Saturday, 2/17/18
The Apostles had a little handbook
they followed in administering the seven Sacraments. We could call that
handbook "The Teaching of the Apostles," but it was commonly referred
to by the Greek word for "teaching" which was "The Didache."
Now, although writers through
the first five centuries often referred to the Didache, every copy of it was lost, leaving us in doubt as to just
how the Apostles administered the Sacraments.
Then a century ago a copy of
the original Didache turned up in
central Africa, and it told us some surprising things about how the Apostles
administered Baptism and Confirmation. It said that they were only conferred on
Holy Saturday.
It said that the Apostles saw
the Baptism pool as representing the tomb of Jesus. They saw going down into
the pool as an expression of our willingness to die to sin with Jesus.
St. Paul referred to this in
verses 3to 5 in Chapter Six of his "Letter to the Romans."
"Are you unaware that we
who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through
baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father we also might live in newness of life."
The Apostles believed that
the baptized, by dying to sin, opened a place in their hearts for the Holy
Spirit. The newly baptized, on their way to the Easter Eucharist, were met by
the bishop who put the Oil of Chrism on their foreheads. The Chrism represented
the Holy Spirt taking over that part of the new Christian's soul that was free
from sin.
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