Christ is risen!
Truly He is risen!
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5-6)
The New Testament is clear that baptism is an essential part of one’s spiritual sojourn. It is not merely a ritual but more truthfully is a mystery in which we encounter God. As is seen in the Acts 2 quote above, the call to baptism was part of the Apostolic proclamation from the very beginning of Christianity.
However, baptism is not a private experience, for it incorporates us into the Body of Christ which in turn makes us responsible for loving all the people of the world. Olivier Clement writes:
For the early Church salvation is not at all reserved to the baptized. We repeat: those who receive baptism undertake to work for the salvation of all. The Word has never ceased and never will cease to be present to humanity in all cultures, all religions, and all irreligions. The incarnation and the resurrection are not exclusive but inclusive of the manifold forms of this presence.
‘Christ is the first-born of God, his Logos in whom all people share. That is what we have learned and what we bear witness to . . . All who have lived in accordance with the Logos are Christians, even if they have been reckoned atheists, as amongst the Greeks Socrates, Heraclitus and the like. (St Justin the Martyr) (ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM, p 296)
Christ Jesus as God’s Word (Logos) is always available to every person in the world whether or not they are Christian or baptized. He draws the entire world to Himself to unite us to divinity (John 12:32)
Fraternized 