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Mystagogy

Baptsim with water splashing

Awe-Inspiring: Renunciation, Adhesion, and the Baptismal Immersion

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Last week Rhoda provided insights from the ancient mystagogy regarding the giving (tradition) and return (redditio) of the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer by the catechumens while on the doorstep of their baptisms. This week we turn to ceremonies that are a part of the baptismal rite itself: the Renunciation of Satan, Adhesion to Christ, and the Baptismal Immersion itself.

               The Renunciation of Satan, sin, end evil—still part of both western and eastern baptismal rites—was a dramatic event in the early church. The candidate for baptism faced Satan, turning to the west, and renounced him “in the face.” In some places the candidate knelt to do this, reflecting his bondage to sin. Cyril of Jerusalem in his mystagogy says of this dramatic rejection:

You are told to stretch out your hand, and to address the devil as if he were before you: I renounce you, Satan. I will tell you know, for you need to know, why you face westward. The west is the quarter from which darkness appears to us; now the devil is darkness, and wields his power in darkness. So we look to the west as a symbolic gesture, and renounce the leader of shadow and darkness. So what each of you said was: “I renounce you Satan, you wicked and most cruel tyrant,” and your meaning was, “I no longer fear your power. For Christ has dissolved that power by sharing with me in blood and flesh, so that he might annihilate death by death and save me from subjection to eternal slavery (Yarnold, 71).

Here is a dramatic reorientation of lordship. The candidates revile Satan’s rule.

               And as part of that reorientation they adhere to Christ—a ceremony only retained in eastern baptismal rites. For this act of adhering to the lordship of the true Lord of all creation, Christ Jesus, the candidate faces east. As Cyril says,

The gates of God’s paradise are open to you, that garden which God planted in the east, and from which our first parent was expelled for his transgression. When you turned from west to east, the region of light, you symbolized this change of allegiance. Then you were told to say: “I believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and in one baptism of repentance” (Yarnold, 74-75).

John Chrysostom describes the renunciation and the adhesion as a contract/covenant. The candidate is annulling one contract with Satan and signing another contract with the Lord Jesus. In his words,

Have you seen the terms of the contract? After the renunciation of the Evil One and all the works he delights in, the priest instructs you to speak again as follows: And I pledge myself, Christ, to you. Do you see the overwhelming goodness of God? From you he receives only words, yet he entrusts to you realities, a great treasure. He forgets your past ingratitude; he remembers nothing of your past; he is content with these few words. And those few words bind the candidate to Christ, covenanting and cementing the relationship between Lord and believer (Yarnold, 158-9).

               In the baptismal waters the acts of renunciation and adhesion reach their culmination as the candidate is drowned and her sinfulness is washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Depending upon the size of the baptismal pool, the candidate’s entire body was submersed under the water or the candidate stood in water to their knees or thighs and water was poured profusely over their entire body. As Cyril recounts the baptismal dying,

Then you were conducted by the hand to the holy pool of sacred baptism, just as Christ was conveyed from the cross to the sepulcher which stands before us [literally in Jerusalem!]. Each person was asked if he believed in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You made the confession that brings salvation, and submerged yourselves three times in the water and emerged: by this symbolic gesture you were secretly re-enacting the burial of Christ three days in the tomb….In one and the same action you died and were born; the water of salvation became both tomb and mother for you (Yarnold, 77-78).

As one person has said, there is no missing the moment with baptismal submersion/immersion. This is death and resurrection, being born to new life. As Chrysostom says,

He takes you down into the sacred waters, at the same time burying the old nature and raising “the new creature, which is being renewed after the image of the creator” [Colossians 3:10]. Then by the words of the priest and by his hand the presence of the Holy Spirit flies down upon you and another man comes up out of the font, one washed from all the stain of his sins, who has put off the old garment of sin and is clothed in the royal robe (Yarnold, 161).

A dramatic joining to the Lord Jesus Christ, by renouncing the Evil One, adhering to Jesus, and being washed to new life by drowning and dying in the baptismal tomb and womb.

Baptismal font at Hippo

Awe-Inspiring: Insights from the Ancient Mystagogy of the Church

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Today we start a new series reflecting on the catechumenate of the 4th-5th century church. In 1971 Edward Yarnold published a collected edition of all the ancient mystagogical catecheses of the church fathers (The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation: The Origins of the R.C.I.A, Second Edition, Collegeveille, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1994; unfortunately no longer in print). While many church fathers comment on the ritual process of the catechumenate and on the catechetical teaching that accompanied it, four church fathers wrote their mystagogy (catechetical commentary on the rites, usually post-Baptism) and so they are available today. These four church fathers include: Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, John Chrysostom, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. (Although Augustine preached baptismal catechetical sermons, we don’t have a complete set of mystagogical lectures from him). Yarnold’s book provides an introductory overview of the catecheses, oriented toward grounding the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in the ancient catechumenate. Translations of the four mystagogues above follows his introduction.

Each of the mystagogues taught the significance of what happened in the rites of initiation in different ways, with different emphases, and in association with some rites that may have been unique to their context. We hope to introduce some of the unique and compelling ways in which the mystagogues teach what happened to the catechumens as the church incorporated them into the life of Christ through the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. As with the mystagogues, our focus will be on aspects of the rite and the rich symbolism that envelops them.

Throughout the period of Lenten Enlightenment exorcisms were a common feature of the early catechumenate. Baptism entailed a move from the lordship of Satan, sin, evil, and death to the lordship of Christ Jesus and his life, holiness, and mercy. The exorcisms dramatically conveyed the shift in lordship for the catechumen. They now owed their life and allegiance to the Lord over all creation, life, and death and not to the powers and principalities of the Evil One. Chrysostom describes the exorcisms in this way,

So you need to know why it is that after the daily instruction we send you off to hear the words of the exorcists. This rite is neither a simple one nor a pointless. You are about to receive the heavenly King into your house. So those who are appointed for this task, just as if they were preparing a house for a royal visit, take you on one side after our sermon, and purify your minds by those fearful words, putting to flight all the tricks of the evil one, and so make the house fit for the presence of the King. For no demon, however, fierce and harsh, after these fearful words and the invocation of the universal Lord of all things, can refrain from flight with all speed. And, in addition, the rite imprints great reverence in the soul and leads it to great sorrow for sin (Yarnold, 156).

As Chrysostom notes, there is no difference of rank here. All—the wealthy, the powerful, the poor, the dispossessed—must be exorcised, for all fall under the power of the Evil One prior to baptism. Usually they came in bare feet with their outer garments removed and with hands outstretched pleading to the Lord for their removal from the kingdom of evil. In St. Augustine’s Hippo, this attitude of repentance toward and intentional rejection of the Evil One’s rule was reflected in the sack-cloth made of goat’s hair. As Yarnold indicates,

The symbolism of the goat’s fleece is fourfold:

  1. Sack-cloth is the traditional sign of penitence;
  2. It recalls the tunics of skin worn by Adam and Eve after the fall and so reminds the candidate of original sin;
  3. It is an acknowledgement of the candidate’s former slavery to the devil;
  4. The trampling of the goat’s hair shows that the candidate wishes to be numbered among the sheep rather than the goats at the Last Judgement (Yarold, 10-11).

The mystagogues are in dread earnest! This is life or death business. The catechumens can only embrace the true life when the Lord has exorcised them from the rule of the Great Liar and Deceiver.

Easter Vigil 2019 (95)

Mystagogical Catechesis: Formation through Paschal Mystery for Life

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To couch this in the language of George Lindbeck, we in the LCMS are thoroughgoing cognitive-propositionalists. Our catechetical instruction and formation proceeds out of the (often unexamined) assumptions of the Enlightenment that the primary means of formation go through our heads. The catechumenate calls us to give attention to the variety of ways in which we learn and to a more holistic pedagogy. Catechesis in the catechumenate is not only about the head, but also about the heart and the body. We learn intellectually, emotionally, psychologically, relationally, and physically. Mystagogical catechesis aims toward such a holistic formation through the entire catechumenal process. Not only during the period of Mystagogy. In that sense, the catechesis of the period of Mystagogy should be a deepening of what took place throughout the rest of the catechumenate.

But what is mystagogical catechesis? [I’m going to rely on Roman Catholics here because they understand what mystagogy is in ways that we as Lutherans are only beginning to penetrate.] I find Roman Catholic scholar Timothy O’Malley’s description compelling: “Mystagogy is a stance toward the entirety of life, seeing every part of our existence through the mystery of Christ” (Divine Blessing, 128). That mystery is that the Triune God rules in grace and love over his creation through the life, death, and resurrection of God the Father’s Son Christ Jesus.  Mystagogy is seeing all of life through the paschal mystery. Roman Catholic Diana Macalintal describes the mystagogical catechetical task this way, “We bear the great responsibility of translating, interpreting, and helping seekers…see the world in which they live through the eyes of faith. We also have the great gift of presenting the longing and needs of our seekers to God whom we believe by faith will heal them and draw them closer to Him in love. When we do this, we make the mystery of God no less mysterious but all the more knowable” (Your Parish is the Curriculum, 99).

Mystagogical catechesis during the period of Mystagogy interprets the initiatory experience of the newly baptized (their baptism, anointing, and reception of communion for the first time through the paschal liturgy). It interprets and applies that ritual experience to their lives of faith in this world through the Word of God that they hear week in and week out. It is to interpret life itself in view of the experience of baptism and the Lord’s Supper within the story of God in Christ as that story is rehearsed Sunday to Sunday. O’Malley again argues that the period of Mystagogy “is the right time to teach a way of reading time in a liturgical key. What do I mean? During the season of Easter, we come to see how every dimension of human life can be transformed through the resurrection. On Easter, food is blessed. Water is blessed, All creation is blessed. Thus, we’re especially aware at this time of the way that the church can bless all of life, all of time, all of space. Everything” (Divine Blessing, 129). Mystagogical catechesis guides the newly baptized into such an interpretation of all of life.

Diana Macalintal advocates that we ask these kinds of questions to facilitate this mystagogical reflection, this holistic catechesis during Easter:

Encounter: First, participate in Sunday liturgy and so encounter the crucified and risen Lord.

Recollect: How did you encounter Christ in that event? What did you see, hear, and do in your initiation into Christ and in the Sunday liturgies that followed?

Reflect: What was most memorable moment about encountering Christ in that initiatory event and in the Sunday liturgy?

Catechesis: How does the Word of God inform the nature of the encounter with Christ in all those liturgical events and in events in the parish’s life? (Your Parish is the Curriculum, 103).

Facilitating reflection in this way allows catechists and pastors to weave doctrine and confession into lives of faith in light of the baptismal and Eucharistic experience and formed by the story of God told through God’s Word.

augustine+and+ambrose

Mystagogical Preaching: Preaching to the Newly Baptized

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Preaching throughout the season of Easter should be mystagogical, especially in a congregation that has a catechumenate. What does that mean? It means that throughout the Easter season the preacher should proclaim the paschal mystery, the death and resurrection of Jesus as seed of the renewal of all creation and the life of the world. The gospel readings throughout the season, especially in the three year series (but the one year series could also be approached in this way), examine different facets of the paschal mystery.

Preaching the entire story as a paschal story aims at the whole congregation with the newly baptized (neophytes) as the central symbol of that paschal mystery for the assembly. They serve as that central symbol because they have just experienced the death and resurrection of Jesus through baptism and now embody that lived experience of grace, mercy, and love. Mystagogical preaching will aim to teach so that all the people perceive living as a consequence of and within the death and resurrection of Jesus. Such preaching should draw the assembly and the neophytes along from paschal celebration to paschal celebration, each Sunday examining the diadem of Jesus’ pascha from a different angle, reflecting on its manifold richness and meaning. Part of preaching those different angles and perspectives will include: 1) preaching so as to “solidify” people’s notions of eternal life, and to correct erroneous notions; 2) preaching to evoke the imagination’s flowering as it flows from the biblical narrative; 3) preaching the embodied nature of human life and the physicality of the world in the present so as to evoke the substantive nature of the age to come.

Paul Hoffman in his book, Faith Shaping Ministry (68-83), refers to preaching throughout the catechumenate as formational preaching. Certainly the preaching during the period of mystagogy should be formational, both for the neophytes and the community. For Hofmann there are six characteristics of formational preaching:

  1. Intimately connected to the text or texts for the day.
  2. Embraces ambiguity and mystery. It does not attempt to give all the answers.
  3. Challenging both to preach and to hear (because the texts challenge us).
  4. Highly narrative, using narrative to connect the text to the daily vocation of the baptized.
  5. Honestly evaluates the human condition of sin and suffering and points to Christ on the cross as our only hope.
  6. Targeted more to the community than to the individual.

All of those criteria push toward preaching that forms and molds worshippers to see the Christian way of life through the prism of Christ’s death and resurrection. Such preaching helps the assembly and the neophytes to understand, interpret, and appreciate their initiation—baptism, anointing, and Lord’s Supper—into Christian faith and life and to see life itself through this lens. It is preaching that shapes a sacramental imagination so as to live a life of faith as reflective of that imagination. (For more on sacramental, mystagogical preaching see Craig Satterlee and Lester Ruth, Creative Preaching on the Sacraments, Discipleship Resources, 2001).

Redeemer Post-Baptism Neophytes and Newly Confirmed 2019

Celebrating the Newly Baptized: The Rites of the Mystagogy Period

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How can one not love a word like Mystagogy! Prior to Lent we discussed key aspects of the Period of Enlightenment—Rituals, Prayer, Reflection, Catechesis. During Lent we will consider primary aspects of the least well known period of the catechumenate: The Period of Mystagogy. We will consider Rituals, Preaching, Catechesis, Service, and Formation and Vocation over the next five weeks.

Both the RCIA’s description of the Period of Mystagogy as well as that of Go Make Disciples provide a helpful vision of mystagogy. The RCIA describe the period as “a time for the community and the neophytes together to grow in deepening their grasp of the paschal mystery,  and in making it part of their lives through meditation on the Gospel, sharing in the Eucharist, and doing the works of charity” (Rite of Christian Initiation, Study Edition, 151). Go Make Disciples describes it in this way: “Mystagogical reflection is guided and sustained contemplation of the church’s worship, especially its sacraments, using biblical themes, images, and stories. . . . it draws Christians to reflect on their experience in worship as an encounter with God, and then to consider the implications for behavior in daily life that reflects faith and belonging to Christ” (Go Make Disciples, 131).

Mystagogy is for the entire assembly. The experience of the neophytes (newly planted baptized) serves as the impetus and source for the sustained (and lifelong) reflection of the assembly of its participation in the paschal mystery. Thus, since the neophytes are the primary symbol there are few formal rituals during this period. The weekly divine service and the Lord’s Supper itself serve as the primary ritual context for reflecting on faith and life in light of experiencing the paschal journey with Christ through baptism, Lord’s Supper, and anointing. At the end of the period, at Pentecost, there should be some celebration of this entire journey with the neophytes and the assembly. This also could include, especially on the Day of Pentecost, a rite of affirmation of vocation. Such a rite is provided in Welcome to Christ, 58-61). In addition, a celebration at the one year anniversary of their incorporation into the body of Christ would be appropriate. Other gatherings throughout the year after their initiations, and perhaps beyond the first year, are also encouraged as desired and feasible.

There are other ways to keep the newly baptized at the center of congregational mission, attention, and reflection. During the fifty days of Easter they could sit in their own area of the church and wear a special symbol denoting that they are newly baptized, such as a cross.  They should be included in the intercessions throughout the Easter season. Some may be asked voluntarily to offer witness/testimony to their experience of incorporation into Christ, whether during the divine service or in other forums in congregational life. Every divine service could begin with a rite of remembrance or thanksgiving for baptism, either in addition to or in place of the corporate rite of general confession and absolution. This remembrance of baptism could include the ritual act of sprinkling water upon the assembly as a tangible reminder of baptism (rite of aspersion). The sacramental symbols associated with Easter (font, paschal candle, white paraments and vestments, baptismal candles and robes, alleluia banners, etc…) should have prominence throughout the fifty days.

By means of these rites and ritual accents, as Timothy O’Malley says, “the period of mystagogy is a chance to celebrate the wondrous transformation that has taken place in Christ’s Body” (Divine Blessing, 127). It is a chance to celebrate the new birth in Christ, those newly born in Christ, and all of us who have been born anew in Him.