The story of the little fish swimming towards its mother, and in a panic says, “Mama, Mama, what’s water? I gotta find water or I’ll die!”
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” John 3:5 says.
The water refers to water baptism and is cited by the catechism. Similarly, Titus 3:5 speaks "washing of regeneration,” which is a baptismal reference.
Some Christians, however, interpret the water in John 3: 5 as natural birth referring to the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby in the womb and is present during the birth process.
It reminds me of the time in 1789, when a Scottish explorer, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, led an expedition across Canada with a goal of finding a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Over a span of three months, Mackenzie and his men followed this winding river over 3,000 miles through the Canadian wilderness. It was dangerous, but the men were sure the end goal would be worth it. Imagine how they felt when they discovered that the river they were following led to the ice-filled Arctic Ocean instead. Mackenzie’s hopes were crushed. In his diary, he referred to this great expedition as the “River of Disappointment.” 1
Don’t be tricked about John 3:5. Jesus does not say that you must be born of water THEN born of the spirit. He simply says that you must be born again of water and the Spirit, which answers Nicodemus confusion about how a man is to be born again. Water Baptism is how we are born again, and it is necessary for salvation because God has bound salvation to this sacrament, the catechism teaches us (1257).
Be careful of those who scorn water. One early gnostic, Maini, had little joy of water; it was too earthy, physical, and carnal. In reply, one early Catholic, Tertullian said that the Gnostics knew how to kill the little fish by luring them out of water, so he wrote, of baptism: “We are born in water as little fish in the way of our fish Jesus Christ.”2
Baptism with water seems so basic to us and in the ancient Church, we see unanimity on a doctrine that some reject: baptismal regeneration. They separate denominations over it. But when you read the Church Fathers, baptismal regeneration is absolutely everywhere. In baptism, they said, we are: reborn/Born again/made new creatures/cleansed of/forgiven all our sins; given the Holy Spirit, and justified/made righteous; incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church and become children of God. The dove a baptism is a symbol of the peace between God and man. Baptism is one of the three basic commands of Christ in the Great Commission to the apostles before he ascended into heaven, and it shows up constantly in Scripture, e.g., 1 Peter 3:21 says, “Baptism …saves you now.” How can something that saves you be non-essential? 3
Those who reject water baptism think it is a ceremony that negates salvation “through grace through faith,” as cited Ephesians 2:8-9. Ironically, that very verse is about being saved by baptism because it speaks of being dead in our sins but by the grace of Christ we are saved and raised up with him. That is baptismal language like Colossians 2: 12-13, and Romans 6:1-11: “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.”
The Biblical sacramentality formula of water baptism is:
Dead in sin; raised up with Christ through faith and made alive together with Christ. And this happens because of us being “buried with him in baptism.” In Acts 16, Lydia believed in Jesus and was baptized at once. So, the grace being spoke of is the sanctifying grace of baptism.
The definition of a sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace from God, through the merits of Jesus Christ.” And baptism works “ex opere operato,” which means “of its own accord,” it refers to the fact that the sacraments confer grace when the sign is validly affected — not as the result of activity on the part of the recipient but by the power and promise of God.
I once heard of a preacher who said something like this, “My old, carnal man has died with Christ in baptism, buried with him, but sometimes the devil does CRP and manages to resuscitate him.”
Today, baptism of infants happens by the faith of the parents and godparents, but it is before personal conversion so the grace can lie dormant. This is because the new life of sanctifying grace received in baptism does not abolish the weakness of human nature nor the inclination to sin, which is concupiscence. That is why there is the sacrament of reconciliation after all our sins are washed away in baptism.
Plus, the Church uses the term “actus fidei” for the explicit, personal act of faith that is the heart of discipleship. The capacity to believe is given at baptism but it needs an act of faith and a life of faith as an adult to be fruitful. The catechism speaks of the baptismal seal or spiritual mark or character. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, baptism cannot be repeated.
Now, let me end with some good news:
“A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,” we heard in our First Reading. God has not come to finish off those who have blown it spiritually and morally, but to stand with them in total solidarity.
And, at Jesus’ baptism: a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This is Jesus’ Abba experience that happened at his baptism. We need to have a human voice affirm us, coming from someone more powerful than you, like a parent or from God.
E.g., Jesuit priest Greg Boyle founded Homeboy Industries, a gang intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program. He shares stories of the men and women he works with.
Father Boyle tells the story of Anthony, a trainee at Homeboy Industries who has three daughters:
Half of Anthony’s life had been spent in jails and detention facilities. Before coming to us, a meth addiction crippled him surely as much as his earlier gang allegiance did.
Father Boyle says: We’re speaking in my office one day and he tells me that he [Anthony] and his twin brother, at nine years old, were taken from their parents and a house filled with violence and neglect and sent to live with an abusive in-law. She would make us sit “in this lonely hallway … and not move. ‘She would put duct tape over our mouths … cuz … she said, ‘I hate the sound of your voices.’” Then Anthony quakes as the emotion of this memory reverberates. “This is why,” he says, holding a finger to his mouth, “I never shush my girls.” He pauses and restores what he needs to continue. “I love the sound … of their voices. In fact, when the oldest one grabs a crayon and draws wildly on the living room wall and my wife says, ‘DO something! Aren’t ya gonna TELL her something?’ I crouch down, put my arm around my daughter, and the two of us stare at the wall, my cheek resting on hers, and I point and say, ‘Now, that’s the most magnificent work of art … I have ever seen.’”
God’s cheek resting on ours. Stay with that thought, which is a fruit of being made a child of God in baptism. 4
1. King Duncan, Have Your ID Ready, Sermons.com
2. Norman Nagel, Lured from the Water, the Little Fish Perish, Logia, pg. 7
3. Joshua Charles, Church Fathers Agree: Baptism Saves, Catholic Answers magazine, Indulgences column, pg. 20, 2024.
4. The Center for Action and Contemplation ,God Delights in Us, Thursday, June 15, 2023
