Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: May 10th 2026

Baptism of Christ. Mosaic in Arian Baptistry. Ravenna, Italy

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Most of us may have little remembrance of our own baptism, but I am sure we can recollect the day of our Confirmation, a ceremony where we took that step into the adult life of the faith strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In recent years some of us will have become familiar with the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, particularly if our parish community has adults to be baptised or confirmed at the Easter Vigil or during this paschal season.

Through the various stages of the rites, especially the Catechumenate, we start to realise that those three Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and first reception of the Holy Eucharist, though separate in themselves form a united whole.

This was the structure in the Early Church, but roughly about the first millennium with the rapid spread of Christianity, the structure was altered for practical reasons in the Latin Church, but kept in this sequence in the Eastern Churches as it still is to this day. The history of how and why these changes took place are interesting in themselves, but our recognition of the ancient and historical structure of Initiation has meant a return to the strong links between these three Sacraments, for through them we are not only given the means to salvation, but become full and active members of the Body of Christ, sealed and signed by the Spirit.

We see this structure in our first reading, in the story of the mission and ministry of Philip in Samaria, hearing the Word, people come to faith and are baptised by water, but as is noted they have not received the imposition of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit. So Peter and John are sent to them for a specific reason, the Spirit "had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit". (Acts 8:16,17) What does this passage mean for us?

The answer is revealed both in the second reading from I Peter, and in the gospel of John for this Sunday. Perhaps these words of Jesus should hold our attention:

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate* to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you". (Jn 14: 15-16) Here the intimate relationship we have with Christ and the Spirit in our lives as disciples of Jesus is made clear. To love as Jesus commanded cannot be fully achieved by ourselves alone, we need that abiding help of the gift-giver who is our Advocate for the truth that is essential in our mission as Christians.

As we journey on to Pentecost, we might think and pray a little more about the gift of the Spirit dwelling in us, thanking the Holy One for our baptism and Confirmation and if we can, honouring each year the anniversary of our reception of these Sacraments. Perhaps using this ancient prayer from the Eastern Churches might be one way of opening ourselves more often to the promptings of that Spirit :

"O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, present in all places and filling all things, Treasury of blessings and giver of life: come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O gracious Lord."

Amen.

Lectio

Irenaeus of Lyons

Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which, according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like lightning. If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an Advocate as well. And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord."

From the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus, bishop

From the Rites of Christian Initiation

Celebration of Confirmation

208 In accord with the ancient practise followed in the Roman liturgy, adults are not to be baptised without receiving confirmation immediately afterward, unless some serious reason stands in the way. The conjunction of the two celebrations signifies the unity of the paschal mystery, the close link between the mission of the Son and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the connection between the two sacraments through which the Son andthe Holy Spirit come with the Father to those who are baptised.

209 Accordingly, confirmation is conferred after the explanatory rites of baptism, the anointing after baptism (no. 222) being omitted.

The Neophytes' First Sharing in the Celebration of the Eucharist

210 Finally in the celebration of the eucharist, as they take part for the first time and with full right, the newly baptised reach the culminating point in their Christian initiation. In this eucharist the neophytes, now raised to the ranks of the royal priesthood, have an active part in both the general intercessions and, to the extent possible, in bringing the gifts to the altar. With the entire community they share in the offering of the sacrifice and say the Lord's Prayer, giving expression to the spirit of adoption as God's children that they have received in baptism. When in communion they receive the body that was given for us and the blood that was shed, the neophytes are strengthened in the gifts they have already received and are given a foretaste of the eternal banquet.

www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Rites/RCIA.pdf