The Baptism of St. John the Baptist

St. John, called the Baptist because he performed the ceremony of baptizing with water, was not following,in this matter of baptizing, any prescription of the Old Law. Hewas introducing something new. And this baptism of penance conferred by St. John (son of Zachary and Elizabeth) was apt and suitable because: (a) St. John was to baptize our Lord and thus tosanctify the ceremony of baptism; (b) he was to make manifest the divinity of Christ when our Lord came to him to be baptized; (c) hewas to prepare men for the true baptism, that is, the sacrament of baptism, by making them familiar with the ceremonial part of it;(d) he was persuading men to do penance publicly and ceremoniouslyso that they might thus prepare for the worthy receiving of the baptism of Christ.

The rite of St. John’s baptism was from God. For John was divinely sent to baptize, as we know from the Gospel (John1:33). But the effect of John’s baptism was not supernatural.It had not the power to confer grace.

For grace comes to man only through Christ. Scripture(John 1:17) says: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”The baptism of St. John the Baptist was a preparation for grace,but did not give grace.

The baptism of St. John the Baptist was properly given to others besides our Lord, for this ceremony existed not only to manifest Christ on the occasion of his being baptized by John; it existed also to prepare men by penance for the receiving of Christian baptism.

Therefore, even after St. John had baptized Christ and had professed his own faith in him, he continued to baptize. And he made his ceremonial baptism of penance a means of sending people to Christ. For, as St. Bede the Venerable says, the forerunner of Christ (that is, St. John the Baptist) could not properly cease from his work until Christ was made fully manifest.

Of course, those who were baptized by John needed to be baptized again with Christian baptism. John’s baptism was not a sacrament; it did not confer grace nor imprint a character. John the Baptist said, “I baptize with water” (John 1:26); he declared himself, and implicitly his baptism, much less than Christ and His works. Our Lord instituted the sacrament of baptism”of water and the Holy Ghost,” and laid upon all the necessity of receiving it. Scripture tells us that the apostles (Acts 19:1-5) administered the sacrament of baptism to those who had already received the baptism of John.