focuses on the objective power of the cross, its pastoral implication is never far from view. For Leo, the believer is not merely a recipient of the benefits of the cross but is called to share in its pattern. Although Leo does not explore this in detail in this passage, his broader corpus makes clear that the Christian must imitate Christ’s humility, obedience, and love. The cross is not only a source of grace but a template for discipleship. This is particularly relevant during Lent, when the Church contemplates the Passion in preparation for the renewal of baptismal vows at Easter. A Reading From The Sermons Of Pope Saint Leo The Great Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord’s words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterwards he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this that I came to this hour. […]
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