Select Orations (2/40/43) 2-1 part 1/3

Yesterday we kept festival on the bright Day of the Lights (for it was fitting that we should rejoice over our own salvation, far more than over weddings and birthdays and name-days, and over the shearing-feasts and house-warmings and yearly celebrations and all the other festivals that men keep for the friends of the flesh); today we shall speak briefly concerning Baptism, and the benefit that comes to us thereby:

even though yesterday the discourse passed us by, since the hour was pressing, and at the same time the word was avoiding satiety.

For satiety of words is hostile to the ears, just as excessive food is to bodies.

It is worth giving heed to what is said, and receiving the discourse on matters so great not carelessly, but eagerly;

since this too is enlightenment—to know the power of the mystery.

The Word knows of a threefold birth for us:

the one from bodies, the one from baptism, and the one from resurrection.

Of these, the first is nocturnal, and servile, and subject to passion;

but the second is diurnal, and free, and a loosing of passions, cutting away every veil that comes from birth and leading up to the life above;

and the third is more fearful and more sudden, gathering in a brief moment the whole creation to stand before its Maker, and to render account of its servitude and conduct here—whether it followed the flesh alone, or rose up together with the Spirit and reverenced the grace of its refashioning.

All these births my Christ is plainly seen to have honored from Himself:

the first, by the breath that was first and life-giving;

the second, by the incarnation and the baptism with which He Himself was baptized;

and the third, by the resurrection of which He Himself was the firstfruits;

for as He became the firstborn among many brethren, so also He deigned to become the firstborn from the dead.

Now to discourse upon the two births—I mean the first and the last—is not for the present occasion;

but concerning the middle one, the one now necessary for us, after which the Day of the Lights is named, let us discourse.

Enlightenment is the splendor of souls, a transposition of life, the inquiry of the conscience toward God;

enlightenment is the help of our weakness;

enlightenment is the putting off of the flesh, the following of the Spirit, the fellowship of the Word, the restoration of the creature, the flood that washes away sin, the partaking of light, the dissolution of darkness;

enlightenment is a chariot toward God, a journeying-together with Christ, the support of faith, the perfecting of the mind, the key of the kingdom of heaven, an exchange of life, the abolition of slavery, the loosing of bonds, the remaking of our composition;

enlightenment is (why should I enumerate more?) the fairest and most magnificent of the gifts of God.

For just as certain things are called Holy of Holies, and Song of Songs (for they are more comprehensive and more authoritative),

so this also is more holy than every other of the enlightenments among us.

And it is called, just as Christ its Giver is called by many and various names, so also is this gift;

whether because we experience this from the exceeding joy of the matter (for those who are passionately disposed toward something love to be in company even with its names), or because the manifold character of the benefit has fashioned for us many appellations also.

A gift it is, as being given even to those who bring nothing beforehand;

a grace, as being given even to those who owe;

baptism, as sin is buried together with the water;

anointing, as sacred and royal (for such were the things that were anointed);

enlightenment, as radiance;

a garment, as a covering of shame;

a seal, as a preservation and a token of lordship.

In this the heavens rejoice together;

this the angels glorify, because of the kinship of its splendor;

this is an image of the blessedness beyond;

this we desire indeed to hymn, but we cannot as it deserves.

God is the highest light, unapproachable and unutterable, neither comprehensible by mind nor expressible by word, the enlightener of every rational nature.

This is among intelligible things what the sun is among things perceived by sense:

appearing to us in proportion as we are cleansed;

and loved in proportion as it appears to us;

and again understood in proportion as we love it;

itself beholding and comprehending itself, and pouring forth but little upon those without.

And I mean the Light contemplated in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

whose riches are their unity of nature, and the one outflashing of their splendor.

I know not whether it is divided in its enlightenment by the order of their standing, or whether it receives its order according to the measures of the enlightenment.

A third light is man, which is evident even to those outside.

For they call man a light, because of the power of the reason within us;

and again, among ourselves, those more godlike and nearer to God.

I know also another light, by which the primeval darkness was driven away, or cut through—the first thing to subsist of the visible creation, kindling the circling courses of the stars and the beacon-fire from on high that illumines the whole world.

Light too was the firstborn commandment given to the firstborn man (since the commandment is a lamp of the law, and a light;

and because, Your precepts are a light upon the earth), even though the envious darkness, breaking in, wrought wickedness;

light too, though typical and measured for those who receive it, was the written law, sketching out the truth and the mystery of the great light;

since by this also was Moses' face glorified.

And, that we may give yet more lights to the discourse: light there was that appeared to Moses out of the fire, when it burned the bush yet did not consume it, that it might both display its nature and make known its power;

light too was that in the pillar of fire which guided Israel and tamed the wilderness;

light, that which caught up Elijah in the chariot of fire, yet did not burn up him who was caught up;

light, that which shone round the shepherds, when the timeless light was mingled with the temporal;

light, the beauty of the star that ran before to Bethlehem, that it might both guide the Magi and escort like a bodyguard the light that is above us, who became light with us—the Godhead displayed to the disciples on the mountain, but almost too strong for their sight;

light, the vision that flashed round Paul and, by a stroke to his eyes, healed the darkness of his soul;

light too is the splendor from beyond, for those here cleansed, when the righteous shall shine forth as the sun, in whose midst God stands—they being gods and kings—distributing and apportioning the dignities of the blessedness beyond;

and, beside these and in a special manner, light is the enlightenment of baptism, concerning which our discourse now is, containing the great and wondrous mystery of our salvation.

For since to sin in nothing belongs to God, and to the first and uncompounded nature;

for simplicity is peaceable and without dissension;

and I dare to say, it belongs also to the angelic nature, or is very near to this, because of its nearness to God.

But to sin is human, and belongs to the lower composition;

for composition is the beginning of dissension.

He refashioned us when we had come into being, with a fashioning more divine and higher than the first;

which to beginners is a seal, but to the more perfect is both a maturity and a grace, and a restoration of the image that fell through wickedness;

that we may not, becoming worse through despair, and ever being borne downward to the worse, fall utterly from the good and from virtue through despair;

nor, having fallen into the depth of evils, despise them, as the saying goes;

but, like those who cut a long road and rest their toils at an inn, so may we accomplish the rest of the road fresh and eager.

This, then, is the grace and power of baptism—not a flood of the world as of old, but a cleansing of the sins of each one, and a complete washing away of the heaps of refuse and defilements that have come in from wickedness.

Twofold also is the cleansing—I mean by water and by Spirit; the one received visibly and bodily, the other concurring invisibly and incorporeally;

the one typical, the other true and cleansing the very depths;

which, becoming the succor of the first birth, makes us new instead of old, and godlike instead of what we now are, recasting us without fire and recreating us without crushing.

For, to speak briefly, the power of baptism is to be understood as a covenant with God for a second life and a purer conduct.

And this above all is to be feared, and each one must guard his own soul with all watchfulness, lest we be found liars to this confession.

For if God, taken as mediator, makes firm the agreements made among men, how great is the danger to be found transgressors of those covenants which we made with God Himself;

and to be liable, before the truth, not only for our other sins, but for falsehood itself? And that, when there is no second regeneration, nor refashioning, nor restoration to the ancient state—even though we earnestly seek this with many groans and tears, out of which a scarring-over comes, but with difficulty, according to my own definition and rule (for it does come, and we believe it;

and if we should also wipe out the scars, I would be content, since I too need lovingkindness)—

yet it is better not to need a second cleansing, but to stand fast by the first, which I know to be common to all and toilless and of equal honor—to slaves, masters, poor, rich, lowly, exalted, the more nobly born, the less nobly born, debtors, non-debtors—like the breathing of the air, and the diffusion of light, and the changes of the seasons, and the sight of creation, that great delight common to us all, and an equal share in faith.

Let us therefore be buried together with Christ through baptism, that we may also rise together;

let us go down together, that we may also be lifted up together;

let us rise up together, that we may also be glorified together.

If after baptism the persecutor and tempter of the light should assail you (and he will assail;

for he assailed even the Word, my God, through the veil, because of the manifest flesh), you have that whereby you shall conquer;

set forth the water, set forth the Spirit, in which all the fiery darts of the Evil one shall be quenched.

It is Spirit, yet it dissolves mountains;

it is water, yet it is a quencher of fire.

If he should assail you with need (for he ventured this even with Him), and seek to make the stones into bread, setting hunger upon you;

be not ignorant of his devices.

Oppose to him the living word, which is the bread sent down from heaven and giving life to the world.

If through vainglory he should plot against you (for so he did with Him too, leading Him up to the pinnacle of the temple and saying, Cast yourself down, for a display of Your Godhead), be not borne down through self-exaltation.

If he should gain this, he will not stop there.

He is insatiable; he advances upon all things.

He fawns with what is pleasant, but ends in what is wicked.

This is his manner of battle.

But the robber is also skilled in the Scriptures.

On the one side, It is written, concerning the bread;

on the other, It is written, concerning the angels.

For it is written, he says, that He shall give His angels charge concerning you, and on their hands they shall bear you up.

O slanderer, why did you suppress what follows? For I understand this full well, even if you yourself keep silent: that I shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and shall trample upon serpents and scorpions, walled about by the Trinity.

If out of insatiableness he should wrestle you down, showing you all the kingdoms, as though they belonged to him, in one instant of time and sight, demanding worship;

say, trusting in the seal:

I too am an image of God;

I have not yet been cast down from the glory above through exaltation, as you have;

I have been transformed into Christ by baptism.

He will depart—this I clearly know—vanquished and put to shame by these things, as from Christ the first light, so from those enlightened from Him.

Such things does the laver bestow on those who perceive its grace;

such a banquet does it set before those who hunger aright.

Let us therefore be baptized, that we may conquer;

let us partake of cleansing waters, more purifying than hyssop, purer than the blood of the law, more sacred than the ashes of the heifer that sprinkled the defiled and had a temporary cleansing of the body, not a complete removal of sin.

For why should those once cleansed need to be cleansed again? Let us be baptized today, that we be not constrained tomorrow.

And let us not defer the benefit as though it were an injury;

nor let us wait to become worse, that we may be more freely forgiven;

nor let us become hucksters and traffickers of Christ;

nor let us load ourselves with more than we can bear, lest we be submerged with the ship and all hands, and make shipwreck of the gift, losing the whole in return for what we hoped to gain more.

While you are still master of your reasonings, run to the gift;

while you are not yet diseased in body and mind, or seem so to those present, even if you are sound;

while your good is not yet in the hands of others, but you yourself are master of it;

while your tongue is not yet wandering or chilled or impaired—that I say no more—from the words of the mystery;

while you can become a believer, not by conjecture, but by confession;

not pitied, but counted blessed;

while the gift is plain to you, not in doubt;

and the grace touches the depths, but it is not your body washed for burial;

while there are no tears about you, signs of departure, and these perhaps held back for your sake, and wife and children dragging back your exodus and seeking parting words;

while there is no unskilled physician about you, granting you hours of which he is not master, and tipping your salvation by a nod, and philosophizing about the disease after death, or making his fees heavier by his withdrawals, or darkly hinting at despair;

while there is no contest between the baptizer and the notary—the one striving to furnish you provision, the other to be enrolled as heir—the time not permitting both.

Why do you await a fever for benefactor, instead of God? Why a season, instead of a resolve? Why a treacherous friend, instead of a saving longing? Why force instead of authority? Why constraint instead of freedom? Why learn of your exodus from another, instead of pondering it as though already present? Why seek drugs that will profit nothing? Why a critical sweat, when perhaps the end stands by? Heal yourself before the necessity;

have mercy on yourself, the true healer of your weakness;

bring to yourself the truly saving remedy.

While you sail with a fair wind, fear the shipwreck;

and you will be less shipwrecked, using fear as a helper.

Let the gift be kept as a festival, not bewailed;

let the talent be worked, not buried.

Let there be some interval between the grace and the dissolution, that not only the wicked writings may be blotted out, but the better ones be inscribed in their stead;

that you may have not only the gift, but also the recompense;

that you may not only escape the fire, but also inherit the glory which working upon the gift bestows.

For to the faint-hearted it is a great thing to escape punishment;

but to the great-souled, to gain the recompense as well.

For I know three ranks of those who are saved: slavery, hireling-service, and sonship.

If you are a slave, fear the stripes;

if a hireling, look only to receiving.

But if you are above these, even a son, reverence Him as a father.

Do what is good because it is good to obey the father, even if no benefit were to come to you.

This very thing is a reward—to do a pleasure to the father.

Of which let us not be seen to be despisers.

How absurd it is to snatch at money beforehand, but to defer health;

and to cleanse the body beforehand, but to hoard up the cleansing of the soul;

and to seek freedom from the slavery below, but not to desire that above;

and to make all haste that you may dwell magnificently or be clothed splendidly, but to take no thought how you yourself may be of greatest worth;

and to be eager to do good to others, but not to be willing to do it to yourself.

And if the good were for sale to you, you would spare no money;

but since the lovingkindness lies ready, you despise it because of the readiness of the benefaction.

Every time is a time for washing for you, since every time is a time of dissolution.

With Paul I cry to you, with the great voice:

Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation;

marking out not one season, but every season of the Now.

Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you, dispelling the night of sin;

since, In the night hope is evil, according to Isaiah, and it is more profitable to be taken in the morning.

Sow when it is the season, and gather in, and open your storehouses when it is the time for that, and plant in due season, and let your cluster be cut ripe for you, and put out to sea boldly in spring, and draw up your ship again when winter begins anew and the sea grows wild.

Let there be for you a time of war and of peace, of marriage and of celibacy, of friendship and of separation, if such be needed, and of every matter whatever—if Solomon is at all to be believed;

for the admonition is indeed profitable.

But always work out your salvation, and let every season be for you the appointed time of baptism.

If, ever running past today, you keep watching for tomorrow, you are unawares being robbed by the Evil one through your little-by-little delays, as is his manner.

Give me the present, give God the future;

give me your youth, God your old age;

give me your pleasures, give Him your uselessness.

How many are the mishaps that come beyond all expectation!

—something inexorable, or some one of the things that make removal swiftest and stronger than all help.

But if you should secure yourself beforehand with the seal, and make the future safe by the fairest and firmest of helps, being marked both in soul and body by the anointing and the Spirit, as Israel of old by the nocturnal blood that guarded the firstborn;

what will befall you, and what will have been wrought for you? Hear the book of Proverbs:

For if you sit down, it says, you shall be without fear;

and if you sleep, you shall sleep sweetly.

You shall not be afraid of nightly terror, of mishap, and of the noonday demon.

This is for you, while you live, a very great thing for security.

For a sheep that is sealed is not easily plotted against, but the unmarked one is easy prey for thieves;

and for one departing it is a goodly burial-gift, brighter than raiment, more precious than gold, more magnificent than a tomb, more pious than barren libations, more timely than seasonal first-offerings, which the dead bestow on the dead, having made custom into a law.

Let all things depart from you, let all be plundered—riches, possessions, thrones, splendors, all that belongs to the round of things below;

but do you bring your life to a close in safety, having lost nothing of the helps given you by God unto salvation.

But are you afraid lest you destroy the gift, and on this account defer the cleansing, as having no second one? What then? Are you not afraid lest you be endangered in a time of persecution, and be robbed of the greatest of all you have—Christ? Will you, then, on this account flee even from becoming a Christian? Away with the thought!

Such fear belongs not to the sound, such reasoning to the deranged.

O irreverent reverence, if one must say so!

O the sophistries of the evil one!

He is truly darkness, and feigns to be light.

When he is able to prevail nothing by open warfare, he plots in secret.

And he becomes a counselor as though good, being evil;

that by some means at least he may altogether prevail, and that we may nowhere escape his plotting.

Which here too he plainly contrives.

For, not being able to persuade you openly to despise baptism, he harms you through a counterfeit safety, that the very thing you fear you may suffer unawares through your fear;

and, dreading to destroy the gift, by this very thing you may fall away from the gift.

Such, then, is he, and he will never cease from his duplicity, so long as he sees us pressing toward heaven, from which he himself has fallen.

But you, O man of God, recognize the plotting of the adversary.

For the battle is against One who possesses, and over the greatest stakes.

Do not take the enemy as a counselor;

do not despise to hear and to become a believer.

While you are a catechumen, you are in the porch of piety.

You must come inside, cross the court, look upon the holy things, peer into the Holy of Holies, become one with the Trinity.

Great are the things for which you do battle;

great too must be your safeguard.

Hold forth the shield of faith.

He fears you when you fight with the weapon;

and for this reason he strips you of the gift, that he may more easily overpower you when you are unarmed and unguarded.

He lays hold of every age, of every form of life.

Are you young? Stand against the passions with the alliance; be numbered into God's battle-array; play the hero against Goliath; take your thousands or your ten thousands.

Thus enjoy your youth;

but do not endure that your youth should wither, slain by the incompleteness of your faith.

Are you old, and near the necessary term? Reverence your gray hairs;

give the prudence that is required of you, in place of the weakness you now have;

help your few days;

entrust your cleansing to your old age.

But you keep deferring toward the cleansing—either truly suffering this, or seeming to.

Have you a babe? Let not wickedness gain a season;

let it be sanctified from infancy, consecrated to the Spirit from its very nails.

Do you fear the seal because of the weakness of nature?

How faint-hearted is the mother, and how little of faith!

But Hannah, even before Samuel was born, promised him to God, and when he was born straightway made him holy, and reared him in the priestly robe, not fearing what is human, but trusting in God.

You have no need of amulets and incantations, with which the evil one slips in, stealing to himself the reverence due to God, in those lighter matters.

What more? Do you practice virginity? Be sealed by the cleansing;

make this the partner and fellow-companion of your life;

let it order for you both life and speech, every member, every movement, every sense.

Honor it, that it may adorn you, that it may give to your head a crown of graces, and shield you with a crown of delight;

settle it as a guardian of self-control to dwell with you;

how many eunuchs, how many doorkeepers, do you think it is safer than? Are you not yet joined to the flesh? Do not fear the perfecting.

You are pure, even after marriage;

mine is the risk, I am the one who joins you, I am the bridal escort.

For not because virginity is more honorable is marriage among things dishonored.

I will imitate Christ, the pure bridegroom's escort and Bridegroom, who works a miracle at a wedding, and honors wedlock by His presence.

Only let marriage be pure, and unmingled with filthy desires.

Receive safety from the gift, and render to the gift purity in due season, as long as there is set a time for prayer, more honorable than business, and this by common confession and consent.

For we do not lay down a law, but exhort, and we wish to take something of yours on your behalf, and for the sake of your common safety.

And to speak summarily, there is no life, no calling, to which this is not more profitable.

He who is in slavery gains equality of honor;

he who is despondent, consolation;

he who is in good cheer, discipline; the poor man, inviolable riches;

he who is wealthy, the good stewardship of what he has.

Contrive nothing, devise nothing against your own salvation.

For even if we deceive others, ourselves at least we shall not be able to deceive;

since to trifle against oneself is exceedingly perilous and foolish.

But are you in the midst of affairs, and defiled by public business;

and is it a hard thing, if the lovingkindness should be spent upon you? Simple is the answer:

If it be possible, flee even the marketplace, along with that goodly company, putting on yourself the wings of an eagle, or of a dove, that I may speak more aptly (for what have you to do with Caesar, or the things of Caesar?).

Until you come to rest where there is no sin, nor blackening, nor a serpent biting on the way, hindering your steps toward God.

Snatch your own soul out of the world;

journey on without turning back, lest you be fixed as a pillar of salt;

flee to safety in the mountain, lest you be swept away together with the rest.

But if you are held fast beforehand, and are bound with necessary bonds, reason this with yourself—or rather, I myself will reason it with you:

It is better both to attain the good and to keep the cleansing;

but if both are not admissible, it is sometimes better to be a little defiled by your public business, than to fall away from grace altogether;

just as, I think, it is better to be in some measure rebuked by a father and master, than to be thrust away;

and to be a little illumined, than to be wholly in darkness.

And it belongs to prudent men, just as to choose the greater and more perfect of good things, so also to choose the lesser and lighter of evils.

For what is rightly done is always judged together with the circumstances, by our righteous and lovingkind Judge.

And one in the midst of affairs, having accomplished but a little, has often gained more than one at liberty who has not accomplished the whole;

and it is better to be slightly sprinkled with mud than to be carried along a clean road and to be pure.

And as a proof of the saying: Rahab the harlot too was justified by one thing only, her hospitality, though praised in nothing else;

and the tax-collector too was exalted by one thing, his humility, though witnessed to in nothing else.

so that you may learn not to despair too readily of yourself.

"But what," he says, "do I gain by being bound beforehand through baptism, and by hastily shutting off from myself the pleasures of life, when it is open to me to give myself up to delights and then obtain grace at that later time? For not even those who toiled first in the vineyard had any advantage, since the same wage was given also to the last."

You have relieved us of trouble, whoever you are that say these things, having at last let slip the secret motive of your delay;

and while I do not praise you for your cunning, I do praise you for your confession.

But come here, and let the parable be explained to you, lest out of ignorance you do harm to what is written.

First, the discourse here is not about baptism, but about those who come to faith at various seasons and enter the good vineyard, which is the Church.

For from the day and the hour that each one believed, from that very time also is the labor required of him.

Next, even if those who entered earlier contributed more in the measure of their toil, yet not also in the measure of their purpose of heart;

and perhaps to the last ones, on this very account, even more was owed, paradoxical as the saying may somehow seem.

For the cause of their entering later was that they were also called later to the work of the vineyard;

but as for the rest, let us consider how great the difference is.

The former did not believe, nor did they enter, until the wage had been agreed upon with them;

but the latter came to the work without any bargain, which is the mark of a greater faith.

And the former were found to be of an envious and grumbling nature;

but the latter are charged with nothing of the kind.

And to the former what was given was a wage, wicked though they were, but to the latter it was grace;

so that, being charged also with folly, they were with good reason deprived of the greater portion.

But let us learn what would also have happened to them if they had come late;

clearly, an equal share of the wage.

How then do they blame the employer, as if for an inequity in the equal treatment? All this withdraws from the first the grace earned by their sweat, even though they toiled first.

From which it follows that the equal distribution is also just, since the purpose of heart is measured against the toil.

But even if the parable does, according to your interpretation, sketch out the power of the washing of baptism,

what would prevent one who had entered first and borne the scorching heat from not envying the last, so that by this very thing you might gain the more from the loving God, and receive the recompense as a debt rather than as grace? Furthermore, those who entered there received it as laborers, not as ones who had missed the vineyard;

not to mention that the very fact of having labored more is itself a greater reward to one whose mind is not altogether mercenary.

But if there is a danger to you of falling away from the vineyard altogether through your trafficking, and of loss to the capital itself by picking up petty trifles on the side,

come, be persuaded by my words;