| |
Synopsis of this Chapter
You draw near to the holy
baptism, and first take off all your garments, after which you are duly and
thoroughly anointed with holy Chrism. The priest begins and says: "So-and-so is
anointed in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Then
you descend into the water that has been consecrated by the benediction of the
priest, who, clad in the aforesaid apparel, stands up and approaches his hand,
which he places on your head and says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He places his hand on your head
and says, "in the name of the Father," and with these words he causes you to
immerse yourself in the water. If you were allowed to speak there you would have
said ""Amen!", but you simply plunge into the water and incline your head
downwards; and the priest says "and of the Son" and causes you with his hand to
immerse yourself again while inclining also your head downwards; and the priest
says "and of the Holy Spirit" and presses you down and causes you again to
immerse in a similar way. After you have left that place, you put on a very
radiant garment, and the priest draws near and signs you on your forehead and
says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit."
We left off yesterday our catechetical discourse
with the words which deal with the fact that you have been signed with the oil
of baptism, enlisted in the service of heaven, and counted among the chosen and
the elect. The Kingdom of Heaven has been made manifest through the Economy of
Christ our Lord, who after His Passion and resurrection ascended into heaven
where He established His Kingdom. Now it is right for us—all of us who have been
called to that service of heaven—to have communion with heaven, where all of us
will move and where our King is, as He Himself said: "I will that they be with
Me where I am." We expect to reign with Him if, as the blessed Paul said,
through suffering we show our love to Him; and we shall be with Him in heaven
and partakers of that great glory. It is for this task that you have been
signed, and it is through this signing that you are known to have been chosen
for the service of heaven. This is the reason why immediately you rise up you
spread on your head linen, which is a mark of freedom, and this signifies that
you have been chosen for the heavenly service and been freed from communion with
earthly things, while obtaining the freedom which is in heaven. If a slave is
not allowed in this world to do military service to a king, how much more ought
the person who has been detailed for the service of heaven to be remote from
servitude? AH of us, therefore, who have received communion with heavenly things
are freemen of that "free Jerusalem which is above and which is the mother of us
all," as the blessed Paul said.
Yesterday we spoke sufficiently of the signing
and of the meaning of the ceremonies that take place in it, and it is right for
us to speak to-day of the things that follow it.
You should now proceed towards baptism in which
the symbols of this second birth are performed, because you will in reality
receive the true second birth only after you have risen from the dead and
obtained the favour to be in the state of which you were deprived by death. It
is indeed plain that he who is born afresh returns to the state in which he was
before, while it is equally clear that the one who dies relinquishes his present
state. You will, therefore, have the second birth, at the resurrection, when you
will be given to be in the state in which you were after you were born of a
woman, and of which you were deprived by death. All these things will happen to
you in reality at the time appointed for your birth at the resurrection; as to
now you have for them the word of Christ our Lord, and in the expectation of
them taking place you rightly receive their symbols and their signs through this
awe-inspiring Sacrament, so that you may not question your participation in
future things.
You draw, therefore, near to the holy baptism
which contains the symbol of the birth which we expect. This is the reason why
our Lord called it second birth when He said to Nicodemus: "Unless a man is born
again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." In this He showed that those who will
enter the Kingdom of God must have a second birth. Nicodemus, however, thought
that they will be born according to a carnal birth from a woman, and said: "How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's
womb, and be born? " He said this because he believed that we shall be born in a
way similar to our first birth. As to our Lord He did not disclose to him then
that there are two ways in which we shall in reality receive this, one of which
is at the resurrection, because He knew that the subject was too much for his
hearing. He, therefore, only disclosed to him then the symbolical birth which is
accomplished through baptism, to which all those who believe must draw near so
that by means of its symbols they may move to the happiness of the reality
itself, and answered: "Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." He mentioned the method by saying "of
water," and He revealed the cause by the mention of "the Spirit." This is the
reason why He added: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit." He did not make mention here of the water,
because it plays the part of the symbol of Sacrament, while He did mention the
Spirit, because this birth is accomplished by His action. Illuminatingly he
implied by these words that he who is born of the flesh is flesh by nature, and
is mortal, passible, corruptible, and changeable in everything.
When Nicodemus asked: "How can these things be?
", He answered Him: "The Spirit
10 blows where He wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell from
where He comes, and to where He goes; so is everyone that is born of the
Spirit." He did not mention the water at all, but He lifted the veil of doubt
from the point and showed it to be credible from the truth of the Spirit. The
sentence "He blows where He wishes" demonstrates His power through which He does
everything He wishes, which implies that He can do everything. Indeed, anyone
who has it in his power to do everything He wishes, has also by necessity the
power to accomplish anything He wishes with ease. He used, therefore, the
sentence "so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" with a purpose. He implied
by it that we ought to think that the Spirit possesses such a great power and
such a great might that we are not to doubt and question anything that comes
from Him although it be above, and higher than, our intelligence.
He called baptism a second birth because it
contains the symbol of the second birth, and because through baptism we
participate as in symbol in this second birth. Indeed, we receive from baptism
participation in this second birth without any question and doubt. This is the
reason why the blessed Paul said: "As many of us as were baptised into Jesus
Christ were baptised into His death, and were buried with Him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of His
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Formerly, and before
the coming of Christ, death held sway over us by a Divine decree which was
all-binding, and possessed great sovereignty over us; but because Christ our
Lord died and rose again, He changed that decree and abolished the sovereignty
of death, which to those who believe in Christ resembles a long sleep, as the
blessed Paul said: "But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the
firstfruits of them that sleep." He calls "them that sleep" those who die after
the resurrection of Christ, because they will rise and divest themselves of
death through the resurrection. Because Christ our Lord abolished the power of
death by His own resurrection (the Apostle) said: "As many of us as were
baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death." As if one were saying:
We know that death has been abolished a long time ago by Christ our Lord, and we
draw near to Him and are baptised with such a faith because we desire to
participate in His death, in the hope of participating also in the resurrection
from the dead, in the way in which He himself rose. This is the reason why, when
at my baptism I plunge my head I receive the death of Christ our Lord, and
desire to have His burial, and because of this I firmly believe in the
resurrection of our Lord; and when I rise from the water I think that I have
symbolically risen a long time ago.
Since, however, all this is done in symbols and
in signs, in order to show that we do not make use of vain signs only, but of
realities in which we believe and which we ardently desire, he said: "For if we
have been planted together in the likeness of His death we shall be also (in the
likeness) of His resurrection." In using the future tense he confirms the
present event by the future reality, and from the greatness of the coming
reality he demonstrates the credibility of the greatness of its symbols, and the
symbol of the coming realities is baptism. The working of the Holy Spirit is
that it is in the hope of the future things that you receive the grace of
baptism, and that you draw near to the gift of baptism in order to die and to
rise with Christ so that you may be born again to the new life, and thus, after
having been led by these symbols to the participation in the realities, you will
perform the symbol of that true second birth.
If you say that the greatness of the symbols and
of the signs is in the visible water, it would be an unimportant affair, as this
has already happened before, but because this second birth, which you receive
now sacramentally as the symbol of an earnest, is accomplished by the action of
the Holy Spirit, great is the Sacrament which is performed and awe-inspiring and
worthy of credence is the virtue of the symbols, which will also without doubt
grant us to participate in the future benefits. We expect to delight in these
benefits because as an earnest of them we have received the grace of the Holy
Spirit, from which we have now obtained also the gift of performing this
Sacrament. This is the reason why the blessed Paul said: "In whom we believed
and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our
inheritance to the praise of His glory." He calls here the Spirit of promise the
grace which is promised to us by the Holy Spirit, as we receive it in the
promise of the future benefits, and he calls it the earnest of our inheritance
because it is from it that we become partakers of those future benefits.
He said, therefore, in another passage: "God has
established us with you in Christ and anointed us and sealed us and given the
earnest of His Spirit in our hearts." And again he said in another passage: "And
not only they but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even
we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption of children to the
redemption of our bodies." He uses the words "firstfruits of the Spirit which we
have here" to imply that, when we shall dwell in the joy of the realities, we
shall receive all the grace, and by the words "we wait for the adoption of
children, to the redemption of our bodies" he shows that here we only receive
the symbol of the adoption of children but that thereafter, having been born
afresh, risen from the dead, become also immortal and incorruptible, and
received complete abolition of pains from our bodies, we shall receive the real
adoption. He clearly calls "redemption of our bodies" the assumption of
incorruptibility and immortality, because it is through these things that a
complete abolition of calamities from our bodies is effected. The power of the
holy baptism consists in this: it implants in you the hope of the future
benefits, enables you to participate in the things which we expect, and by means
of the symbols and signs of the future good things, it informs you with the gift
of the Holy Spirit the firstfruits of whom you receive when you are baptised.
You draw, therefore, near to the holy baptism,
and before everything you take off your garments. As when Adam was formerly
naked and was in nothing ashamed of himself, but after having broken the
commandment and become mortal, he found himself in need of an outer covering, so
also you, who are ready to draw near to the gift of the holy baptism so that
through it you may be born afresh and become symbolically immortal, rightly
remove your covering, which is a sign of mortality and a reproving mark of that
(Divine) decree by which you were brought low to the necessity of a covering.
After you have taken off your garments, you are
rightly anointed all over your body with the holy Chrism: a mark and a sign that
you will be receiving the covering of immortality, which through baptism you are
about to put on. After you have taken off the covering which involves the sign
of mortality, you receive through your anointing the sign of the covering ot
immortality, which you expect to receive through baptism. And you are anointed
all over your body as a sign that unlike the covering used as a garment, which
does not always cover all the parts of the body, because although it may cover
all the external limbs, it by no means covers the internal ones—all our nature
will put on immortality at the time of the resurrection, and all that is seen in
us, whether internal or external, will undoubtedly be changed into
incorruptibility according to the working of the Holy Spirit which shall then be
with us.
While you are receiving this anointing, the one
who has been found worthy of the honour of priesthood begins and says: "So-and-so
is anointed in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
And then the persons appointed for this service anoint all your body. After
these things have happened to you, at the time which we have indicated, you
descend into the water, which has been consecrated by the benediction of the
priest, as you are not baptised only with ordinary water, but with the water of
the second birth, which cannot become so except through the coming of the Holy
Spirit (on it). For this it is necessary that the priest should have beforehand
made use of clear words, according to the rite of the priestly service, and
asked God that the grace of the Holy Spirit might come on the water and impart
to it the power both of conceiving that awe-inspiring child and becoming a womb
to the sacramental birth.
Our Lord also, when Nicodemus asked Him whether
a man "can enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born," answered:
"Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
Kingdom of God." He shows in this that as in a carnal birth the womb of the
mother receives the human seed, and the Divine hand fashions it according to an
ancient decree, so also in baptism, the water of which becomes a womb to the one
who is being born, and the grace of the Spirit fashions in it, into the second
birth, the one who is being baptised, and changes him completely into a new man.
And inasmuch as the seed that falls into the womb of the mother has neither
life, nor soul nor feeling, but after it has been fashioned by the Divine hand,
it results in a living man, endowed with soul and feeling, and in a human nature
capable of all human acts, so also here the one who is baptised falls into the
water as into a womb, like a seed which bears no resemblance of any kind to the
mark of an immortal nature, but after he has been baptised and has received the
Divine and spiritual grace, he will undoubtedly undergo a complete change: he
will be fashioned from a mortal into an immortal, from a corruptible into an
incorruptible, and from a mutable into an immutable, nature; and he will be
changed completely into a new man according to the power of the One who fashions
him.
And inasmuch as the one who is born of a woman
has potentially in him the faculty of speaking, hearing, walking and working
with his hands, but is very weak to perform all these acts in reality till the
time in which God has decreed for him to perform them, so also is the case here
in connection with the one who is born of baptism. This one has indeed in him
and possesses potentially all the faculties of an immortal and incorruptible
nature, but is not now in a position to make use of them and put them into a
complete and perfect act of incorruptibility, immortality, impassibility and
immutability. He who receives through baptism the potential faculty of
performing all these acts, will receive the power of performing them in reality
at the time when he is no more a natural but a spiritual man, and when the
working of the (Holy) Spirit renders the body incorruptible and the soul
immutable, while sustaining and keeping both of them by His power, as the
blessed Paul said: "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it
is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in dishonour, it is
raised in glory; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." He
shows here that incorruption, glory and power will come then to man through the
working of the Holy Spirit, which affects both his soul and body, the former
with immortality and the latter with immutability; and that the body which will
rise from the dead and which (man) will put on will be a spiritual and not a
natural body.
It is owing to the fact that the nature of the
water does not possess all these attributes, which are implanted in it at our
immersion by the working of the Holy Spirit, that the priest makes use
beforehand of his priestly service and of clear words and benedictions, written
for the purpose, and prays that the grace of the Holy Spirit come upon the water
and prepare it with His holy and awe-inspiring presence for the task of
performing all these things, so that it may become a reverential womb for the
second birth, and so that those who descend into it may be fashioned afresh by
the grace of the Holy Spirit and born again into a new and virtuous human
nature.
When the water has been prepared for this and
has received such a power by the coming of the Holy Spirit, you plunge into it
hoping to receive from it benefits such as those (described above), and an
awe-inspiring salvation. It is right for you, therefore, to think that you are
going into the water as into a furnace, where you will be renewed and
refashioned in order that you may move to a higher nature, after having cast
away your old mortality and fully assumed an immortal and incorruptible nature.
These things dealing with birth happen to you in the water because you were
fashioned at the beginning from earth and water, and having fallen later into
sin you assumed a thorough corruption through the sentence of death.
The potters are also in the habit, when the
vessels which they fashion are damaged, to refashion them again with water so
that they may be remade and reconstructed and given the wanted form. This is the
reason why God ordered also the prophet Jeremiah to repair to a potter; and he
went and saw him working on a vessel, which, because it was marred, he cast in
water, remade, and brought to its former state; and then God said to him: "O
house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the Lord." Because we
also were made of earth and clay—as it is said: "For you are also made of clay
like me," and "forgive them that dwell in a house of clay because we also are
made of the same clay"—when we fell and sin corrupted us, we received a complete
dissolution from the (Divine) sentence of death, but afterwards our Maker and
our Lord refashioned us and remade us by His ineffable power, because He
abolished death by resurrection and granted to all of us the hope of
resurrection from the dead, and a world higher than the present, where we shall
not only dwell but also become immortal and incorruptible.
Of these things which are believed to take place
in such a wonderful way that no one is able to describe, we perform the symbols
and the signs in baptism and in water. We were rightly taught to perform the
symbol of the resurrection so that we might think that we were by nature made of
clay, that we fell and sin corrupted us, that because of this we received the
sentence of death, but that we were renewed and remodelled by Divine grace,
which brought us to an immortal nature; a thing that no man had believed or
imagined. We perform the symbols and signs (of these things) in water, and are
renewed and reconstructed according to the working of the Spirit on it. We who
draw near to baptism receive, therefore, these benefits from the Sacrament in
symbol, while in the next world we shall all of us receive renewal of our nature
in reality. As an earthen vessel, which is being remade and refashioned in
water, will remain in its soft nature and be clay as long as it has not come in
contact with fire, but when it has been thrown on fire and baked on it, it will
undoubtedly be remade and refashioned—so also we, who are in a mortal nature,
rightly receive our renewal through baptism and are refashioned through this
same baptism and receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, which hardens us more
than any fire can do.
As we do not expect a second renewal, so we do
not expect a second baptism. Because we expect but one resurrection, from which
we shall become immortal and shall never be liable to death, we shall not be in
need of a second renewal. This is the case also with Christ our Lord, as the
blessed Paul said: "Christ rose from the dead and dies no more, and death has no
more dominion over Him." The things that happen to you through the gift of the
holy baptism are after this pattern.
It is now time to know who is the one who is the
cause of all benefits to you, who casts you into the fire and renews you, who
transfers you to a higher nature, who from being mortal makes you immortal, and
from corruption brings you to incorruption.
The priest stands up and approaches his hand,
which he places on your head, and says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of
the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," while wearing the aforesaid
apparel which he wore when you were on your knees and he signed you on your
forehead, and when he consecrated the water. It is in this apparel that he
performs the gift of baptism, because it is right for him to perform all the
Sacrament while wearing it, as it denotes the renovation found in the next
world, to which you will be transferred through this same Sacrament. He says:
"So-and-so is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit" in order to show by these words who is the cause of this grace. As
he says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit," so he says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." All this is in harmony with the
teaching of our Lord who said: "Go you and teach all nations, baptising them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." He shows by
these words that all the cause of the good things is in the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit, an eternal nature and cause of everything, by which we were
created at the beginning, and expect now to be renewed. It is not possible that
one should be the cause of our first creation and another the cause of this
second, which is higher than the first.
It is indeed known that the One who at the
beginning willed and made us mortal, is the One who is now pleased to make us
immortal, and the One who at the beginning made us corruptible is the One who
now makes us incorruptible. He willed at the beginning and made us passible and
changeable, and at the end He will make us impassible and unchangeable. He is
the Lord, and has power to accomplish both. He rightly and justly leads us from
low to high things, so that by this transference from small to great things we
may perceptibly feel that our Maker and the cause of all our good things, who at
the beginning made us as He wished and willed, and who at the end brought us to
perfection, did do so in order to teach us to consider Him as the cause also of
our first state, and thus to think that since we were in need to be transferred
to perfection, we could not have existed at the beginning if He had not brought
us into existence.
The priest places his hand on your head and
says: "So-and-so is baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit," and does not say "I baptise (So-and-so)," but "So-and-so is
baptised"—in the same way as he had previously said "So-and-so is signed" and
not "I sign So-and-so"—in order to show that as a man like the rest of men he is
not able to bestow such benefits, which only Divine grace can bestow. This is
the reason why he rightly does not say "I baptise" and "I sign" but "So-and-so
is signed and baptised." In this he immediately refers to the One by whom a
person is signed and baptised, namely "in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit," and shows that these are the cause of the things
that happen to him, and demonstrates that he himself is a subordinate and a
servant of the things that take place, and a revealer of the cause which gives
effect to them.
When, therefore, (the priest) utters the words:
"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," he reveals
to you the cause of the things that take place. Inasmuch as the one who said:
"In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk," alluded to Christ as the
cause of what would take place, and to the fact that it would be He who would
give (to the lame man) the power of rising up and walking, so also the (priest)
who says: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"
refers to them as the cause of the benefits conferred upon us in baptism, and
implies that it is by them that our renewal is accomplished, by them the second
birth is granted to us, by them we are fashioned into immortal, incorruptible,
impassible and immutable men, and by them we cast away the old servitude and
receive the freedom which involves complete abolition of tribulations, and
delight in the eternal and ineffable benefits.
He says "in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit" as if he were saying "in the call upon the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit." The prophet Isaiah said thus: "Beside You we know
no other Lord. We are called by Your name." It is as if he were saying: He said,
Beside You we know no other Lord, O cause of everything, because it is by You
that all evil is abolished, it is from You that we expect to receive the delight
in all good things, and it is upon You that we were ordered to call for all our
necessities. You are the cause of everything, and You alone are able to grant
everything and do everything as You wish. Here also (the priest) says: "in the
name" of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as if he were saying:
we are baptised by the call upon the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is
upon this nature that we call for the gifts of the benefits which we are
expecting, as it is the cause of everything, and it alone is able to do
everything as it wishes.
The priest does not say "in the name of the
Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit," because
every one of them has a separate name that does not fit that of the other.
Indeed, the name of the Father is one thing, if I may so express myself, and the
name of the Son is another thing, and the name of the Holy Spirit is another
thing still, but because (the priest) does not pronounce the name by which each
one of them is called, that is to say, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but refers
by the word "name" to the invocation which is the cause of our benefits, namely
the eternal nature of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and because this
invocation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is one, he says, "in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
We do not name Father as one cause, and the Son
as another cause, and the Holy Spirit as another cause still, but because these
three form the one cause from which we expect the delight in the benefits which
are looked for in baptism, we rightly make use of one invocation only with which
we name the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Think of these names as if you
were performing a prayer with them, and when the priest says "in the name of the
Father" suppose that he is saying "Grant, O Father, these eternal and ineffable
benefits for which this person is now being baptised"; and likewise when he says
"of the Son" suppose that he is saying "Grant, O Son, the gift of the benefits
of baptism"; and similarly when he says "of the Holy Spirit," suppose that he is
saying "Grant in baptism, O Holy Spirit, the benefits for which this person has
come to be baptised." In the same way as one who says: "In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" means this: O Lord Jesus Christ, grant this
person to rise up and to walk, so also when (the priest) says "in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," he does not imply anything
else but: O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, grant this person who is being baptised
the grace of the second birth. The sentence "in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth rise up and walk 'is similar to that: "Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you
whole." As he revealed here to Aeneas, who was healed, and to those who were
present, the One who was the cause of healing, so also in the sentence "in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" he revealed the cause of healing.
In this same way the sentence: "in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" reveals the giver of the
benefits of baptism, which are: second birth, renewal, immortality,
incorruptibility, impassibility, immutability, deliverance from death and
servitude and all evils, happiness of freedom, and participation in the
ineffable good things which we are expecting. The person who is baptised is
baptised for these things. The call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is,
therefore, used for the purpose of knowing from whom the benefits of baptism are
expected.
The priest places his hand on your head and says
"of the Father," and with these words he causes you to immerse yourself in
water, while you obediently follow the sign of the hand of the priest and
immediately, at his words and at the sign of his hand, immerse yourself in
water. By the downward inclination of your head you show as by a hint your
agreement and your belief that it is from the Father that you will receive the
benefits of baptism, according to the words of the priest. If you were allowed
to speak at that time, you would have said: "Amen," a word which we believe to
mean that we subscribe to the things said by the priest, as the blessed Paul
said: "He that occupies the room of the unlearned says 'Amen' at your giving of
thanks." He shows here that this word is said by the congregation at the giving
of thanks by the priests to signify by it that they subscribe to the things that
are said. You are, however, not allowed to speak at the time of baptism, as it
is right for you to receive the renewal through the Sacrament, when you are
baptised, in silence and fear, while by inclining your head downwards you
signify that you subscribe to the things said by the priest. You, therefore,
immerse and bow your head while the priest says "and of the Son," and causes you
with his hand to immerse again in the same way. And you show that you subscribe
to the words of the priest, and as a sign also that you are expecting to receive
the benefits of baptism from the Son, you bow your head. Then the priest says
"and of the Holy Spirit" and likewise presses you down into the water, while you
immerse yourself and look downwards as a sign that here also you make the same
confession to the effect that you are expecting the benefits of baptism from the
Holy Spirit. After this you go out of the water.
When the priest says "of the Father" you
immerse, bow your head, but do not go out of the water; and when he says "and of
the Son," you immerse and bow your head likewise, but do not go out of the
water; and after he has said "and of the Holy Spirit," he has finished the
complete call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so after immersing again
and bowing your head, you go out of the water of baptism, which, so far as you
are concerned, comes to an end, because, as you remember, there is no name left
for you on which to call, as the cause of the expected benefits.
You perform three identical immersions, one in
the name of the Father, another in the name of the Son, and another in the name
of the Holy Spirit; your immersions are done in an identical way in order that
you may know that each one of those names is equally perfect and able to confer
the benefits of baptism. You immerse yourself in water three times, according to
the words of the priests, but you go out of the water once in order that you may
know that baptism is one, and one also the grace which is accomplished in it by
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who are never separated from one another
as they are one nature. This is the reason why, although each one of them is
able to confer the gift—as the baptism by which you are baptised in the name of
each one of them shows—yet we believe that we only receive a complete baptism
when the call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is finished. Because the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have one essence and one Godhead, it is
necessary to assume that they have also one will and one action whereby
everything is usually done by them to the creatures. It follows that we also
expect the second birth, the second creation, and, in short, all the benefits of
baptism, in no other way than by calling upon the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit; and this call we consider to be the cause of all good things to us.
This is the reason why the blessed Paul said:
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body and one Spirit, one God and Father
of all, and through all, and in you all." He does not mean to say that one is
Lord but not God and Spirit, and that another is God but not Lord and Spirit,
and that the third is Spirit but not Lord and God, because it is necessary for
anyone who is Lord to be also both God and Spirit, and for anyone who is God to
be both Lord and Spirit, and for anyone who is truly Spirit—I mean the Holy
Spirit—to be both God and Lord, but he teaches us that the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit are one incorporeal and uncircumscribed Lordship, one Godhead
and one essence, which grants us through baptism the adoption of children. In it
we believe and are baptised and through it we become one body, according to the
working on us of the Holy Spirit, in baptism, which makes us children of God and
one body of Christ our Lord, whom we consider our head, as He is from our nature,
and was the first to rise from the dead, and as it is through Him that we
received participation in benefits. By naming the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit we name the cause of all benefits. He would not have said that the faith
in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was one had He known that they had a
different nature, nor would He have said that the baptism in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was one had He known that they had a
different will, power and action. It is indeed evident that faith is one because
the Godhead in which we believe is one, and that baptism is one because the
persons who are named in it have one will, one power and one action, by which we
receive the second birth. And we become one body of Christ, because we consider
Christ our Lord in the flesh as our head, since He was assumed from us and was
the first to rise from the dead, and thus He confirmed for us our participation
in the resurrection from which we expect our body to be similar to His body.
Indeed "our conversation is in heaven from from where also we look for our
Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be
fashioned like to His glorious body."
This will take place in reality in heaven, but
we perform its symbols and its signs in baptism. We are also called the body of
Christ our Lord, Christ our Lord being our head, as the blessed Paul said:
"Christ is the head from which all the body is joined and knit together and
increases with the increase of God." The same Christ our Lord was seen before
His resurrection from the dead to receive baptism in the Jordan from John the
Baptist, so that He might draw in it beforehand the figure of this baptism which
we were to receive by His grace. He was "the firstborn from the dead," as the
blessed Paul said, "so that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." Not
only in the reality of the resurrection, therefore, did He wish to have the
pre-eminence over you but also in its symbol, and this is the reason why He
condescended to be baptised by John. He thus drew beforehand in Himself the
figure of the grace of this baptism which you are about to receive, in order
that He might have the pre-eminence over you in it also. The blessed John the
Baptist said to Him: "I have need to be baptised by You, and You come to me?" so
that he might show that there was a great difference between himself and Him;
but He replied: "Allow it to be so now, for thus it appears right for us to
fulfil all righteousness." He meant by this that righteousness is fulfilled by
grace in baptism, and that it is through you that it has to find an entry into
those who are under the law, so that this same law might be considered
praiseworthy from the fact that it was through it that righteousness found an
entry.
Our Lord was, therefore, baptised by John, but
not in the baptism of John, which was that of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins. Our Lord, who was completely free from sin, was in no need of it, but He
was baptised in our own baptism the symbol of which He depicted in this way.
This is the reason why He received also the Holy Spirit who, as the evangelist
said, "descended like a dove and lighted on Him." Indeed, John had no power to
confer the Spirit: "It is He that will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with
fire." In this he clearly revealed that it did not belong to him to confer the
Spirit. His task was only to baptise with water in a baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins, while it only belonged to our Lord to confer the
Spirit, whom He conferred now upon us in baptism as the firstfruits of the
future benefits, which He will confer upon us in their entirety at the time of
the resurrection, when our nature will receive a complete transformation into
virtue. It is right for you, therefore, to know that you are baptised in the
same baptism as that in which Christ our Lord in the flesh was baptised, and
this is the reason why you are baptised in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
(The baptism of our Lord) was in fact
symbolically drawn to the pattern of ours. In it the Father cried and said:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." In this He showed the grace
of the adoption of children for which baptism takes place, and the sentence
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" is as if one were saying:
this is truly adoption of children; this is the beloved who pleased me; this is
the Son who received such an adoption of children as this, which is much higher
than that ruling among the Jews, as the latter underwent change: "I have said,
You are gods, and all of you children of the Most High, but you shall die like
men," while the former will remain unchangeable. Indeed anyone who receives this
adoption of children will remain immortal, because he moves, through the symbols
(of baptism), to that adoption of children which will take place at the
resurrection, from which he will be transformed into an immortal and
incorruptible nature. There was also the Son in the One who was baptised, and by
His proximity to Him and by His union with the one who was assumed, He was
confirming the adoption of children. And there was also the Holy Spirit who
descended like a dove and lighted on Him. In this He was also baptised in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
When, therefore, the priest says "in the name of
the Father remember the sentence "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased," and think of the adoption of children which is conferred upon you by
the Father; and when he says "and of the Son" think of the One who was near to
the One who was baptised, and understand that He became to you the cause of the
adoption of children; and when he says "and of the Holy Spirit" think of the One
who descended like a dove and lighted upon Him, and expect from Him the
confirmation of the adoption of children. The blessed Paul said: "For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God." The true adoption
of children is, therefore, that which is conferred by the Holy Spirit; and that
to which the Spirit is not near, and that in which He does not work and lead
(men) to the gift of the things that are believed, is not the true one.
You receive, therefore, the grace of the
adoption of children in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and
you go out of the water. You have now received baptism which is the second
birth; you have fulfilled by your baptism in water the rite of the burial, and
you have received the sign of the resurrection by your rising out of the water;
you have been born and have become a new man; you are no more part of Adam who
was mutable and burdened and made wretched by sin, but of Christ who was
completely freed from sin through resurrection,11
while even before it He never drew near to it. It was congruous that (this
sinless state) should have had its beginning in Him before (His resurrection),
and that at His resurrection He should fully receive an immutable nature. In
this way He confirmed to us the resurrection from the dead and our participation
in incorruptibility.
When you go out (of the water) you wear a
garment that is wholly radiant. This denotes the next world which is shining and
radiant, and the life into which you had a long time beforehand moved through
symbols. When you have received the resurrection in reality and put on
immortality and incorruptibility, such a garment will be wholly unnecessary, but
since now you do not possess these things in reality and have only received them
sacramentally and symbolically, you are in need of garments. Of these you wear
those which denote the happiness, which you have now received symbolically but
which you will one day possess in reality.
After you have received the grace of baptism and
worn a white garment that shines, the priest draws near to you and signs you on
your forehead and says: "So-and-so is signed in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." When Jesus came out of the water He received
the grace of the Holy Spirit who descended like a dove and lighted on Him, and
this is the reason why He is said to have been anointed: "The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because of which the Lord has anointed me," and: "Jesus of Nazareth
whom God has anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power": texts which show
that the Holy Spirit is never separated from Him, like the anointment with oil
which has a durable effect on the men who are anointed, and is not separated
from them. It is right, therefore, that you also should receive the signing on
your forehead.
When (the priest) signs you he says: "So-and-so
is signed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," so
that it may be an indication and a sign to you that it is in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit descended on you also, and you
were anointed and received grace; and He will be and remain with you, as it is
through Him that you possess now the firstfruits. Indeed, at present you only
receive symbolically the happiness of the future benefits, but at the time of
the resurrection you will receive all the grace, from which you will become
immortal, incorruptible, impassible and immutable; even your body will then
remain for ever and will not perish, while your soul will be exempt from all
inclination, however slight, towards evil.
As such is the second birth that comes to us
through baptism, to which you are about to draw near, and from which we expect
to move into that real and awe-inspiring second birth of the resurrection. It
confirms in us that which comes to us in symbols and signs through faith, and
strengthens us in relation to it. It is not to be wondered at that we receive
two births, and that we shall move from the present birth to the future one, as
even in our carnal birth we receive a two-fold birth, one of which from the male
and the other, which comes later, from the female. We are first born of the male
in the form of human semen, which has not a single vestige of human form. It is
indeed clear to every one that the semen has no human form of any kind, and that
it receives the form of the human nature according to the laws formulated by God
for our nature after it has been conceived, fashioned, formed and born of a
woman. It is in this same way that we are also born, first in the form of semen
through baptism, before we are born of the resurrection, and have taken shape in
the immortal nature into which we expect to be changed, but when by faith and
hope in the future things we have been formed and fashioned into the life of
Christ and remained till the time of the resurrection, then we shall receive
according to the decree of God, a second birth from dust, and assume an immortal
and incorruptible nature, and "our vile body will be changed by Christ our Lord
that it may be fashioned into His glorious body," as the blessed Paul said.
After you have received in this way a
sacramental birth through baptism, you draw near to an immortal food, consonant
with your birth, with which you will be nourished. You will have now to learn,
at an opportune time, the nature of this food and the way in which it is
presented to you. For the present, however, because you have received through
(our) teaching the birth of baptism, and have drawn near, through this second
birth, to communion with that ineffable light, and because we have, by what we
have said, wrapped you tightly in swaddling clothes, so that you may grasp and
remember firmly and unshakeably the birth that takes place, we shall soothe you
by silence, and by the permission of God we shall bring you at an opportune time
near to the Divine food and our discourse thereon. And now let us put the usual
end to our speech by glorifying God the Father, and His Only Begotten Son, and
the Holy Spirit, now, always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
Here ends the fourth chapter. |
|
