The liturgy of Easter week revolves about the Sacrament of Baptism. On Holy Saturday the catechumens were baptized; the Church wanted them to awake to their new life at the same time that Jesus, the Divine Head, rose from the tomb.
Easter thus celebrated a double resurrection, the resurrection from the dead of Our Lord, the Head; and the resurrection from the dead of Christ's members. The neophytes were joined by their baptism to the one living Vine, the Savior.
Thus the first Christians were prepared to understand that true Christianity must be for each one, an incorporation with Christ; that we are nothing if we are not grafted on Christ, through union with Him; through, and since our baptism, we compose with Jesus, our Divine Elder Brother what St. Augustine calls plenarium corpus Christi, the whole body of Christ.
Even the date chosen for the baptism was significant - the night of Holy Saturday when, after the blessing of the fonts, each catechumen descended into the baptismal font to leave there forever his garment of death, and to emerge from it clothed for the future with the life of grace. At that very moment the Church celebrated the resurrection from the tomb of Jesus, the Divine Head.
The manner of administering baptism was of unusual significance. It was not, as now, a baptism of infusion, but of immersion; the font represented a tomb symbolizing Christ's sepulchre. At dawn on Easter, Christ - Head and members - emerge from the tomb; for Jesus the Head, the resurrection of the body, for the members of Jesus, the awaking of the soul to life. It is indeed Christ who rises, but the whole Christ. For eight days the newly baptized celebrated their joy in having become members of the living Christ by wearing the official baptismal garment to ceremonies.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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