Baptism according to a Catholic

"This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ," 

(NAB, Second Reading March 1, 2009)

It's always interesting to hear from others what the Catholic Church teaches about baptism. All I know is that my baptism is something that increases in power and importance to me the further removed I am from it in time, that is, the older I am. To begin with, baptism was something that happened to me before I had consciousness of sin or anything else. As a child and for many years, I have renewed my baptism with the rest of the Christian people at Easter Mass, and at other Masses in the Easter season. The promises that my parents made for me I have made my own for as long as I can remember. As part of the ecclesia, I have been sprinkled with water inumerable times in a corporate rededication to the baptismal covenant that recalls the sprinkling of blood on the People of God. Baptism saves because it redeems with the power of Jesus's forgiving blood.

Baptism was not my idea or something that I understood first. Instead, it was a gift that Christ gave me through the Church and my parents. Over time, the grace of baptism has grown in me and born fruit in my life. Even now, however, I hardly know the least thing about baptism. I could (and have) talk for days and not succeed in expressing what baptism has done for me.

So, here are a couple of snippets of things I've recently said elsewhere about baptism...

It seems to me that baptism is like a seed, like a tiny fertilized speck in a chicken egg. Eventually that speck will conquer every bit of the egg so that when the chick hatches all that is left is yellow fluffiness. The new life in Christ is real and definitive, but as a human life it requires time and freedom and friendship to unfold.

[....]

Baptism confers faith - not magically or automatically - but precisely as a seed whose trajectory is totality (and this seed could explode in 2 or 20 years). Baptism is human insofar as it’s a human begging for the salvation that only Christ brings. But even more, baptism is the living and active promise of God. God has answered the cry of sinful man in the person of Jesus Christ who is human and divine. If baptism is an incorporation into Christ, then it will necessarily be both human and divine…

I was a devout child but I felt my baptism truly explode when I was 20 after a week listening to Jean Vanier (lay leader and preacher, founder of l’Arche). It is 21 years later for me now and I see that the faith I received in baptism is conquering me in ways I could not have imagined so many years ago. And I am confident that the one who began a good work in me will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I was going to title this post "Baptism according to the Catholic Church," but I really don't know how I would covey the deep richness of Catholic teaching on baptism. Instead, I can only testify to the impact of baptism in my life. I would add that what the Catholic Church teaches about baptism applies not only to baptism of Catholics, but to any baptism which conforms to what the New Testament specifies is required for baptism: water in the name of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism saves you now — even if you believe it is but a public ritual or exterior ordinance. The power of God is not magical, but it is effective and persistent. It is the seed of faith whose fruit is eternal life.