By the most wise and learned and in all respects most holy
Lord Saint Nikolaos Kabasilas, also called Chamaetos
On Life in Christ, (B’)
Second Discourse: What benefit does divine baptism provide for this life?
In the previous discourses it has been shown that the sacred life consists in the holy mysteries. Let us now consider how each mystery contributes to this life. For life in Christ is simply to be united to Christ. In whatever way each ritual unites those who receive it to Christ by leading them through all that He underwent and making them experience all that He did, let us now relate.
How we are united to Christ through the mysteries. To be united to Christ is to come through all that He came through and to suffer all that He suffered, and to become all that He became. He therefore united Himself through blood and flesh entirely free of sin; and being God Himself by nature from the beginning, He also deified what later became human nature. Finally, He also died in the flesh and rose again. It is necessary, therefore, for one who seeks to be united to Him to partake of His flesh and His deification, to share in His burial and resurrection.
And so we are baptized in order to die that death and rise in that resurrection; we are anointed in order to become sharers of His royal anointing of deification; and by partaking of the most sacred Bread and drinking the most divine Cup, we partake of His very flesh and blood, the things He took to Himself for our sake. And in this way we are united to the One who for our sake was incarnate and deified, who died and rose again.
On the order of the mysteries. Shall we not, beginning where He began, complete the rite where He completed? Because He descended so that we might ascend, and it is one and the same path, yet His act was a descent while ours is an ascent. Therefore, just as on a ladder the bottom-most rung for one descending is the topmost for one ascending, so here.
Moreover, it could not be otherwise, given the very nature of the things involved. For baptism is birth, the anointing oil signifies activity and motion within us, while the Bread of Life and the Cup of Thanksgiving are true food and drink. But one cannot be active or nourished before being born.
Furthermore, baptism reconciles man to God; the anointing makes us worthy of the gifts that flow from that reconciliation; and the power of the [Eucharistic] table makes the most sacred flesh of Christ and His blood common to the initiate. But it is impossible to stand with the friends before being reconciled, or to be worthy of their graces while still subject to the Evil One and sin, or to eat and drink the sinless blood and flesh. Therefore we wash first, then are anointed, and thus made clean and fragrant we are received at the table.
This much for now. Let us continue to consider how each mystery contributes to the sacred life, beginning with baptism and all that it can provide for this life.
That baptism is the beginning of being for those living according to God. The order it has in relation to the other mysteries is a sign of this. Therefore, to be baptized is precisely to be born according to Christ and to receive that very being and existence when before we were nothing. This can be grasped from many indications. First, from the order itself: that we receive this mystery first, before the others, and that this introduces Christians into the new life. Second, from the names by which we call it. And third, from the rites performed and hymns sung for it.
Now the order is this, from above: to wash first, then to be anointed with myron and so come to the sacred table. This is a clear proof that the bathing is the foundation and base of life, since Christ Himself, after undergoing everything for our sake, accepts this before the other rites.
That baptism is the beginning of being for those living according to God is also shown by the names by which we call it. For to what else could the names refer? We call it Birth, Rebirth, Recasting, Seal, Gift, Enlightenment, Washing—all of which can convey only the one notion: that this ritual for those living and existing according to God is the beginning of their being.
Birth and Rebirth and Recasting rather obviously seem to signify nothing other than this. Rebirth and Recasting add only that those now being born and molded have been born before and lost their form, and through this second birth return to their original form, just as when a sculptor restores the form of a statue that has lost its shape through damage to the material, he recreates and recasts the image. For what happens to us through baptism is also a form and image; it imprints a certain image and shape on our souls, making us conformable to the Savior’s death and resurrection.
For this reason it is also called a Seal, imprinting the royal image and blessed form. And because the form envelops the matter and hides its shapelessness, we also call the mystery a Robe and Baptism. Paul indicates this in calling the robe and seal the same thing, saying to the Galatians, “My children, for whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you,” and, “Jesus Christ was portrayed among you crucified”; and to the Corinthians, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
For gold, silver, and copper, when melted by fire, flow formlessly and reveal the bare matter; which is why they are called merely by the name of their matter, gold or copper. But when shaped by the engraving tools into a form, the matter is no longer visible but the form appears first, like clothes covering the body they clothe. Hence the objects receive a particular name: statue, ring, or anything similar that conveys form and image but not the matter.
Why names are given to the baptized. Perhaps for this reason the saving day of baptism is called the day of naming for Christians: because then we are molded and engraved, and our formless and indefinite life receives its distinctive form and definition. Moreover, coming to know our true selves for the first time then, as Paul says in “knowing God, or rather being known by God,” we hear the significant name, the surname, on this day, as then we are purely known. For to be known by God is truly to be recognized. This is why David said about those who have estranged themselves far from that light, “I will not make mention of their names with my lips.” They who did not receive that ray of light remain unknown and obscure. For nothing at all can become manifest to eyes without light, or known to God if it has not received His ray. And the reason is that, in truth, nothing exists that does not become evident in that light. In this sense “the Lord knows those who are His,” while elsewhere He says He does not know the foolish virgins.
For these reasons baptism is called enlightenment, because by giving real being it makes us known to God and leads us away from the invisible domain of evil to that light. This too is why it is called washing: it enables the light to associate with us purely by washing away all the pollution that, like an intervening wall, kept the divine ray from our souls.
It is called a gift because it is birth. For with one’s natural birth, what could one contribute to it? In natural birth, just as in baptismal birth, we do not even bring the desire for the goods that flow from baptism, if one wishes to examine accurately. For when we hear of freedom and kingdom set before us, we imagine some felicitous life accessible to human notions; but the reality is altogether different, greater than our mind or desire can grasp before we have experienced it.
It is called anointing because it imprints Christ, who was anointed for our sake, on those who receive it, and it seals the Savior Himself onto them. For the anointing oil, having permeated the body of the recipient thoroughly and exactly, carries and signifies the Anointed One Himself imprinted in it, displays the form, and is truly a seal.
It has been shown by what has been said that the seal can signify the same thing as birth, just as the robe and baptism can signify the same thing as the seal. And since the gift, enlightenment, and washing relate to the same thing as molding and birth, it has become clear that every name of baptism signifies the one notion that the bath is the beginning of being in the life in Christ for us.
If the rites performed and words spoken in the mystery also convey this meaning, it would be evident by examining the ritual part by part.
That baptism is the beginning of being for those living according to God is also shown by what is said and done in it. For the one approaching the mystery before being initiated is shown to not yet be reconciled to God or freed from the ancient shame. For as he approaches, before anything else is done the initiator prays for him to be freed from the controlling demon, and speaks not only to God about him but attacks the tyrant himself and drives him away with blows. And the blow is the Name above every name.
So far is he from living, being a son, and heir that he is still enslaved to the tyrant. For to be with the Evil One is to be utterly estranged from God, which is to be completely dead. Therefore, since he has not yet partaken of life, the initiator comes up and breathes into his face. For the breath indicates life from above.
And what follows is consistent. For it is all of those just coming into being who disregard the present things at hand and transfer their attention to other things. For they hasten to scorn one world and honor another, to have died to one way of life and to live another, and deeming one life wholly to be fled at all costs while the other is to be pursued with all zeal. Therefore, by what he lays aside the present things he shows that he has condemned what he was, not yet being freed from them. But by reaching for the good things which the mystery sets before the present things, he shows that by being baptized he is embarking upon the praised life.
For entering the sacred space he takes off his tunic and removes his shoes, hinting by the garment and shoes that aid earthly life at his former life. Moreover, facing west he breathes out, indicating a sign of the life of darkness. He extends his hands and pushes away the Evil One as if present and assailing. And he renounces the hateful and faithless pacts with destruction, rejecting completely the bitter friendship and praising enmity.
And when darkness has fled, he runs to the daylight. Turning to the east he seeks the sun. Freed from the tyrant’s hands he worships the King. Recognizing the bastard he acknowledges the true Master, and prays to submit to him and serve with his whole soul, and before even this to believe in him as God and to know what is proper concerning him. For the true knowledge of God is also the beginning of the blessed life, as Solomon says: “To know you is the root of immortality.” Just as, from the beginning, not knowing God brought death. For when Adam, not knowing the divine love for mankind, thought the good one envious, and forgetting wisdom supposed he could escape the notice of the wise one, he went over to the runaway, ignoring his Master. Thus he was deprived of life and suffered pain and died. Therefore, for one hastening toward life, the knowledge of God must be the first thing.
By stripping naked entirely and removing the final tunic, we show that we are just now grasping the life leading to Paradise and departing this earthly life. For Adam passed from that blessed raiment to nakedness, and from that to this wretched garb. But by going from leather tunics to nakedness, and passing through the same midpoint, we make clear that we tread the same path yet in reverse, hastening to the royal raiment. And by the very means and path through which he descended into this world, we ascending from here.
Our stripping naked might also signify that we now approach the true Light unadorned, bringing nothing that casts “the shadow of death” or walls off the blessed ray from our human souls. For clothes are like a wall between this light and our bodies.
Surely the anointing with oil could refer to something else too, I think. But it can also convey the following. We call to mind Jacob’s pillar, which he anointed with oil and dedicated to God, and the kings and priests, consecrated by this very thing – by oil – to God, to live not for themselves at all but for the polity to which they were appointed. For we too detach ourselves from our own life and being for God’s sake – which is to become like Him, stripping off the old appearance.
And the symbol is apt, entirely suited to the name Christian. For we are anointed, and it is Christ whom we seek to resemble, since He anointed His divinity with humanity. Moreover, we share in His very anointing. For this anointing signifies His, and the initiator shows this by his incantations when anointing the initiate. For these are the very things by which David signified that anointing and kingdom, the priest saying: “This one is anointed,” meaning the initiate, “with the oil of gladness,” while David says: “God has anointed you, your God, with the oil of gladness beyond your companions,” calling us His companions since by love for mankind He makes us share in the kingdom.
Until this point we do not yet live. For these are signs for the initiate, certain initiations and preparations for life. But when, covered thrice by the water, he rises again while the Trinity is invoked, then the initiate receives it all and is born and molded – the birth and molding David spoke of. He receives the noble seal and all the happiness sought, and becomes light though he was darkness before, and comes to be when he was nothing, and is united and adopted as son to God, brought from prison and dire enslavement to the throne of kingship.
For this water destroys one life but reveals another. It drowns the old man but raises the new. This is most evident from the experiences themselves for those who have undergone them. But the outward appearances of the mystery also make it possible to infer this. For by going under the water, he seems to flee the life in the air. But to flee life is to die. By rising again into the air and light, he seems to seek life and gain it. This too is why we call the initiator demiurge here – because these things are the beginning of life and a second creative act far better than the first. For the image is now inscribed more exactly than before, and the statue molded into a clearer imprint of the divine model.
Why we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and not simply in the name of God. Why then do we not hymn the dispensation as well, especially this dispensation, during baptism? We most certainly do, not through our words but our actions. For who does not know that going under the water thrice and rising again introduces the Savior’s three-day death and resurrection, which are the culmination of the entire dispensation? And I do not think it is without reason that we proclaim the theology in words while demonstrating the dispensation silently through actions. For the first existed from the beginning and came to human knowledge through words alone. But the second happened and was seen by human eyes, touched by human hands. This is why the blessed John, recognizing both natures of the dual Savior, said of the first: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard,” but added of the second: “what we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have touched concerning the Word of life.” Moreover, the theology needs only to be believed, and the demonstration of faith is in the words—”For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” But the dispensation must also be imitated and demonstrated through deeds. For we must, he says, “follow the footsteps” of the One who died and rose again for our sake. Therefore, the Trinity is present in the words, but through the water we depict in our bodies the Passion and death, imprinting ourselves into that blessed form and image.
It is clear, then, from all aspects of baptism, from its order, the names by which we call it, what is done and sung in it, that we recognize the life in Christ takes its beginning of being from the bath. What this being, this life, is remains to examine.
What it is to be born and to come into being according to Christ. Since some things we lose and others we become, rejecting some things and preserving others, if what each of these is became clear, it would also become clear what it is to come into being according to Christ. Well, the one is sin and the other righteousness; the one is the old human being and the other the new. But let us examine these even more precisely.
Since sin is twofold, occurring in acts and constituted through dispositions, the act itself is not always present or enduring, but comes immediately into being and ceases to be, like an arrow the instant it strikes. But it leaves wounds on the agents, the imprints of evil and shame and liability to punishment. The disposition, like disease from unhealthy regimen, being implanted in souls, is lasting and binds them in indissoluble bonds, enslaves their mindset, and inflicts the utter worst on those in its grasp, compelling them through that by which it was constituted into the most wicked acts, each generating and giving birth to the other in a vicious cycle.
The result was that sin was unending, with the disposition generating acts and the acts increasing the disposition, so that through their mutual interaction both evils always progressed: “Sin lived, but I died,” since evil did not even begin yesterday or the day before, but has been with us since we came to be. For since Adam trusted the Evil One rather than his own Master, the good God, and perverted his judgment, his soul lost that health and well-being. From then on his body adapted itself to agree with the soul, like an instrument in the craftsman’s hand. For soul shares fully in the body’s experiences, being closely united to it – proof being that the body flushes when the soul feels shame, and is worn down by the soul’s anxious thoughts. Moreover, since nature advanced and the race proceeded from that first body, evil was transmitted like something else physical.
And because the body is not only affected by the soul’s experiences, but also imparts its own, with the soul feeling joy or pain, and some having self-control and freedom based on the body’s condition, it followed that each person’s soul would inherit the evil of that first Adam: flowing from his soul into his body, from his body into the bodies born from him, and in turn from those bodies to the souls.
This is the old human being, who in receiving the seed of evil from his ancestors is never shown to have spent a single day pure of sin from the moment of his birth, never breathed free of wickedness. On the contrary, as the Prophet says: “We turned astray from the womb, we erred from the belly.”
Not content with this wretched inheritance of ancestral sin, or satisfied with the evils we inherited, we have added to wickedness so strongly and increased our accursed wealth that our subsequent acts have eclipsed the original ones, the imitators proven much worse than the examples. But worst of all: no respite ever interrupted the evil, rather the sickness always advanced. Perhaps it was also for this reason the human race was incapable of effecting its own cure, since it had scarcely ever tasted freedom, or having no experience of it, could not come to long for it or desire it or rise up against the tyranny.
The bath frees us from these most oppressive bonds, from this punishment, disease, and death – doing so easily, requiring not even time; completely and perfectly, leaving no trace behind. And it not only frees us from wickedness but also provides the opposite disposition. For through the very things by which He died the Master gave us power to kill sin, and by rising again made us heirs to the new life. For His death, precisely by being a death, kills the evil life; and by being an atonement, absolves the culpability for sins for which, because of our wicked acts, each of us was liable.
In this way the bath by making us sharers in His life-giving death frees us utterly from every sinful disposition and act. And since through the bath we also share in the resurrection, Christ gives us another life and fashions limbs and implants faculties which those destined for the future life will need. This too is why all at once I am released from accusations and regain health. Chiefly because what God does cannot be subject to time, but also because now the Master is not benefiting the race so as to require time. No, He has already done good. For it is not now that He gives the remedy for my sins, now fashions the treatment and shapes the limbs and implants the faculties, but did so long ago. Ever since He ascended the Cross and died and rose again, human freedom was accomplished along with the form and beauty, the new shape and limbs.
Now one must simply draw near and bring oneself to the graces. And this the bath can do for us, joining the dead to life, the bound to freedom, the corrupted to the blessed form. The ransom has been paid, we need now only be redeemed. The myron has been poured, its fragrance suffuses all, we need only inhale – or rather, even the capacity to breathe comes from the Savior. For it is He who fashioned the ability to be redeemed and enlightened. For He did not merely make the light shine into the world when He came, but formed the eye as well. Nor did He simply pour out the myron, but granted the sense of smell. Now the sacred bath joins the washed to those faculties and powers. As we descend into the water shapeless matter and formless, there in it we obtain the beautiful form.
For this reason all the blessings rise upon us at once, already prepared: “My dinner is ready, my oxen and fatted calves,” He says, “slaughtered, and all prepared: come to the wedding.” For the feast only the arrival of the guests remains. But for happiness what more will those who have arrived require? Nothing further.
For in regard to the future age, having prepared ourselves we come to Christ, but now we are prepared when we come. For then there will be a necessity to come completely prepared, but in the present it is necessary, when we come, to receive everything. Therefore then the foolish virgins will have no access to the bridal chamber, but in the present age the Bridegroom calls even fools to the feast and drink. For then it will not be possible to revive the dead, give sight to the blind, or re-form the corrupted, but in this life only will and eagerness are required, and everything follows. “For I came,” He says, “that they may have life,” and “I, the light, have come into the world.”
And this too is a sign of His ineffable love for mankind, that having accomplished everything by which we are set free, He left something for us also to contribute to freedom – simply to believe in baptism for salvation and to desire to approach – so that from these He might reckon everything to us and owe us thanks also for these things He has beneficently accomplished. And so whenever it happens that some, just after bathing, immediately depart, bringing nothing else with them except the seal, He calls them to the crowns as if they had contended for this very kingdom.
This, then, is what baptism effects for souls and how it frees them. But since it also provides a certain life through the One risen from the dead, let us examine what this life is.
That baptism implants in us the life of Christ. Now it is likely this is not the life we formerly lived, but better than the former and akin to our nature. For if we still had our former life, what need would there have been to die? But if it were another life able to do the same things, then neither would this be a resurrection. And if it were angelic life, what would we have in common with them? For it was a human being who fell. But for the fallen human being to become an angel when rising up would not be the re-forming of man. For it would be like reattaching to damaged statue, instead of human form, some other shape – which would be fashioning anything but re-forming the statue.
Therefore it necessarily follows that this life is human yet new and better than the former. And this uniquely befits the life of the Savior. For it is new, having nothing in common with the former; better, beyond what we can conceive, since it is of God. Yet akin to our nature, for it is human life. And one who lives it, just as he truly is God, is also truly human and by nature utterly free of all sin, for the sake of this human nature. For all these reasons, it is altogether necessary that the life of Christ dawn in us when we are reborn. This also becomes clear in the following way:
For the birth in baptism is the beginning of the future life, and the bestowal of the new limbs and senses is the preparation for living there. But one cannot prepare for the future otherwise than by already receiving here the life of Christ, who “became the father of the coming age” just as Adam became father of the present age by inaugurating for mankind life subject to decay. For just as it is impossible to live this human life without receiving Adam’s senses and the faculties for living, the distinctively human ones, in the same way it will be impossible, once dead, to attain to that blessed world without having prepared by receiving even now the life of Christ, who was “formed according to that image and likeness.” Moreover, baptism is itself a birth. And He gives birth while we are born. Yet clearly, in any birth the parent implants his own life in the one being born.
Why even unbelievers will rise incorruptible, though they did not believe in Christ, who alone is leader of that resurrection. Here one might also marvel at the following. For not only those baptized, but immediately all human beings universally will receive their bodies free of decay and rise incorruptible. For it is amazing if those who neither received the bath nor believed in the Savior nor became sharers in His vivifying death will share in the resurrection introduced into the world by Christ’s death alone. For if they shunned the healer and did not accept His aid, and refused the sole remedy, then what could avail them for immortality? And it seems one of two things must reasonably occur: either all alike immediately enjoy everything for which Christ became the cause by dying and rising – since, as he says, “nothing is required on our part” – or, if our contributing anything is altogether necessary, then it is reasonable those who did not contribute faith in the Savior or revival should not enjoy these things.
The explanation concerning them is this. The resurrection is the restoration of nature. Such gifts God grants freely – for just as He forms us though we do not wish it, so He reforms us though we contribute nothing. But that kingdom, the vision of God, and dwelling with Christ are delights of the will. Therefore they are attainable by those alone who wish for, love, and long for them. For it is also fitting that those who longed for them, now that they are present, should enjoy what they longed for, while it is impossible for one who did not desire them. For how could one delight and rejoice in the presence of things whose absence he did not long for or love? Indeed, at that time he will be unable even to desire and seek to attain them, since he will not see that beauty of which the Lord says: “He cannot receive it, because he does not see it or know it,” having been blind when he departed this life, deprived of every faculty and power by which one can recognize the Savior, will to be with Him, and have the ability to do so.
Therefore one should not be amazed if all will live immortally but not all blessedly, because God’s providence simply for nature extends equally to all, and He imparts His own goods to all alike, benefiting both our will and nature: what restores nature He grants to all without our desire – for He also benefits and forcibly compels us, whenever we wish to reject the benefit yet cannot.
Such is the gift of the resurrection. For neither being born in the first place nor rising again once dead depends on us, or the contrary. But the things that rely on human will – choosing the good, forgiveness of sins, uprightness of character, purity of soul, intimacy with God, and the prize resulting from these – namely ultimate blessedness – do depend on us to receive or reject. Therefore it is possible for those who wish, impossible for those who do not. For one cannot unwillingly will something, or forcibly will it.
Moreover, for the following reason: since the Lord alone has freed both nature from decay and mind from sin, being “firstborn from the dead” in one case, and “entering the Holy of Holies on our behalf” in the other, by killing sin and reconciling God to us and “abolishing the dividing wall,” and sanctifying Himself for our sake so that we too may be “sanctified in truth,” – for these reasons, clearly those alone could reasonably be freed from both corruption and sin who have shared in His will and nature: the latter as human beings, the former as those who “loved His appearing” and obeyed His commands and willed what He willed.
But those who possessed the one without receiving the other, who by fortune came to be human beings yet did not believe in the Savior for salvation or commune with Him in mind, reasonably fall short, by divergence of will, of forgiveness of sins and the crowns of righteousness. But nothing prevents them from attaining the other freedom, of rising from the dead in nature by having become human beings along with Christ. For baptism causes only the blessed life in Christ, not life simply. For the immortal life, Christ’s dying and reviving conferred on all human beings equally. Therefore while the resurrection is a new gift to all human beings, forgiveness of sins, the crowns in heaven, and the kingdom become the portion of those alone who contributed the requisite effort on their part – who ordered themselves here so as to be properly disposed toward that life and the Bridegroom: born anew because He is the new Adam; shining in beauty and preserving the bloom which the bath imparted, because He is “beautiful beyond the sons of men”; with head erect like Olympic victors because it wears the crown; with ears because He is the Word; eyes because He is the sun; the sense of smell because the Bridegroom is also myron poured forth; solemn in raiment on account of the wedding. There you have it.
Why those who denied Christ, if they repent, are not rebaptized. These things also pertain to another fair question that should not be passed over: If to will and believe and approach the baptismal gifts prepares one to attain them, while shunning these is to shun all that blessedness, why does the sacred law, when those who cast off and regretted their former mindset and denied Christ then sneak back repentant into the Church for the sins they committed, not lead them back to the bath and begin the mysteries anew as if they had lost everything – yet with myron the priest seals their bodies and adds nothing further before recording them in the circle of the faithful? What might one say to this? That one of two faculties for piety toward God either perishes for those who betrayed Christianity or remains – I mean the fitness and preparation to see.
For it is possible for those who wish to cast off the second, to close their eyes to the ray. And it is clear from the following: they themselves plainly demonstrate this, those who after bathing and receiving everything pertained to it were led into the depths of impiety and wickedness. Therefore, since they did not have the power to cast off the faculties implanted, and so required no second molding, the priest does not bathe them at all. But anointing them, he pours spiritual grace into them – of piety, I suppose, and fear of God, love, such things – that can recall their former mindset. For myron has this effect on those receiving it. Let this much suffice for now. But let us proceed to the next topics.
Clearly, then, from what has been said, those born through baptism in fact live the life of Christ.
What those undergoing baptism suffer so as to share in Christ’s life? What, then, is the life of Christ? I mean: what is that experience those cleansed in the bath undergo so as to share the life with Christ? This has not yet been made entirely clear.
Most of it is beyond human speech, being a power of the coming age, as Paul says, and a preparation for another life. Therefore, just as it is impossible to perceive the excellence of eyes or a color’s charm without presenting them to the light, or for sleepers to comprehend the experiences of those awake until they themselves awaken, by the same token it is wholly impossible to understand thoroughly on the basis of the present life the nature of those new limbs and faculties by which it will be possible, once purely in the life to come, to make full use of them – what exactly they are and what beauty attends them. For there must be a beauty and light akin and appropriate.
Yet we are limbs of Christ – this is the work of baptism. Now the radiance of the limbs and their beauty lies in the head. For the limbs would not appear beautiful disconnected from the head. But though on the present occasion the head is hidden, in the coming life it will appear. Then the limbs too will shine forth and become manifest when the head rises with them. Paul indicates this: “You died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” And the blessed John: “It does not yet appear what we shall be. But when He appears, we shall be like Him.”
Therefore while it is now wholly impossible to comprehend the power of this life perfectly, not even the blessed ones themselves can. No, they confess to being largely ignorant, to knowing in a mirror dimly and in part. And even what they can know, they cannot articulate in speech. Rather, for those pure in heart there is an awareness and knowledge of these things, but no expression or account that could convey to the ignorant the blessed experience and be a sign of it. For of the things the Apostle heard when snatched up to Paradise and the third heaven, there were, he says, “things not lawful for a man to utter.”
Yet what can be known of this life and expressed in speech also demonstrates the invisible by the palpable accomplishments of the initiates – the completely new character of the washed, transcending nature in astounding virtue, which neither wisdom nor training nor natural disposition can explain in human terms.
For their souls eagerly undertook things that it was not easy for human beings even to picture. Their body did not quench this eagerness but endured such immense hardships as the soul desired. And yet the faculties both of soul and body are clearly limited, and neither can withstand every hardship but can conquer certain ones while succumbing to others – the soul refusing to act, the body breaking down. But nothing conquered those blessed souls. No, whatever kinds and degrees of agony imagination of thought cannot even construct, they endured and persevered in.
And I do not yet mention the most astounding thing: they not only endured and persevered, for it was not in the hope of immense rewards and a better life that they disregarded the present life – I mean, not by a rational calculation did they attain such boldness, just bearing their torments half-heartedly like patients do the fire and knife of doctors. No, the newest thing is this: they cherished the very wounds, longed for the pains themselves, considered death itself desirable even if nothing else lay before them. Some indeed craved swords, racks, and death; when these were realized, their eagerness was even greater. Others chose to suffer hardship and toil ceaselessly their whole life, reckoning their daily dying a luxury. And the body complied and assisted though they strove against the laws of the body. Moreover, the numbers were not two or three or twenty, not just men or just those of a certain age, but myriads – a multitude beyond counting – both sexes, every age alike.
This was made especially clear in the martyrs. For both believers before the persecutions, and those to whom at the very persecutions Christ implanted true life, exhibited their faith in Christ to the persecutors and professed the Name, desiring to die, with one voice summoning the executioners as if for something good. And it was equally true of women, girls, men, boys, every occupation and way of life.
This point too must be added: gender introduces scarcely any difference here. For one whose life is labor and one given to leisure could not have endured pains and struggles equally. Nor would a soldier and flute-player behold sword and death with the same eyes. But none of this obstructed that wondrous impulse or prevented all from attaining the pinnacle of philosophy equally. Instead, because one power generated and molded all, all grasped virtue’s final limit, prized and loved the good beyond natural measure – to the point of disregarding their very lives because of it. Why, dissolute women, dissolute men – a multitude of this kind – not only accepted the teaching of our common salvation and transformed themselves, re-tuning themselves to the fair harmony, but did so wholesale and so easily, as if exchanging masks.
It also happened to many who had not been cleansed with water that they joined this chorus – whom the Bridegroom of the Church Himself baptized, not with water by the Church. He indeed provided cloud and water springing spontaneously from earth for many, baptizing them thus. But the majority He remolded invisibly, just as if the Church’s deficiency were filled up by the Church’s Head. And why not? For if it seems fitting for the limbs to aid the Head in certain respects, how much more just for the Head Itself to supply what the limbs lack! Let it be so for now. But the argument calls for a fresh start.
This power, then, by which they undertook their daring, were eager beyond nature, and succeeded in accomplishing their longing – which cannot be found in human nature – clearly needs no argument to demonstrate it. But since the only reasonable cause left of these phenomena is the baptismal grace, let us examine further how the bath produced these effects in them.
Clearly their struggles and contests were those of lovers, and Christ’s darts and charms impelled them to this innovation. But what caused this erotic madness in them? What suffering made them love thus? And whence did they receive this fire? Let us consider now.
That baptism provides initiates a vivid apprehension of God, by which the saints accomplished the greatest things. For knowledge generates love, gives birth to it, and there can be no desiring intensely anything beautiful before comprehending its charm. Yet since this knowledge comes about both completely and imperfectly, it is likely love corresponds as well. Of beautiful and good things, those known completely are also loved completely, as that degree of beauty deserves. While those not vividly manifest arouse feebler love in their pursuers. Therefore it becomes clear that the bath provided them some apprehension and sense of God, that they recognized purely the Fair One and perceived His loveliness, tasting to some degree through experience that beauty – not merely hearing words, which cannot fittingly represent what admits of no likeness or shared attribute for comparison and paradigm.
This is how the New Covenant differed from and excelled the Old: then there was teaching by word, but now Christ Himself, present, ineffably fashions and molds human souls. For it was impossible for human beings to attain the sought-after end by word and teaching and laws. Otherwise deeds and wonders would not have been needed – God incarnate, crucified, dying.
“For our knowledge of things is twofold: one acquired by hearing others, the other by learning through one’s own experience. In the former, we do not touch the reality itself but see, as it were, a reflection in words, and not even an exact likeness of the form; for it is impossible to find a perfect match in existing things, a model that would suffice for knowledge of that reality. But the latter involves a direct encounter with the things themselves.
Thus, in the one case, the form itself strikes the soul and arouses desire as if it were a trace of its beauty; in the other, although we are left with only the vague and dim image of its proper idea, we measure our desire for the thing by this image; hence, we neither love as much as it is lovable, nor suffer as much as it can affect. As the form of each substance is different, so it impresses the soul and evokes desire in various ways. Therefore, the love within us for the Savior, when nothing new or supernatural is shown, becomes evident as we only encountered the words about Him, from which it is impossible to know Him well, as there is nothing similar to find, nothing common with Him or any standard to refer to. How then can we learn and love beauty worthily?
Those who have such a longing that they transcend nature and are willing and able to do more than humanly conceivable, these individuals are wounded by the Bridegroom Himself, who casts a ray of beauty into their eyes. The magnitude of the wound reveals the arrow, and the longing shows the one who wounded.
It was impossible for man to be perfected by words alone. The New Testament surpassed the Old in this respect; for previously, it was the word that taught, but now Christ Himself, in an unspeakable manner, arranges and forms the souls of men. For by mere words, teaching, and laws, humans could not reach the desired end; if it were possible by words alone, there would be no need for works, and especially those surpassing nature, of God becoming flesh, being crucified, and dying.
This became clear from the beginning, from the fathers of our piety, the apostles. Having enjoyed all teachings, even those of the Savior Himself, and having witnessed everything, both the gifts bestowed by nature and what He endured for humankind, His death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, they learned all these, yet showed nothing new or noble or spiritual or better than the old until they were baptized. After their baptism and the descent of the Paraclete into their souls, they themselves became new and took hold of a new life, leading others, and kindling in themselves and others the longing for Christ. For although they were present with the sun and shared in the diet and words, they had not yet felt its ray, not having received that spiritual bath.
In the same way, God perfected all the saints; they recognized Him and loved Him, not by mere words, but by the power of baptism, formed and arranged by the Beloved Himself, who ‘creates a clean heart’ and ‘removes the stony heart, giving a heart of flesh’, driving out insensitivity, and writing, as Paul says, ‘not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts’, not simply the law, but the lawgiver Himself. This was most clearly demonstrated by many saints, who, unable to learn the truth through words or recognize the power of the proclaimed through miracles, were shown to be genuine Christians by receiving baptism.
Porphyry, for instance, living in times when the law of Christ prevailed over the whole world, and people everywhere heard the voice of the preachers and saw trophies of martyrdom, giving a brighter testimony to Christ’s true divinity than any voice; and having heard countless words and witnessed so many noble deeds and wonders, yet remained wandering and leading falsehood in front of truth; but once he was baptized, even mockingly, he was not only immediately a Christian but also completed his course among the martyrs. For being an actor and doing this very act, he dared such a boldness, thinking to provoke laughter, and mocked baptism, baptizing himself in water, calling out the Trinity in the theater. The spectators laughed at the drama presented to them, but for him, it was no longer a laughing matter, nor the present a stage, but as truly a birth and reformation and the very mystery itself. He emerged not as an actor but possessing a martyric soul, a noble body, as if trained in philosophy and hardships, and a tongue that instead of provoking laughter, aroused the tyrant’s anger; and so he earnestly pursued that lifelong mockery, and was so eager for Christ that, enduring many torments, he died willingly so as not to betray his love with his tongue.
Gelasius also loved Christ and knew Him in this way. And as it seems, each approached Him with hostility and warlike intentions; but when the one they fought against opened the eye of his soul and showed his proper hour, he was immediately struck by the beauty and showed the most contrary opinion, becoming a lover instead of an enemy. For that love was an ecstasy, leading those who fell outside of human sights; and this is shown by the prophet who, speaking about the cross and death to Christ, said: ‘Many shall be amazed at you; so marred is his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals.’
Ardalion, the noble, was also baptized, offering this as another amusement to the spectators; for he was a maker of laughter and creator of such pleasures for those present. But he was baptized not with symbols nor by imitating the Savior’s passion in the image of the twenty, but with the things themselves. For he not only confessed the good confession but also imitated the endurance of the martyrs; and although hung naked on the wood, playing under those playing, as soon as he proclaimed Christ and felt the wounds, he immediately changed, and his soul agreed with his voice, and his opinion followed the images; and he was truly what he called himself in jest, a Christian, and became so much from the playing of wounds and a feigned voice; and when he said he loved Christ, he immediately loved, as if the fire of love had breathed from his mouth into his heart. And for others, ‘the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart,’ but for Ardalion, the treasure flowed upwards from the mouth to the heart.
Oh, the ineffable power of Christ! For not by doing good, nor by imparting crowns, nor even by attaching him to these kind hopes, but by making him a sharer in wounds and disgrace, He thus captured and lifted him, so that he was persuaded of what he previously could not bear to hear, and suddenly changed his usual habit, which long time had melted for him; and he transferred his opinion to the most contrary disposition, moving from the worst and most wicked of all to the best of all; for nothing could be more base than a mime, nor nobler than a martyr. What commonality and natural reason is there for wounds and disgrace to produce love, and for what was previously avoided in Christianity and was a faithful follower to capture and improve the enemy; and for those who were enemies, for who would rejoice in suffering?; to persuade to love the one who had been practiced in hatred, and to prepare to become a friend and earnest instead of the most hostile and persecutor?
So then, the word of teaching appears to have accomplished nothing, but the whole power was wrought by the baptism. For Ardalion heard the words of our common salvation, and was not unacquainted with wonders, many martyrs having boldly spoken on him; but he was still more blinded and fought against the light, until he was baptized, receiving the stigmata of Christ and confessing the good confession. For this is the definition of baptism, to imitate Christ’s testimony before Pilate and His endurance about it to the cross and death; and to imitate is indeed through these holy images and symbols, but also with the things themselves when showing the religion with dangers, called by a good opportunity.
For of many remedies invented throughout the ages for the disease afflicting the race, only the death of Christ was able to bring true life and well-being. And for this reason, to be born anew and to live a blessed life and be arranged towards health is nothing other than to drink this remedy, and as far as possible for humans to confess the confession and endure the Passion and die the death. This is the power of the new law, thus a Christian is born, thus he reaches the marvelous philosophy, bearing the best works, having an unshakable faith, not believing out of necessity of persuasion nor leading his character by laws, but by the power of God, receiving this and that, and through both being formed into the blessed image of Christ. ‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power,’ and ‘The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’
“Therefore, this law is spiritual because the Spirit accomplishes everything; the other is written because it stops at letters and sounds. The latter is a shadow and an image, whereas the present things are substance and truth; for words and letters are images of the existence of things. Long before these came into action, God announced them through the tongue of the prophets: ‘I will make a new covenant, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers,’ but what kind? ‘This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts.’ Not through the rhythm of a voice, but the lawgiver himself directly: ‘They shall not teach every one his neighbor: Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.’ David, having received this law, released that blessed voice, ‘I have known that the Lord is great’; ‘I have known,’ he says, having experienced it himself, not hearing from others. Hence he equally draws others in: ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’; although the blessed one praised God’s goodness in various ways, he, as if the words could not encompass the reality, invites the listeners to experience the praised things themselves.”
“This experience is what the baptismal font implants in the souls of the baptized, revealing the creator to the creation, truth to the mind, and the only object of desire to desire itself. Hence the great longing, the unspeakable charm, and the supernatural love, because it is not where it should be, and everything happens, and nothing is inappropriate, and there is an excess in everything. Let’s consider.”
“God has implanted a desire in souls, if necessary, to attain the good, to perceive the truth; and we desire these purely, the good without evil, the truth without falsehood; for no one rejoices in being deceived, nor would one be pleased in being misled and encountering evil instead of good. Desiring these, we have never managed to attain them purely, but the good and the true that are with us, are not what they are called, rather the opposite; hence, even the power of love and joy was not evident in us, as we ought to have loved and rejoiced in things not present; nor was the bond of longing or the extent of the fire known, for the desired was nowhere.”
“But for those who have tasted the Savior, the desired is present, to whom human love was originally fashioned like some standard or limit, like a treasure so great, so vast, as to be able to receive God. Thus, there is no satiety in all the good things in life, nor does anything stop the desire, but we still thirst as if we were not present to the things we desire. For the thirst of human souls requires infinite water; how could this finite world suffice? And this is what the Lord implies to the Samaritan woman, saying: ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.’ For this is the water that stops the desire of human souls: ‘For I shall be satisfied when I behold your glory.’ And indeed, the eye was fashioned to be sufficient for light, and hearing for sounds, and each for what suits it; but the soul’s desire aims only at Christ; and this is its dwelling, because it is both good and truth, and anything that is the object of love, is only He.”
“For this reason, it also prevents those who have experienced it from loving anything as much as the love originally placed in the souls, and from rejoicing as much as nature can rejoice, and if virtue and the water of regeneration have been added to them. For in the case of the good things in life, neither love nor joy can be active, falsifying the name; for if something seems good, it is a poor idol of the true. But here, where nothing prevents, the charm and the joy appear wonderful and unspeakable, immeasurable indeed; especially because God has ordained each of these passions towards Himself, so that we may love Him, and rejoice in Him alone; and it is logical, I suppose, to maintain a certain relation to that infinite good, and to be proportionate in a way.”
“Let’s then consider the extent, and then the excess also as a sign. For of all the good things that have come to us, the only return it considers is the charm, and if it receives this from us, it discharges the debt; what then is equivalent to endless goods, especially from God as judge, how can it not be supernatural? It is evident, then, that the joy is entirely equal to the excess of love, and the charm coincides through everything, and the greatest follows the greatest. It appears, therefore, that for human souls a great and wonderful preparation of love and joy is laid up, and being present, the truly graceful and beloved becomes fully active; and this is what the Savior calls fulfilled joy.”
“Therefore, when the Spirit has come and shared His gifts, the first fruits of those who bear them are love and joy: ‘For the fruit of the Spirit,’ he says, ‘is love, joy.’ The reason is that God, being present, first gives the souls a sense of Himself; perceiving the good, it is necessary to love and rejoice.”
“For even when He appeared bodily to men, He first demanded this recognition of Himself from us, and He taught this, and introduced it immediately, rather for this reason He came to the level of perception and worked everything for this; for ‘For this,’ He says, ‘I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth,’ and truth was He, saying alone: ‘to reveal Myself.’ He does this now to those being baptized, being present, and witnesses to the truth, expelling the seeming good, introducing and showing the true, and, as He Himself says, ‘revealing Himself to them.'”
“These things being true, and the baptismal font those being baptized receive a certain experience of God seems, as I said, from their own experiences; but if we need also witnesses, many and God-loving there are, who have been able to do great things with Him and testify, most of all John, who would suffice for all, having a soul brighter than a ray and a voice more lustrous than gold. But we must read his words with the good tongue.”
“‘What is it: ‘We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image’? This was more clearly shown when the gifts of the signs were active; however, even now it is not difficult to perceive this for those who have believing eyes. For we are baptized together, and the soul shines above the sun, being purified by the Spirit, and we not only see into the glory of God but also receive the splendor from there. As if pure silver placed against the rays also emits rays, not only from its own nature but also from the bright sun, so the soul, being purified and becoming brighter than any silver, receives a ray ‘from the glory’ of the Spirit ‘into the glory’ that is generated, such as is likely ‘from the Lord the Spirit.’ And shortly after: ‘Do you want me to show you this more tangibly from the apostles? Consider Paul, whose garments were active, Peter, whose very shadows were potent. For they would not have been able, if they did not bear the image of the king and their brightness was untouchable, for their garments and shadows to be so effective; for the garments of a king are even terrifying to robbers. Do you want to see this shining also of the body? ‘Looking steadfastly on the face of Stephen, they saw it as it had been the face of an angel.’ But this is nothing compared to the inward flashing glory; for what Moses then had on his face, these carried on their souls, rather, and much more. For Moses’s was more tangible, but this is incorporeal; and as fiery bodies flowing from bright bodies onto the adjacent and imparting their own brightness to them, so it happens among the faithful. Therefore, those who suffer this are freed from the earth, and dream of heavenly things. Alas. For it is beautiful here also to sigh bitterly, that enjoying such nobility, we do not even know the things said, because we quickly lose things and are astonished at the tangible. For this unspeakable and terrifying glory remains in us until the first or second day; then we extinguish it, bringing on the winter of worldly matters and blocking the rays with the density of the clouds.'”
“The experience that occurs to the soul from holy baptism. Therefore, it is not only up to the baptized to conceive, consider, and believe in God, but there is also something greater and closer to the matter in these waters to find. For to place that lightning of God in the mind, and to consider it a kind of torch-bearing of reason, would not be to save the reason; when it happens to disappear after one or two days amidst the crowds and turmoil surrounding the initiated; but no one is unaware of faith, having cared, in so short a time; but there are also things to have and to know theology well, and greater, to be inclined to evil passions and not to be ignorant of the word of salvation and true philosophy. Hence it is evident that these are some immediate sensation of God, the ray from there imperceptibly touching the soul itself.”
“These are the symbols of the ray received in baptism. Everything is full of brightness; torches, songs, dances, triumphs, nothing but brilliance. Every garment is shining, prepared for the sight of light; and the one on the head itself writes the Spirit and bears the enigma of His presence in its form; for it is made in the image of a tongue, as if to preserve this form on the head, in which the Spirit appeared baptizing the apostles from the beginning. For at that time it occupied this part of their body, and there was fire on each one’s head in the form of a tongue, so that, I suppose, by the form of the tongue’s descent, it might signify the pretext; that it has come to interpret and teach the related word to those who are ignorant. For this is the function of a tongue, which brings out the hidden movements of the mind, being its messenger. And indeed, one preaches the Father, the other the Spirit: ‘For I have glorified you,’ He says to the Father, and ‘He shall glorify me,’ speaking of the Comforter instead of these. Therefore, to them, the Lord appears in this form.”
“But the symbol for us carries our thought to that wonder, to that beautiful day that saw the first foundation of baptism, so that we may know that those to whom the Spirit first came, passed it on to the next, and they to those after them, and it reached us, walking; and the gift will not cease until the provider himself stands before us clearly. Then indeed, the Lord will provide the blessed with a clear sense of Himself, the obstacles being removed; but now, as far as it is possible for those covered with fleshly thickness.”
“This unspeakable joy and supernatural love are the fruits of this sensation; and the magnitude of these fruits is the excellence of achievements, and the wonderful display of works, and the conquering and crowning of those going through everything. For armed with these weapons, it was impossible to be defeated by either the terrible or the pleasant; for the joy overcame the painful, and the pleasant had no power to attract or dissolve those bound together with such force of charms and tied together.”
“This is the work of baptism; to release from sins, to reconcile man to God, to make man God’s, to open the eye to souls, to taste the divine ray, to prepare for the coming life, in short. Therefore, we rightly call it a Birth and whatever else can bear the equal word, and the other things and that it brings the knowledge of God to the souls being completed. It is life, and a citadel, and the root of life; the one defining eternal life in ‘knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent’; the other, Solomon saying to God: ‘To know you is the root of immortality.'”
“And if to add reason, who does not know that to think and know is the true being of humans and to go around, this very thing is to reason and know? And if being and knowing is for humans, it would be in the best of all knowledge and free from all falsehood; and to know God, of Him opening the eye of the soul and turning it towards Himself, what better and purer knowledge from all delusion could there be? And this is the fruit of baptism.”
“Therefore, it has been demonstrated through all the aforementioned, that the mystery is the beginning and the being and living of humans in Christ and to go around the true life and essence. And if all these do not follow for all those being baptized, it is not appropriate to attribute weakness to the mystery; but it should be considered a passion for those being completed, either not being well prepared for grace, or betraying the treasure. For how much more fitting it is to attribute this difference to those being completed, having used baptism in different ways, than to blame the ceremony, which is one and the same in all, for the opposites?”
“For it is evident that neither nature nor training is the pile of the aforementioned goods, but the work of baptism; and if also the opposite from there, how would it not be strange for the same to be able to enlighten and not, and to make heavenly and not anything higher than earthly? But we will not blame the sun, nor would we rightly consider it invisible because not everyone sees its ray, but we will take the votes from those who see, nor would we rightly make the Illumination, thinking it can do something other than this very thing from which it is called.”