Christianity Is An Affair of Things

It struck me today that Christianity is an affair of things: of bread and wine, of water, and of oil, and its beliefs are anchored in things and the actions that accompany their use.

Consider water: water was created at the very beginning of time, and in the book of Genesis it is written that the Spirit "was carried on the waters." Water was the first element to produce things that would live. It is not surprising, therefore, that water - ordinary water - used in baptism already knows how to give life. But there is more, through the presence of the Holy Spirit water - that was precious in itself - took on the ability to make holy.

In other words, as the important early father of the church, Tertullian wrote: "water acquires the mysterious power of conveying sanctity" (how foolish and impossible it is to be formed anew by water!).

Imagine: Christ submitted to baptism so that by his passion he might sanctify the water. Indeed, from the Jordan the grace of baptism is spread throughout the whole world.

Supernatural Power

Priests are not like the rest of us. As if that were not obvious. Wait: that does not seem to be obvious. So I say it again: priests are not like the rest of us. When I go around consecrating and blessing things, my wife - rightly - punches me in the ear. When a priest consecrates and blesses something, it becomes set apart for sacred use: this is because priests have supernatural power. This power is not of their own, it is not "magic" or a person casting a spell: no, when a priest blesses something or someone he is bestowing good from outside nature: supernatural good from God.

The implication, by the way, is that when Catholics approach the altar in the communion line, and instead receive a "blessing" from an extraordinary Eucharistic minister, it is just not the same. Think about that next time. There really is a good reason why more people line up on the "priest's side" to receive.

. . . on second thought: I do not mean to say "think about that next time" you are at the Sacred Mysteries. I mean "think about that next time" when appropriate. Just a point of clarification.

Holy Water

Water is a mysterious thing. It is so clear and frictionless, so "modest," as St. Francis called it. It hardly pretends to any character of its own. It seems to have no other end or object than to be of service, to cleanse what is soiled and to refresh what is dry.

But at some time you must have gazed down into the still depths of a great body of water, and felt it tugging to draw you in, and have got a glimpse of the strange and secret thing water is, and of the marvels, terrors and enticements that lurk in its depths. Or, at another time when it was whipped to a boiling torrent by a storm, you have heard it rushing and roaring, rushing and roaring, and watched the sucking vortex of a whirlpool and felt a force so grim and dreary that you had to tear your thoughts away.

It is indeed a strange element. On the one hand smooth and transparent, as if it hardly existed in its own right, ready at hand to wash away dirt and satisfy thirst; and on the other a restless, foundationless, enigmatic force that entices us on to destruction. It is a proper image for the secret ground-source from which life issues and back into which death recalls it. It is an apt image for this life of ours that looks so clear and is so inexplicable.

It is plain why the church uses water as the sign and the bearer of the divine life of grace. We emerge from the waters of baptism into a new life, born again of water and the Holy Ghost. In those same waters the old man was destroyed and put to death.

With this elemental element, that yields no answer to our questioning, with this transparent, frictionless, fecund fluid, this symbol and means of the supernatural life of grace, we make on ourselves, from forehead to breast, from shoulder to shoulder, the sign of the cross.

By her consecration of it, the Church has freed water from the dark powers that sleep in it. This is not a form of language. Anyone whose perceptions have not been blunted must be aware of the powers of natural magic inherent in water. And are they only natural powers? Is there not present also a dark and preternatural power? In nature, for all her richness and beauty, there is something demonic. City life has so deadened our senses that we have lost our perception of it. But the Church knows it is there. She "exorcises" out of water those divinities that are at enmity with God. She blesses it and asks God to make of it a vehicle of his grace. Therefore the Christian when he enters church moistens forehead, breast and shoulders, all his person, with the clean and cleansing water in order to make clean his soul. It is a pleasing custom that brings grace and nature freed from sin, and man, who so longs for cleanness, into the unity of the sign of the cross.

At evening also we sign ourselves in holy water. Night, as the proverb says, is no friend to man. Our human nature is formed and fashioned for light. Just before we give ourselves over into the power of sleep and darkness, and the light of day and consciousness is extinguished, there is a satisfaction in making the sign of the cross on ourselves with holy water. Holy water is the symbol of nature set free from sin. May God protect us from every form of darkness! And at morning, when we emerge again out of sleep, darkness and unconsciousness, and life begins afresh, we do the same thing. But in the morning it is to remind ourselves of that holy water from which we have issued into the light of Christ. The soul redeemed and nature redeemed encounter one another in the sign of the cross.

- Roman Guardini

The Sign of the Cross

When we cross ourselves, let it be with a real sign of the cross. Instead of a small cramped gesture that gives no notion of its meaning, let us make a large unhurried sign, from forehead to breast, from shoulder to shoulder, consciously feeling how it includes the whole of us, our thoughts, our attitudes, our body and soul, every part of us at once, how it consecrates and sanctifies us.

It does so because it is the Sign of the universe and the sign of our redemption. On the cross Christ redeemed mankind. By the cross he sanctifies man to the last shred and fiber of his being. We make the sign of the cross before we pray to collect and compose ourselves and to fix our minds and hearts and wills upon God. We make it when we finish praying in order that we may hold fast the gift we have received from God. In temptations we sign ourselves to be strengthened; in dangers, to be protected. The cross is signed upon us in blessings in order that the fullness of God's life may flow into the soul and fructify and sanctify us wholly.

Think of these things when you make the sign of the cross. It is the holiest of all signs. Make a large cross, taking time, thinking what you do. Let it take in your whole being - body, soul, mind, will, thoughts, feelings, your doing and not-doing - and by signing it with the cross strengthen and consecrate the whole in the strength of Christ, in the name of the triune God.

- Romano Guardini

Silent Wisdom Incarnated