“Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy…”
The phrase “portal of grace” doesn’t appear in the Catechism, but it’s how I’ve always thought of Baptism; we might call the sacrament “The First Ephphetha,” the first means by which we are opened to Christ and to the Christian life which, if it is lived fully and mindfully, must be a continual opening and re-opening, and then a widening to the Savior and to the workings of the Holy Spirit. When we chant with the psalmist “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it” we do well to remember that the same is true for our hearts and our souls. A portal opened to grace must not be blocked. As much as Christ’s Nativity was “for all the people,” ...