A History of the Catechumenate

A History of the Catechumenate
A Perennial Objection

How often has the reading of the Acts of the Apostles raised a certain doubt in the minds of pastors about the necessity of catechumenal stages? If the Christians of the Pentecost and the Ethiopian eunuch were baptized so quickly, why should one want to be so exigent today?

The objection is not new. There have always been those who have tried to justify with Luke's report a too hasty admission to baptism. The Fathers refuted this position: far from presenting a difficulty, the Lucan texts reveal the fundamental elements we shall be dealing with.

First, Tertullian:

If Philip so "easily" baptized the chamberlain, let us reflect that a manifest and conspicuous evidence that the Lord deemed him worthy had been interposed. The Spirit had enjoined Philip to proceed to that road: the eunuch himself, too, was not found idle, nor as one who was suddenly seized with an eager desire to be baptized; but, after going up to the temple for prayer's sake, being intently engaged on the divine Scripture, was thus suitably discovered. ³

In the same sense, St. Augustine argues that this passage from Acts definitely does not signify that one can be baptized without preparation. Quite the contrary. Philip not only performed all the essential liturgical rites, he also took time to educate the eunuch. He omitted nothing of "what pertains to the habits and morals of the faithful as well as what pertains to faith."

If, however, Scripture is silent and dismisses the rest of what Philip talked over with the eunuch as understood and taken for granted, the words "Philip baptized him" imply that everything was fulfilled which, for the sake of brevity, may be passed over in Scripture, but which, nevertheless, we know from the unbroken chain of tradition must have been carried out. Likewise, where it says that Philip had preached the Lord Jesus to the eunuch, there must be no doubt that the ensuing catechism embraced all the necessary instruction on the duties and proper mode of living for one who believes in the Lord Jesus. To preach Christ consists in declaring not only what must be believed about Him, but also what precepts must be observed by one hoping for membership in the unity of the Body of Christ. ⁴

It is sufficient to reread the text of Acts to realize how all the guarantees were provided. Luke sketches clearly the dispositions of the postulant: he is already a believer since he came on pilgrimage and studied the Bible (Acts 8:27Ð28), and the quality of his dispositions was confirmed by the witness of God himself (8:26,29). The candidate had made a long personal journey (8:34) and, after having listened to a Christocentric biblical catechesis (8:35), he could proclaim his faith, and thus open the way to baptism.

Nevertheless, the author of Acts still presents the event as something exceptional. His intention seems to have been to show the spontaneity and intensity of the conversion of the heart and particularly the power of the Spirit, who intervenes miraculously. ⁵

St. Augustine gathered together the arguments of those who believed in baptism without preparation in the New Testament to show their inanity. Thus, with regard to the three thousand converts at Pentecost, he stresses that moral catechesis was not forgotten and that the biblical text itself is already a refutation of those who would baptize unworthy candidates:

In the very words of Peter...they have the source from which they could have been admonished, if they had cared to study them diligently. When he had said: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit "...the writer of the book immediately added the words: "And with very many other words he bore witness, and exhorted them, saying: Save yourselves from this perverse generation. Now they who received his word accepted it eagerly and believed and were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls." Who does not here understand that, with the "very many other words" which were omitted by the writer for the sake of brevity, Peter with strong appeal had urged them to tear themselves away from this perverse generation, since this very thought is itself concisely contained in the many words with which he was urging it upon them ? ⁶

The fundamental requirements for admission to baptism emerge from this first baptismal narrative (Acts 2:37Ð41). Contrary to the opinion that sees baptism here being administered without preparation, there is a procedure that is already rather developed, even if later editing could have projected back more evolved customs than those of the time when the events took place. In particular, there is the journey of serious conversion, which is actively manifested in stages. ⁷

Furthermore, there is an error of interpretation that is often made with regard to Acts 2:41. When reading "and there were added that day about three thousand souls," one thinks spontaneously that "that day" refers to the day of Pentecost itself. Obviously, however, "that day" is an eschatological term. What is being said is that those who received his word were baptized; "that day" is the day of baptism and not the day of Pentecost. "That day" stresses the eschatological role of baptism, the day when God gathers to his people those of all languages and races.

It does not seem, therefore, that the Apostles were always quick to baptize, even if they did do so sometimes. 8 However this may be, the texts insist on the necessity of discernment. It can even be affirmed that, very soon, ecclesiastical discipline came to be structured more and more firmly on the basis of the fundamental requirements one can perceive from the very beginning of Acts on.

The Epistle to the Hebrews gives witness to this when it reminds the Christians of their formation period when they could only digest milk, when they received the "elementary doctrines of Christ," the "foundation." This period must have been taken quite seriously, for one could not return to it after baptism, when one must eat solid food:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, with instruction about ablutions, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits (Heb 5:12Ð6:3).

Footnotes, Part 1

The Requirements of Admission for Baptism, the next chapter of A History of the Catechumenate, will be posted next Thursday. For information about ordering this book, please see Sadlier's Religion Catalog.

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