Catechesis 3: For Candidates For Baptism Concerning Baptism
CATECHESIS 3: For candidates for baptism Concerning baptism
Reading: Rom 6.3ff: ‘Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? So we were baptized with him through baptism
1 ‘Exult, you heavens, and rejoice, you earth’ (Is 49.13), for those who are to be sprinkled with hyssop, and purified with spiritual hyssop by the power of the one who in his passion was given a drink on hyssop and the reed. Let the heavenly powers rejoice, and let the souls soon to be joined to their heavenly Bridegroom make ready. For there is ‘a voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord.”’ (Is 40.3). For this is no small matter; this is not the customary, injudicious embrace of bodies, but election in faith by the Spirit who ‘searches all things’ (1 Cor 2.10). For in the world marriages and engagements are not generally made judiciously, but the Bridegroom is quick to give his consent where wealth or beauty are to be found; but here it is given not where there is bodily beauty, but where there is an irreproachable conscience in the soul; not where there is condemned mammon, but where there are the godly riches of the soul.
2 So, my children of righteousness, do what John urges you to do when he says: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’ Remove every obstacle, every stone that makes you stumble, so as to have a level journey to eternal life. Through sincere faith make the vessels of your soul clean and ready for receiving the Holy Spirit. Begin to wash your garments through repentance, so that you may be found clean when you are invited into the bridal chamber. For the Bridegroom invites all alike, since his grace is generous; the loud voice of the heralds is gathering everyone together; later he will himself sort out those who have come in. May none of the enrolled now hear the words: ‘Friend, how did you get in without a wedding-garment?’ (Mt 22.12). May you all rather hear the words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things; I shall set you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord’ (Mt 25.21). Up till now you have been standing outside the door; may you all be able to say: ‘The king has brought me into his storehouse’ (Cant 1.4). ‘Rejoice, my soul, in the Lord, for he has dressed me in the robe of salvation and the tunic of joy; he has bound on me the diadem of a bridegroom, and adorned me with jewels as a bride’ (Is 61.10 (LXX)). So may all your souls be found to be without spot or stain or the like. I do not mean, before you receive grace, but that, when grace is given, your conscience, being found without reproach, may correspond with the grace.
3 This is truly a great matter, brethren; approach it attentively. Each one of you is to be presented before God in the presence of myriads of angelic hosts; the Holy Spirit is to seal your souls; you are to enlist in the army of the great king. So get ready; prepare yourselves—not by dressing in shining robes, but by clothing your souls in piety and a good conscience. Do not think of the baptismal bath as ordinary water; think of the spiritual grace which is given with the water. Just as the invocation of idols pollutes the food which is offered on pagan altars, even though in itself it is ordinary food, so too by contrast when ordinary water receives the invocation of the Holy Spirit and Christ and the Father, it acquires the power of holiness.
4 For since human beings have a double nature and are composed of soul and body, the purification is twofold also: immaterial for the immaterial, and bodily for the body. The water cleanses the body, and the Spirit seals the soul, so that we can approach God with hearts sprinkled and bodies washed in pure water (cf. Heb 10.22). So when the time comes for you to go down into the water, do not attend to its common nature; welcome your salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit; for you need both in order to be made perfect. These are not my words; no, the Lord Jesus, who possesses the authority in this matter, says: ‘Unless one is born of water and Spirit, one cannot enter the kingdom of God’ (Jn 3.5). Even if you are baptized in water, you don't possess the fullness of grace if you have not been granted the Spirit; even if your deeds have made you virtuous, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven if through the water you have not received the seal. This is a bold saying, but it is not mine; it was revealed by Jesus, and I will give you the proof from holy Scripture for what I am saying. Cornelius was a righteous man and was granted a vision of angels; he had set up his prayers and almsdeeds like a noble monument before God in heaven. Peter came, they believed, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them, and they spoke in strange tongues and prophesied (Acts 10.44–6). The Scripture says that after they had received the grace of the Spirit, Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that after their souls had been reborn through faith, their bodies also might share the grace through the water.
5 If anyone wishes to know why the grace is given through water and not through some other element, they will find the answer if they take up the holy Scriptures. For water is an important thing, the noblest of the four elements we observe in the world. Heaven is the abode of the angels; but the heavens are made of water. Earth is the abode of water, but the earth is made of water; and before any of the six days of creation, ‘the Spirit of God moved over the waters’ (Gen 1.2). Water was the beginning of the universe, and the Jordan was the beginning of the gospels. Israel gained its freedom from Pharaoh through the sea, and the world gained its freedom from its sins through ‘the bath of water in the word’ of God (Eph 5.26). Wherever a covenant is made with anyone, water is to be found there. After the Flood, a covenant was made with Noah; a covenant was made with Israel on Mount Sinai—but ‘with water, and scarlet wool and hyssop’ (Heb 9.19). Elijah was taken up to heaven—but not without water; for before going up to heaven in the chariot he crossed the Jordan. The high priest bathes before offering incense; for Aaron bathed before being made high priest. For how could he pray for others if he had not yet been cleansed in water? Again, the basin placed inside the Tabernacle stood as a symbol of baptism.
6 Baptism is the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. For John was the precursor, and there was no one greater ‘among those born of woman’ (Mt 11.11). He was the end of the prophets, ‘for all the prophets and the law’ lasted ‘up to John’ (Mt 11.13). He was also the beginning of the age of the gospels. For the passage: ‘the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ’ continues ‘John appeared in the desert baptizing’ (Mk 1.1, 4). You may point to Elijah, who was taken up to heaven, but he is not greater than John. Enoch was transported, but he is not greater than John. Moses the Law-giver was very great, and so were all the prophets, but they were not greater than John. I don't presume to compare prophet with prophet; but their Master and ours, the Lord Jesus Christ, declared: ‘No greater has arisen among those born of women’ (Mt 11.11). He doesn't say: ‘among those born of virgins’, but ‘of women’. One can compare the greatest slave with his fellow slaves; but in the case of a son and servants, the pre-eminence and the privileges of the former rule out comparison. You see the sort of man God chose to be the precursor of this grace? A man with no property who was a lover of solitude rather than a hater of mankind; one who ate locusts and grew wings for his soul; who fed on honey, and whose words were sweeter and more wholesome than honey; who wore a garment of camel's hair, and served as a model of the ascetic life; who was sanctified by the Holy Spirit while still carried in his mother's womb. Jeremiah was sanctified in the womb too, but he did not prophesy there (cf. Jer 1.5). John was the only one to leap for joy in the womb; and though he could not see with the eyes of the body, he recognized his Master in the Spirit. For the greatness of the grace of baptism called for a great man to dispense it.
7 He was baptizing in the Jordan, and the whole of Jerusalem went out to him (cf. Mt 3–5) to enjoy the beginnings of baptism; for Jerusalem holds precedence in all blessings. But notice, people of Jerusalem, how they were baptized by him when they came out: ‘confessing their sins’ (Mt 3.6). First they showed their wounds, then he applied the remedies, and he conferred redemption from eternal fire to those who believed. If you want to be convinced of this, that John's baptism was redemption from the threat of fire, listen to what he says: ‘Offspring of vipers, who taught you how to escape from the wrath to come?’ (Mt 3.7). Don't be a viper any longer, he says: though you were once the offspring of a viper, lay aside the nature of your former sinful life. For all snakes go into narrow places to slough off their old age, squeezing out of their former state and restoring youth to their bodies. In the same way you have to enter through the narrow and constricting doorway (cf. Mt 7.13, 14); squeeze yourself by fasting and force out your corruption. ‘Take off the old man with his deeds’, and make your own the words of the Canticle: ‘I have taken off my tunic. How shall I put it on again?’ (Col 3.9; Cant 5.3). But perhaps there is among you a hypocrite and a toady, who goes through the motions of piety without believing in his heart, and follows the hypocrisy of Simon Magus; he doesn't come in order to share the grace, but because he is curious about what is given. Let such a one attend to John's words: ‘Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear sound fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire’ (Mt 3.10). The Judge is inexorable; so get rid of hypocrisy.
8 So what is to be done? What are the fruits of repentance? ‘Let him who has two tunics give to him who has none.’ The teacher deserves to be believed, for he first practised what he taught; and he was not afraid to speak, for there was nothing on his conscience to restrain his tongue. ‘And let him who has food do likewise’ (Lk 3.11). Do you want to enjoy the grace of the Holy Spirit, while not deigning to give material food to the poor? You aspire to the great things while refusing to share the small? Even if you are a tax-collector or a fornicator, you may hope for salvation. ‘Tax-collectors and harlots will enter the kingdom of God ahead of you’ (Mt 21.31). Paul is our witness when he says: ‘Neither fornicators nor idolaters’ nor the others he lists ‘will inherit the kingdom of God. And some of you were such; but you have washed; you have been sanctified’ (1 Cor 6.9–11). He didn't say: ‘some of you are’, but: ‘some of you were such’. Sin committed in ignorance is pardoned; but persistent evil is condemned.
9 The proudest boast of baptism for you is the Only-begotten Son of God himself. Why should I speak any more about a man? John was a great man, but what was he compared with the Lord? The voice was powerful, but what was he compared with the Word? The herald was most noble, but what was he compared with the king? The one who baptized in water was noble, but what was he compared with him who baptizes ‘with the Holy Spirit and fire’ (Mt 3.11). The Saviour baptized the apostles with the Holy Spirit and fire when ‘suddenly there was a sound from heaven like that of the blowing of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them separate tongues, as of fire, and it settled on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2.2–4).
10 The unbaptized do not receive salvation, with the single exception of martyrs who receive the kingdom without the water. For when the Saviour was redeeming the world through the cross and his side was pierced, he shed blood and water, for this purpose, that some in times of peace might be baptized in water, others during persecutions in their own blood. For the Saviour could call martyrdom ‘baptism’, when he said: ‘Can you drink the cup which I drink, and can you be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’ (Mk 10.38). The martyrs profess their faith, becoming ‘a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men’ (1 Cor 4.9); and you too will make your profession. But it is not yet the time for you to learn about these things.
11 Jesus made baptism holy when he was baptized himself. If the Son of God was baptized, can anyone now belittle baptism without blaspheming? He was not baptized in order to receive pardon for his sins, for he was sinless; but, sinless though he was, he was baptized in order to confer divine grace and dignity on the baptized. For ‘since the children share flesh and blood, he shared them too’ (Heb 2.14), so that by sharing in his incarnate life among us, we might share also in his divine grace; in the same way Jesus was baptized so that by sharing with him we might recover both salvation and dignity. The serpent was in the waters, according to Job, the serpent who receives the Jordan in his eye (cf. Job 40.23 (LXX)); so since he was destined to crush the serpent's heads, Jesus went down into the water and bound the strong one, so that we might receive ‘power to tread on snakes and scorpions’ (Lk 10.19). It was no small beast, but a fearful one. For ‘no fishing-boat could withstand one scale of his tail…and before him ran destruction, devastating all who met it’ (cf. Job 40.31; 41.14 (LXX)). But life charged against it, so that death might henceforth be muzzled, and we, the saved, might all say: ‘Death, where is your victory? Hell, where is your sting?’ (cf. 1 Cor 15.55). Death's sting is abolished by baptism.
12 For when you go down into the water you are carrying your sins; but when the invocation of the grace has sealed your soul, it allows you no longer to be swallowed up by the terrible serpent. Dead in your sins when you go down, you come up revived in righteousness. For if you are planted with the Saviour in the likeness of his death, you will also be held worthy of his resurrection. For just as Jesus took on himself the sins of the world, and died to put sin to death and rise in righteousness, so too, when you have gone down into the water and have, so to speak, been buried in the waters, as he was buried in the rock, you will be raised again to ‘walk in newness of life’ (Rom 6.4).
13 Then once you are granted the grace, it gives you strength to wrestle against the powers that oppose you. For Jesus after his baptism was tempted for forty days—not because he was unable before then to prevail, but because he wished to follow the proper order in everything; so you too, though not daring to wrestle against your adversaries before your baptism, once you have received the grace may take courage to fight with the arms of righteousness, and, if you wish, to preach the gospel.
14 Jesus Christ was the Son of God, but he did not preach the gospel before his baptism. So if even the Master chose the time for this in the proper order, should we servants presume to act out of order? Jesus began his preaching only after ‘the Holy Spirit descended on him, in bodily form like a dove’ (Lk 3.22) —not that Jesus wished to see the Spirit first, for he knew the Spirit even before he came in bodily form; what he wanted was that John, who was baptizing him, should see. For, John said, ‘I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water told me: The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him’ (Jn 1.33), that is he. If your devotion is genuine, the Holy Spirit will descend on you too, and the Father's voice will resound over you; but it will not say ‘This person is my Son’, but ‘This person has now become my son.’ Over Jesus ‘is’, because ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1.1); over him ‘is’, because he has always been the Son of God. But over you ‘has now become’, because you do not possess sonship by nature, but receive it by adoption. He is eternal; you receive the grace as an advancement.
15 So get your soul ready like a jar, to become a son of God, ‘God's heir’ and ‘Christ's fellow-heir’ (Rom 8.17) —provided you get yourself ready to receive; provided you approach in faith so as to become one of the Faithful; provided you lay aside the old man in earnest. For all your misdeeds will be forgiven, even fornication, adultery or any other form of licentiousness. What sin is greater than crucifying Christ? Yet even this can be washed away by baptism. For when the three thousand who had crucified the Lord came to Peter and asked him: ‘What shall we do, brothers?’ (Acts 2.37), for their wound was severe, Peter gave them an answer. You have charged us, Peter, with our fall, saying: ‘You have killed the Author of life’ (Acts 3.15). What salve is there for so grave a wound? What cleansing for so bad a stain? What salvation for such damnation? ‘Repent’, he says, ‘and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2.38). How inexplicable God's love for mankind! They do not hope to be saved, and they are judged fit to receive the Holy Spirit. You observe the power of baptism. If any of you has crucified Christ by blasphemous words; if any of you has denied him before men in ignorance; if anyone has provoked blasphemy against Christ's teaching by their evil deeds, repent and be of good hope, for the same grace is now offered to you.
16 Take heart, Jerusalem; the Lord will take away all your sins (cf. Zeph 3.14–15). The Lord will wash away the dirt from his sons and daughters in the ‘spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning’ (Is 4.4). He will ‘sprinkle you with pure water and you will be cleansed of all your sin’ (Ezek 36.25). The angels will dance around you saying: ‘Who is she who comes up clothed in white and leaning on her kinsman?’ (Cant 8.5 (LXX)). For the soul that was once a slave has now called her master her kinsman; and he, accepting her sincere intentions, will address her thus: ‘See you are fair, my companion, you are fair…Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes’ because of your sincere confession. He continues: ‘all of the ewes bearing twins’ (Cant 4.1–2), because of the twofold grace—I mean the grace conferred by water and the Spirit; or else the grace proclaimed by the Old Testament and the New. May you all complete the course of fasting, remember what I have told you, and bring in a harvest of good deeds, so that you may stand without reproach before your spiritual Bridegroom and receive from God the remission of your sins in the same Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.