The Baptism Of The Lord And Contemplation

Instead of typical New Year’s resolutions to exercise, eat better and lose weight—the Church says just become God-like and you can do all that and much more.

It is not that “you yourself are God,” but we are “gods by grace” (Aquinas) beginning with baptism as we have the indwelling of God in our soul by grace.

That is why St. Hippolytus (170-236), preached to pagan nations to embrace Christianity, promising them immortality and partakers in the divine union:

“You shall be companion of the Godhead and co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lust and passion nor consumed by disease, for you have become God, because you have been deified and regenerated unto immortality.”

Leo the Great adds, “Through the sacrament of baptism you were made a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away such a dweller by your wicked actions and subject yourself again to servitude under the devil.”

There are innumerable graces and gifts imparted to you by your baptism.

It is meant to improve yourself in everything through the practice of Christian perfection, guiding your souls to more holiness by cooperating with God's grace through spiritual exercises, self-discipline (asceticism), prayer, and virtue to grow in love for God and achieve union with Him.

This is the how-to of sanctity or holiness, involving intentional effort to overcome sin and cultivate virtues like charity, humility, and obedience, often through practices like mortification and spiritual training.

The very first thing to do is to love God, and to pray in a quiet, contemplative way as a daily habit.

“Senses” and “sensations” are the metaphors often employed, thus it is said that “Divine love is of an ecstatic nature.” The soul loves and is loved in return; she seeks and she is sought; she calls and is called. She lifts up and is lifted up, she holds and is herself held; she clasps and she is closely embraced, and by the bond of love she unites herself with God, one with one, alone with Him.”

I am using Ékstasis or estatic in an accommodated sense to mean a delightful state of consciousness from a mystical union experienced in the innermost recess of the soul with God.

E.g. Denis the Carthusian, known as the Ecstatic Doctor, adds the following:

“When the soul has purified herself, when she burns with the fire of charity, when she shines by reason of her virtues, God takes great pleasure in her. He holds her familiarly like a fair spouse, clasping her, caressing her, embracing her, and communicating His blessings to her abundantly.”

You can see why a term to describe all this is often called a mystical marriage.

Remember, the prerequisite for this kind of life-- which is the purpose of baptism, to be consecrated to God, to be set-apart-- is that you are living a virtuous life, with great purity of conscience; even a delicate conscience, and heroic virtue, and these qualities are ordinarily associated with a very sound mind and very firm character, thus one’s life is open to test and verification by others. They do not admit of fraud, deception, or hallucination. This is the real deal of a humble, holy life that does not like to draw attention to oneself.

It is also a universal call to all the baptized to have acquired the habit of both discursive and affective mental prayer or contemplation.

Discursive prayer is meditation, using the intellect to reason through a religious topic, often Scripture, applying it to one's life, while affective prayer is a simplified, heart-focused prayer where love and will dominate over thought, often arising from meditation as a direct, loving response to God.

One is the head, and one is the heart, sometimes called cherubic (from the cherubim angles), i.e., intellective, or seraphic, i.e., affective (from the seraphim angles).

For Saints, contemplative prayer is perfect when it attains complete simplification in both its discursive and affective operations, for simplicity is perfection.

The reason we are supposed to be doing regular contemplation is the fact that all the baptized faithful are called to Christian perfection and contemplation which is the prayer of the perfect soul.

Saint Teresa of Avila insists on the universality of the call to contemplation, explaining the words of our Lord:

“On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” (John 7:37).

“Notice,” she says, “how our Lord invites everybody....He could have said: Come all,…and I shall give to drink to whomsoever I please. But, as I said, He invites all without such restriction. I am certain that this living water [of contemplation] will not fail those who do not stop on the road.”

Concluding illustration:

A juggler in the old town of ancient Alexandria in Egypt had trained a monkey and taught it patiently to imitate all the gracefulness and agility of professional dancers.