But We're Just Getting Started!

I've started and stopped about 3 blogs now, for various reasons, and this time it's for a *GOOD* reason. I've come to the startling realisation that my blogging, while rooted in a sincere desire to share the riches of the Catholic faith and worldview, is a premature endeavor by an immature Christian. I love to learn - and to dare to teach in an unaccountable forum like this broaches sheer hubris. I can't overstate what a joy it is to soak in the blessings of the catholic faith and the beauty of Western Civilisation, but my credentials are no better than the average layman.

I bid all my brethren, all who love the adorable Trinity, and who were made partakers of the Redemption in Christ through faith and the washing of regeneration, blessings and prosperity. My absence will be relatively brief (about a 3 year sabbatical), and do hope to come back with something remotely intelligible and helpful. The Internet for all its advantages has that uncanny alchemy which turns blathering idiots into seeming oracles and seers. I am no seer, no oracle, no prophet. I'm barely a Christian. If I can do that with a modicum of integrity then I'll be doing well.

Any here who wish to reach me (there are some I'd love to keep in touch), may do so:

a m s _ b o e t h i u s

[AT]

b e l l s o u t h . n e t

Blessings, my brethren.

De Potentia Promissioque Baptismi - Part IV

Chapter III - Baptism and Purification Under Mosaic Law

Previously we had set forth the themes of rebirth (beginning anew) and redemption (saving from bondage) as found in portions of Genesis and Exodus, but now seek to lift that of purification (washing for service) into view for our consideration. Purification language is a recurring subject across the Old Tetament landscape; and picking up where we left off we want to obtain a comprehensive, if not exhaustive, sampling of such language in our preparation for commentary on the New Testament baptismal texts. This we shall do over the course of a few chapters.

Purification rites by the washing of water is found virtually in all ancient religions. This universal impulse testifies to the instinctual knowledge that the profane and unclean must be made holy and pure, fit for the gods or in service of the gods. The Hebrew religion also recognizes things clean and unclean. Man and beast can be clean or unclean, but unlike beasts of distinction, only man can be ritually made clean. The well-known phrase, "Cleanliness is next to godliness," though not likely of Hebrew origin, is a profound axiom in the context of ancient Jewish rite and ceremony.

Washing and purification are applied in Old Testament baptismal theology to both garments and flesh, being symbolic of the inward reality that man's heart is either upright or wicked, clean or unclean. The First Man, Adam, had no such covering until the fall, indicating that righteousness could only be obtained through the forgiveness of sin that God provides: in this case his covering was animal skin, which Jehovah obtained through the shedding of blood. However, the standard apparel in the ancient world was wool or cotton, and therefore the symbolism for righteousness gave way to washed garments. In Exodus 19, just prior to the giving of the Law, we read that God commands Moses to prepare the people for the New Society through a formal washing. We read:

And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready by the third day; for on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set bounds for the people round about, saying, `Take heed that you do not go up into the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death; no hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and consecrated the people; and they washed their garments. (Exodus 19:9-14)

Not only is the theology of newness and holiness through washing applied to the garments, but we find yet another striking image of washing in the context of the liturgical and ceremonial life of Israel, more specifically in the Aaronic priesthood. When God commanded Moses to construct the Tent of Meeting (the tabernacle), a means for washing and purification was included. We read:

"You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base of bronze, for washing. And you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering by fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, lest they die. They shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die: it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations." (Exodus 30:18-21)

The old priesthood therefore required washing to remove (symbolically and literally) filth and impurities, and rendered Aaron and his sons fit for the service of Jehovah. We see such preparation implemented at Jehovah's bidding, in the last chapter of Exodus, reading:

"You shall also anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it. Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting, and shall wash them with water, and put upon Aaron the holy garments, and you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest... And he set the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet; when they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed;" (40:11-13, 30-32).

The constant message is that God is holy, and the ritual cleansings were prescribed to impress sensibly that divine reality. The washing of hands in Divine Service in the old Priesthood is re-applied to the Royal Priesthood in the New Testament, under the imperative to "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners" (James 4:8), because God has "purified unto Himself a peculiar people" (Titus 2:14). Those who would not regard God's holiness and pass through the rite of washing were subject to the penalty of death, prefiguring our Lord's words to St. Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me" (John 13:8). And so what appeared in the old administration as a harsh penalty for not washing, as we will discover, becomes in the New Administration a gateway to newness of life and consecration for the New Priesthood.