200 The Holy Spirit has Marked Us with the Seal of the Lord - part 3

YOUCAT Lesson 200, part 3 of 3 parts

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

200  What happens in Baptism?

In Baptism we become members of the Body of Christ, sisters and brothers of our Redeemer, and children of God.  We are freed from sin, snatched from death, and destined from then on for a life in the joy of the redeemed.  [1262-1274, 1279-1280]

…….Montage: …... Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark of his belonging to Christ. This is a Christian service poster by Soles for Souls. ….. …..200

…….THE GRACE OF BAPTISM; An indelible spiritual mark . . .

…….1272   Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation.( compare Romans 8:29; Council of Trent (1547): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1609-1619)⁸³    Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated. –CCC

…….1273   Incorporated into the Church by Baptism, the faithful have received the sacramental character that consecrates them for Christian religious worship.( compare Lumen Gentium 11)⁸⁴    The baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity.( compare Lumen Gentium 10)⁸⁵ –CCC

…….1274   The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord ("Dominicus character") "for the day of redemption."(St. Augustine, Ep. 98,5:Patrologia Latina 33,362; Ephesians 4:30; compare Eph 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22)⁸⁶    "Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life."(St. Irenaeus, Dem ap. 3:SCh 62,32)⁸⁷    The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith,"( Roman Missal, EP I (Roman Canon) 97)⁸⁸    with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection. –CCC

……..IN BRIEF

…….1279   The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ. –CCC

…….1280   Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. Because of the character Baptism cannot be repeated (compare Denzinger Schönmetzer 1609 and DS 1624). --CCC