Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. 5 For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. 7 For a dead person has been absolved from sin. 8 If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. 10 As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. 11 Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.
On Holy Saturday, the Church waits in silence beside the tomb. The sorrow of Good Friday lingers, but so too does the dawning hope of Resurrection. St. Paul’s words in Romans 6:3-11 pull back the veil on this sacred mystery: we who are baptized into Christ are not merely followers—we are sharers in His death and resurrection. “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him (v. 8).”
Paul begins by reminding the faithful that baptism is not a mere symbol but a real participation in Christ’s Paschal Mystery. “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4), he writes, drawing on the typological image of Israel’s passage through the Red Sea—a deliverance from slavery to freedom (cf. Ex. 14:29-30; 1 Cor. 10:1-2). Just as the Israelites left behind the bondage of Egypt, so too does the Christian, through baptism, leave behind the dominion of sin and begin a new life in the freedom of grace.
From the earliest days of the Church, Christians have recognized that baptism unites believers with Christ in both His death and resurrection. Rooted in Scripture and affirmed across the centuries, baptism is the means by which we die to sin and are reborn into new life in Him. As Paul writes, Christ’s death was “once for all” (Rom 6:10), and by His resurrection, He inaugurated a life in which death no longer has dominion. Baptism, then, is the beginning of that life—a real sharing in Christ’s victory over sin and death, and the transformation by which the old self is put to death and a new creation begins.
This is not only a personal transformation but a cosmic one. Christ’s resurrection is the “firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:20), the beginning of the new creation foretold by the prophets (cf. Isa. 65:17). The old self, crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), corresponds with the removal of the leaven at Passover—a casting out of the old life of sin (cf. Ex. 12:15; 1 Cor. 5:7). Now, the believer is called to “live for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11), a phrase that signals the restored communion Adam lost and Christ restored through His obedient self-gift.
Holy Saturday invites us into this tension: we mourn the death of Christ, yet we also anticipate the newness of life revealed in the Resurrection. Paul’s teaching assures us that the tomb is not the end. In baptism, we are already united to Christ's triumph over death. What we await in time is the full manifestation of what God has already begun in us.
Lord Jesus Christ, on this silent day of waiting, we remember that You were laid in the tomb to break the power of death from within. May we never forget that through baptism we have died with You, and through Your Resurrection, we are made alive in God. Keep us faithful to the life of grace You have begun in us, until the day we share fully in Your glory. Amen!
Sources
- McSorley, Joseph. An Outline History of the Church by Centuries (From St. Peter to Pius XII). 2nd ed., B. Herder Book Co., 1944.
- Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
- Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
- Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
- Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: The Pentateuch. Four Courts Press, 2017
- Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, 1990.
- Charpentier, Etienne. How to Read the Old Testament. Translated by John Bowden, 1981.
- Komonchak, Joseph, et al., editors. The New Dictionary of Theology.
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