other two sections of the sentence.
SERMON 228A
FRAGMENT IN THE COLLECTION OF BEDE AND FLORUS ON ROMANS 6
FROM A SERMON ON THE LORD'S RESURRECTION
Date: 400-4101
Baptism is a dying and being buried with Christ, and rising with him to newness of life
/Is for his dying, he died to sin once; while as for his living, he lives for God. So you also then, think of yourselves as dead indeed to sin, but living for God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:10-11). This is the sacrament in which these here are being baptized,2 and in which they experience the setting of the old life, and initiate their entry into the new. Which is why Paul also says, We have been buried, therefore, together with him through baptism into death; so that just as Christ rose again from the dead, in the same way we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4).
Let us acknowledge that we too, through this sacrament, have died to sin with Christ, and are living in Christ to justice. On his cross there is the pain of those who have confessed their sins; in his burial the relief and rest of those who have been absolved; in his resurrection the life of those who have been justified.3
NOTES
1. Quite how a fragment like this can be dated, as it is by Suzanne Poque, I am not sure. The evidence, presumably must be external.
2. Taking the present tense of baptizantur seriously, I infer that the sermon was preached just before the baptism of the neophytes; probably at the Easter vigil, but possibly at Pentecost.
3. Literally "the life of the just." I think my expansion of the phrase is justified, to balance the other two sections of the sentence.