(LifeSiteNews) — Did you see Russell Brand announce that he’s “taking the plunge” and getting baptized on Sunday?
Russell – we’re all really interested to hear you’re planning on being baptized this Sunday.
I know that this comes after a long period of thought – about the nature of the world we live in, about what was revealed during the COVID lockdowns, and about the spiritual evil we see around us.
You’ve been on an amazing ride, that’s for sure. But you still had a question.
You said you’re curious as to what we, who have been baptized, feel about our baptism.
How we feel comes directly from what we think and believe about baptism.
Baptism cleanses us from all sin, makes us Christians, children of God, and members of the Church. That’s what the Catechism says.
It washes away all sin. But what is sin?
It’s a crime against the law of God, written on our hearts and revealed to us by God.
God made us and loves us, and He gave us His law so that we could be happy with him. It’s written in our nature, it’s our operating system, it’s how we can “work properly” and be happy.
When we sin, we throw off that law, and show that we want to live our lives according to our own operating system – no matter how wrong that may be, or how harmful it may be for us, for others or for God’s glory.
God, our creator and ruler, is so good and so above us, that when we sin it’s like we feeble little creatures reach up to heaven and slap Him in the face.
Sin is how we turn ourselves away from His friendship, from grace, from heaven – towards hell. It makes us into the slaves of the devil – whom Our Lord Jesus Christ called “the prince of this world.”
This is why we say sin kills the soul.
You could think of it as incurring an amazing, unpayable debt.
But as you know, God became man in Christ, that “eerily familiar figure we’ve known all our lives” that you mentioned.
He offered His life on the cross as a perfect and infinite sacrifice, so that in Him, the unpayable debt has been paid.
READ: Candace Owens announces she has joined the Catholic Church
But He can only pay the debt for us if we are attached to Him – and that happens by baptism, and by supernatural faith and love.
Baptism is the moment in your life where the blood that was shed on the Cross is gathered up, and poured upon you.
In that moment, God plants in us the seed of eternal life, by which we then live in this life which will culminate in heaven.
It’s when you’re clad with the spiritual armor and armed with the spiritual weapons needed in this horrible fight – it’s the spiritual solution you yourself have mentioned.
In that moment, all sin is washed away, and you’re incorporated into Christ Himself – it’s in this sense that you become a part of His Body, the Church.
It’s a clean break with the past, and the beginning of a new life.
That’s the death and rebirth that could await you, Russell. That’s what every valid baptism offers every single person – if we don’t put any blocks or obstacles in its way to stop it having this effect.
One block is a lack of repentance. As an adult, baptism will not have its effect unless we are sorry for our sins – and that means that we’re repenting of what we’ve done, and determining to avoid ALL sin in future. All sin.
Look, we’re all human, but we must have the determination. Even if we have deeply ingrained habits, we must have the determination to fight them.
If we approach baptism without this intention, we are baptized in vain. We can’t say we love God if we don’t turn away from our sins.
But also – we must have faith to be baptized. That’s the faith, not just any old faith. The Catholic faith, the whole Catholic faith.
We have to believe, with absolute surety, everything which God has revealed to us, because He has revealed it – and we know what He has revealed from the teaching of the Church, which He founded.
As soon as we start picking and choosing what we’re going to believe from this teaching, or trying to combine this teaching with other religions or esoteric systems, we’re no longer believing on God’s authority, but on our own.
That’s not divine faith in God’s truth – it’s human faith in our own judgment of what’s true.
That’s why, without faith, you might well receive the sacrament of baptism, but you will not receive the graces and effects and the new life which you want.
All those good things are like the water on a mighty river – but our lack of faith acts as a mighty dam too, preventing the water flowing until the day the dam is broken down.
Which brings me to the last point. You said you’re planning on getting baptized in the River Thames.
READ: Tucker Carlson: ‘I am not Catholic, but I am interested’
And while you were obviously joking at that point, it wasn’t clear whether you were only joking – or if you really are going to be baptized in the Thames.
Russell, I know for a fact that no Catholic priest is going to be baptizing you in the Thames.
That “eerily familiar figure” you mentioned founded one Church to be His Body on earth, and to receive His power to teach, rule, and sanctify his followers. That Church is the Roman Catholic Church.
Over the centuries, many men have fallen away from this Church and tried to set up their own little groups.
They try to claim it doesn’t really matter whether you are a part of this group or that group – and that it’s bigoted or intolerant to say otherwise.
Well, I think at this stage we’re all a bit past worrying about being called bigots, aren’t we?
So if you want the new life that comes in baptism; the future that it promises you in this world and the next; the grace and power to stand firm in the evil days that are upon us – then it is absolutely necessary that you be baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, just as Candace Owens was a few days ago.
But a baptized person outside the Catholic Church is like a sheep branded with the mark of its Shepherd but wandering out in the mountains. The Shepherd wants you in HIS Sheepfold.
The great Church Father St. Augustine of Hippo said:
Outside the Catholic Church one can have everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have the sacraments, [even baptism!] one can sing alleluia, one can answer amen, one can have faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and preach it too, but never can one find salvation except in the Catholic Church.
You may feel great afterwards and have many good things, as St. Augustine says – but a valid baptism which you receive outside this Church will not have the effects which you want from it, until you enter the Catholic Church.
If you are indeed getting baptized in the Catholic Church – then that’s great! Thank God! But if you’re not, and if you can’t be convinced before going ahead with it this weekend, then at least keep this in mind for the future, and think about it.
I made a show about this in relation to Tucker Carlson a few weeks ago, and I urge you to take a look at it. You’re in it! The link is here.
In the meantime, know that we’re praying for you and won’t stop praying for you until, as Christ Himself said, “there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.”
Russell, God bless you.
