How to Cross a River

The beauty of the sacrament of baptism

Christ the Good Shepherd, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (the fifth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, if you haven't read it I highly recommend that you do), Aslan is speaking to Edmund and Lucy at the end of their journey about how they will not return to Narnia. He says they must now seek him, and the way to his country, in their own world.

"Oh, Aslan," Lucy said, "Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?" "I shall be telling you all the time," said Aslan. "But I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river."(Lewis, 1952, pg. 269)

Aslan explains that the way to his country "lies across a river". In the Christian imagination, the river, or crossing water in general, always evokes the image of baptism. It was in the river Jordan that Jesus was baptized by St. John the Baptist. On their way from slavery to freedom, the Israelites had to cross the Red Sea and the Jordan River, both of which God parted so they could walk across on dry land. It was a forty-day flood that cleansed the world in the days of Noah. Jesus offers the woman at the well "living water" that gives life and wholeness to all who drink of it.

What is the significance of all this water? In the course of normal life we use water for a variety of purposes: cooking, drinking, and to clean and purify ourselves and other objects. Water is necessary for life. We can go about three weeks without food, but can only go about three days without water. Water also imparts all these functions in Biblical imagery. Water cleanses, purifies, and brings about new life. Just as our bodies become clean by bathing, the bath of baptism actually brings about the cleansing of our souls from sin. By "crossing the river" we secure life for our souls and the Lord heals us from the sickness of sin, cleaning away all the infection that we might become whole again.

But this is not a process we undertake alone. Baptism also joins us to the community, making us part of a family and part of the Body of Christ. New Christians are born by water and the Spirit when the Holy Spirit "hovers over the waters" of the baptismal font, making them fertile and effective. God becomes our father and the Church becomes our mother. At baptism, the Good Shepherd goes out to find us lost sheep, brings us home, enfolds us into the flock, and rejoices greatly over us.

This is why the Good Shepheard is a common image in early Christian baptism and funerary art (both baptism and death are deaths that bring about new life. Baptism into the life of grace and death into everlasting life, if one has first undergone the "death" of baptism), as seen in the cover photo of this post. This Good Shepherd mosaic is found in a mausoleum and features Jesus the Good Shepherd and His flock with water streaming from the rocks behind the sheep. The water is the living water of baptism that gives life to the flock and brings them together.

In just the same way, at baptism we are made part of the Lord's flock, part of God's family through the grace of the sacrament. When we renounce evil and choose God, He accepts us as His children and we are born once again, going down into the font and coming up again dead to sin but alive in Christ, a new child, a new creation.

This "new creation" is perhaps one of the most amazing things baptism does. God longs to make us new so that we could live in the fullness of life that He intended, living fully as His adopted sons and daughters. This renewal is the firstfruits of the new creation that began with the resurrection of Jesus. This is why baptismal fonts, like the one you will be (or were!) baptized in has eight sides- to remind us of the eighth day, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, the eighth day of creation. This reminds us of the promise that all creation will be made new on the last day, the eighth day. As St. Paul says in Romans:

"All creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." (8: 19-23)

God longs to redeem every aspect of creation and at your baptism, that begins to become a reality. The new creation is made present. We get a taste of Heaven here and now when we turn and say yes to the Father. When we accept this gift like little children, we become more fully human, more fully who we were made to be. So, do not be afraid to cross this river. This river of living water may at first be a death, but it is a death that leads to richer and fuller life, life fully alive in the grace of God. The point of baptism is to receive the life of God which is "life to the fullest".