Discussion About the Blessing of Holy Water

Inquirer:

This ceremony is another of those weird Orthodox things that I don’t understand.  Why would one want to bless water?  Do you bless other things as well?  For example, earth that it may grow food?  Fire, that it may provide warmth?  or to get more modern—our computers for communication purposes...

Answer:

Well yes, we bless many things. We bring baskets of food to be blessed on Pascha (Easter). There is a special blessing for automobiles, for crops. As part of Epiphany, the priest usually makes the rounds to bless houses of parishioners. There is an entire book of blessings, called the “Book of Needs”.

Inquirer:

I can kind of understand blessing some water to set it aside for baptisms, (although how do you keep it from getting scummy during the year—like the water in our goldfish aquarium when I don’t get around to cleaning it.) But going outside to bless a lake really seems strange.  Does that make the water in that particular lake special?

Answer:

Interestingly enough, I have never seen Holy Water (blessed) “get scummy”.  I keep several bottles in my Holy Corner, a couple are over two years old. When a priest blesses the water, he is “reclaiming” it in the Name of the Lord. He is restoring a portion of creation to its “pre-fall” state.

Inquirer:

Sorry, but this seems like glorifying the creation rather than the Creator.  Rather it is glorifying the Creator through His Creation. What God has made is GOOD.  In showing due reverence to His Gift of Creation, we show reverence to its Creator.  Does this mean that water is a symbol for all of creation that will eventually be redeemed?

Answer:

More than a symbol, but yes.

Inquirer:

Is this a blessing of water in general?  Or is this a certain amount of special water being set aside for a Holy use?  If it is a certain amount of water, what happens if you run out during the year?  Besides—I’m sorry, but to my Protestant mind it looks like you are trying to give water magical powers.

Answer:

God works through His Creation. The water is not magic, but God can transcend the known laws of nature through Holy Water. Again, Holy Water has been “set aside for God”, which is what HOLY means. It has been restored to a pre-fallen state.

Yes, Holy Water is set aside. It is used in blessings throughout the year.  We take it home and keep it in the Holy Corner. We sip it when we are sick. I sprinkled Holy Water in my daughter’s room when she was having particularly bad dreams (which went away). It is NOT the water that has “powers”. It is only God, working through the sacrament of Holy Water that effects miracles.

Inquirer:

Actually, for as long as I could understand the story of Jesus’ baptism, I have wondered why He was baptized. He had no sin and He was not born into eternal life.  It did not mean the same to Him as it meant to us.  I have kind of come to the conclusion that just as we are baptized into His death, He was baptized into our death, and just as coming up out of the water symbolizes our being raised to new life, so His coming out of the water prefigured His own resurrection.  Besides, in some mystical way Christ’s baptism symbolized the beginning of His ministry.  Also, another thing I don’t understand—If Jesus was at that time a part of the Trinity, why did the Holy Spirit need to descend on Him like a dove?    I guess I won’t understand most of this stuff until I get to heaven—if then...

Answer:

Christ identifies with us so that we may be identified with Him. Why did Christ and the Apostles make such a big deal of baptism in the first place? The same reason that God made the Israelites actually sacrifice animals, perform circumcisions, build an Ark. It is through these specific actions that we participate in a real way in salvation history, that we maintain the link between us and Moses, that connects Abraham to the Resurrection. It is a concrete act through which the Holy Spirit synergistically works in our space-time continuum.

The dove was a manifestation, not for Jesus, but for the witnesses, to communicate the concept of a Trinitarian God, which was totally foreign to Jewish theology of the time. It would be used, later in the life of the Church, to help defend the idea of Trinity in Unity against those who argued against the Divinity of Christ.

Inquirer:

Why does Jesus’ baptism signify that all flesh and matter is sanctified?  I don’t see the connection.

Answer:

Because God USED it to do so. THAT is part of what the Baptism of Christ is about, to teach us that all flesh and matter IS sanctified. God used a concrete, specific act in real time to convey a timeless spiritual principle.

Inquirer:

Actually, I am very curious about this ceremony, and I would love to go tonight, …  As you can see, I don’t have any kind of a “handle” on this particular feast at all, but I’ll just think about it is something I don’t understand yet.