Holiness and Baptism in the Spirit

By Fr. Raniero Card. Cantalamessa, OFM.Cap

I had the occasion of speaking on spiritual fervor and baptism in the Spirit in my first Lenten meditation to the Papal Household a few months ago. I thought the best way for me to write on “Baptism in the Spirit and Holiness” is simply to share in part what I said there so that the readers of Pentecost Today may see how the message of “the current of grace” of the Charismatic Renewal is resounding at the very heart of the Catholic Church.

We are the heirs of a spirituality which typically saw progress to perfection as going through three stages: purification, illumination, union. In other words, we need to practice renunciation and mortification at length before we can experience fervor. All this is based on great wisdom and on centuries of experience and would be wrong to think it is outmoded by now. No, it is not outmoded, but it is not the only way God’s grace chooses to follow. Such a stern distinction shows a slow gradual shift from divine grace to human efforts.

According to the New Testament it is a circular and simultaneous process, whereby mortification is surely necessary to achieve the fervor of the Spirit, but at the same time it is also true that the fervor of the Spirit is necessary to be able to practice mortification. Embarking on an ascetic journey without a strong starting push by the Spirit would be dead toil and would not generate anything but ‘pride of the flesh.’ We are granted the Spirit to be able to mortify ourselves, rather than as a prize after mortifying ourselves.

This second way, going from fervor to asceticism and to the practice of virtue, was the one Jesus asked the apostles to follow. As the great Byzantine theologian Cabasilas put it, “The apostles and fathers of our faith had the advantage of being instructed in every doctrine and what’s more by the Savior in person. […] Yet, despite having known all this, until they were baptized [at Pentecost, with the Spirit], they did not exhibit anything new, noble, spiritual or better than in the old times. But when baptism came for them and the Paraclete stormed their souls, then they became new and they embraced a new life, they were leaders for others and made the flame of the love for Christ shine within themselves and others. […] In the same way God leads to perfection all the saints who have come after them” (Life in Christ, II, 8: PG 150, 552 s.).

The Fathers of the Church expressed all this with the attractive image of ‘sober drunkenness’. What drove many of them to take up this subject, which had already been developed by Philo of Alexandria, were Paul’s words to the Ephesians: “Do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Eph 5:18-19).

Starting with Origen, countless texts of the Fathers spelled out this image, by playing either on the analogy or on the contrast between physical and spiritual drunkenness. Those who, at Pentecost, mistook the apostles for drunkards were right – as Saint Cyril of Jerusalem writes – their only mistake was to relate that drunkenness to ordinary wine, whereas it was ‘new wine,’ made from the ‘true vine’ which is Christ; the apostles were indeed drunk, but theirs was a sober drunkenness crushing their sins and reviving their hearts (Catech. XVII, 18-19).

How can we take up this ideal of sober drunkenness and embody it in the present situation in history and in the Church? Why should we take it for granted that such a strong way of experiencing the Spirit was an exclusive privilege of the Fathers and of the early history of the Church, but that it is no longer the case for us? Christ’s gift is not limited to a specific age, but it is

offered to every age. It is precisely the role of the Spirit to make Christ’s redemption universal and available to anyone, at any point in time and space. What are the ‘places’ where the Spirit acts today in the same way as it acted at Pentecost? Let us listen to Saint Ambrose who, among the Latin Fathers, was the herald par excellence of the sober drunkenness of the Spirit. After mentioning the two classic ‘places’ – the Eucharist and Scriptures – where the Spirit can be drawn from, he hints at a third option, saying: “There is also another drunkenness caused by the drenching rain of the Holy Spirit. In the same way, in the Acts of the Apostles, those who talked in different languages appeared to their listeners to be filled with wine” (St. Ambrose, Comm. on Ps. 35, 19).

After mentioning the ‘ordinary’ means, with these words Saint Ambrose hints at a third ‘extraordinary’ one, by which he means it is not something that is preplanned, nor is it something institutional. It is about reliving the experience of the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

Certainly, Ambrose did not intend to point to this third option, to say to his listeners that it was not accessible to them, being exclusively reserved to the apostles and to the first generation of Christians. On the other hand, he means to spur his congregation to experience that ‘drenching rain of the Spirit” which took place at Pentecost. That is what Saint John XXIII meant to do with the Second Vatican Council: a ‘new Pentecost’ for the Church.

Therefore, we also have a chance to draw the Spirit from this channel, solely dependent on God’s own free and sovereign action. One of the ways the Spirit is made visible in this manner outside the institutional channels is the so-called ‘baptism in the Spirit.’ The phrase ‘Baptism in the Spirit’ comes from Jesus himself. On referring to the approaching Pentecost, before ascending to heaven he said to his apostles: ”John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). That ritual has nothing exoteric; rather, it consists of extremely simple, calm and joyful gestures, along with feelings of humility, repentance and willingness to become like children.

It is a renewal with fresh awareness not only of Baptism and Confirmation, but also of the entire Christian life, of the sacrament of marriage for married people, of their ordination for priests, of their religious profession for consecrated people. The candidate prepares for the baptism in the Spirit not only with a good confession, but also participating in instruction meetings, where they can come into living and joyful contact with the main truths and realities of faith: God’s love, sin, salvation, the new life and transformation in Christ, charisms, the fruits of the Spirit.

The most frequent important fruit is the discovery of what it means to have a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus risen and alive. In the Catholic understanding, the Baptism in the Spirit is not the end of a journey, but a starting point to mature as Christians and as committed members of the Church. If someone doesn’t like the expression “baptism of the Spirit”, let him or her leave it aside and instead of the “baptism of the Spirit” ask for the “Spirit of the baptism”, that is a renewal of the gift received at the baptism.

The secret is to say ‘Come, Holy Spirit’ once, but to say it with your whole heart, knowing that such invitation will not remain unheard. To say it with an “expectant faith”, leaving the Spirit free to come in the way and with the manifestations he decides, not in the way we think he should come and manifest himself.

Baptism in the Spirit proved to be a simple and powerful means of renewing the lives of millions of believers in almost all Christian Churches. Countless people, who were Christians only by name, thanks to that experience have become real Christians, engaged in prayer of praise and in the sacraments, active evangelizers, willing to take on pastoral tasks in their parishes. We should say to ourselves what Augustine used to repeat, almost with indignation, to himself when he heard stories of men and women who, in his time, left the world to devote themselves to God: ‘If those men and women did, why don’t I do too?’ “Si isti et istae, cur non ego?” (Confessions, VIII, 8, 19).