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

abandon such misinterpretations and objections, and without calculation draw near to the gift, lest you be robbed beforehand of your hopes, and without knowing it work out such sophistries to your own ruin.

What then? "Is not the Deity," he says, "loving toward mankind? For He knows our thoughts, and tests our longing, and in place of baptism He accepts the eager impulse toward baptism."

You speak something like a riddle, if the unbaptized is, on account of God's love for mankind, enlightened in God's sight, or if one who is eager to attain the kingdom of heaven is already within it, apart from doing the things of the kingdom.

But I, for my part, will boldly say what I hold concerning these matters;

and I think that those of the rest who have understanding will also agree.

Some were utterly estranged from God and from salvation, having run through every kind of wickedness and being eager to be evil;

but others were somehow half-bad, standing midway between virtue and vice;

who indeed did the evil, but did not consent to what they did, just as those who are sick do not consent to their own illness.

But others were praiseworthy even before perfection in baptism;

some by nature, others by diligence, cleansing themselves beforehand for baptism;

and after the perfecting they have shown themselves better and more secure;

the one, that they might attain the good, the other, that they might guard it.

Among these, better than those who are altogether wicked are those who give up some part of their vice;

and better than those who give up but a little are the more earnest, who have fitted themselves to baptism;

for they have something more, namely the labor.

For the washing of baptism does not bring about the removal of good deeds in the same way that it brings about the blotting out of sins.

And better than these same are those who both cultivate the gift and chisel themselves into beauty as much as possible.

So that even among those who fail, some are utterly brutish or bestial, in proportion as they have folly or wickedness;

for these, along with their other evils, the gift, I think, is not held in much reverence, but is truly a free gift:

if it be given, it is cherished;

but if it be not given, it is despised.

But others do indeed know and honor the gift;

yet they put it off, some through sloth, others through covetousness.

Others again are not even able to receive it, perhaps through infancy, or through some wholly involuntary mischance, owing to which it is not possible for them to obtain the gift even though they desire it.

Just as, then, among those former cases we found very great difference, so also among these.

Worse are those who altogether despise it than those who are too covetous or too slothful;

and worse than these are those who fall short of the gift through ignorance and constraint.

For constraint is nothing other than an involuntary failure.

And I am of the opinion that some will pay the penalty—for their contempt of the washing of baptism, just as for the rest of their wickedness;

while others will indeed pay it, but less, because they brought about their failure not so much by wickedness as by folly;

while still others will neither be glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge, as being unsealed indeed, yet free from wickedness, and as having suffered the loss rather than caused it.

For not everyone who is unworthy of punishment is thereby also worthy of honor;

just as not everyone who is unworthy of honor is thereby also worthy of punishment.

If you judge the murderous man guilty of murder merely from his willing it, even apart from the murder itself, then let him also who merely willed baptism be reckoned by you as baptized, apart from baptism itself;

But if that is not so, how this can be I am unable to perceive.

If your longing suffices for the power of baptism, and on that ground you claim its glory, then let the desire for glory suffice you also for glory itself.

Therefore, since you have heard these words—"Draw near to him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed"—do not fall short of the grace.

And receive the enlightenment while there is still time, lest darkness pursue you, and overtake you, and cut you off from the light.

Night is coming, when no one can work—after our departure from this world.

This is the work of the true light, which enlightens every man that comes into the world.

And consider that Solomon too bitterly reproaches you who are too idle or too sluggish, when he says:

"How long wilt thou lie down, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?"—while you allege this and that as your excuse, and make pretexts for your sins.

"I will wait for Pentecost," you say.

"It is better to be enlightened together with Christ;

to rise together with Christ on the day of resurrection;

to honor the manifestation of the Spirit."

And then what? The end will come suddenly, on a day when you do not expect it, and at an hour when you do not know.

with such great wealth of goodness;

whereas you ought to reap fruit by opposite means against the opposite—harvest for the unhesitating, and refreshment at the spring—like the thirstiest of stags, running eagerly to the springs, and quenching with water the weariness of the chase;

and not suffer the fate of Ishmael, to be parched with drought;

or the fate told in the fable, to be tormented by thirst in the very midst of a spring.

But hasten, lest a robber forestall you, lest an adulterer outrun you, lest the insatiable get the gain before you, lest a murderer snatch the good prize first—nor a tax-collector, nor a fornicator, nor any of those who take the kingdom by force and seize it as plunder.

For the kingdom suffers willing violence, and is taken by tyranny on account of God's goodness.

Be slow toward wrongdoing, O man, but swift toward salvation, if you will hearken to me;

for it is an equal evil, both readiness for the worse and delay toward the better.

If you are invited to a revel, do not hurry;

if you are invited to deny the faith, leap away;

if some wicked workshop summons you—saying:

"Come with us, share in bloodshed, and let us hide a righteous man in the earth unjustly"—

by refusing you will both make him aware of the sin, and deliver yourself from wicked fellowship.

Or rather: "Arise, let us go hence"—we who shine bright in splendor, whiter than snow, purer than curdled milk, more radiant than the sapphire stone;

let us not resist, let us not delay.

Let us become Peter and John;

as they hastened to the tomb and the resurrection, so let us ourselves hasten to the laver, running together, running against one another, that by our striving we may be first to seize the good.

And do not say, "Let me go away and return, and I will be baptized tomorrow," when you are able to receive the good today;

"Let my mother be present, let my father be present, my brothers, my wife, my children, my friends, all that is dear to me, and then I will be saved;

but now is not yet the time for me to be made radiant."

If they are present, you should be glad of it;

but if they are absent, do not wait for them.

"But where for me is the gift to be brought at the baptism? Where is the bright baptismal robe in which I shall be made radiant? Where are the provisions for entertaining those who baptize me, so that in these things too I may win esteem? For these things, as you see, are quite indispensable, and without them the grace will be diminished!"

Do not be petty about great matters;

The mystery is greater than the things that are seen;

Put on Christ, nourish me with your way of life;

this is how I delight to be treated kindly;

and so too does God, who bestows the greatest gifts.

Nothing is great in God's sight that even a poor man cannot give, that the poor may not here too be thrust aside;

for they have no means to vie with the rich.

In other things, there is the difference between being rich and being poor;

but here, the more eager man is the richer.

Let nothing hold you back from going forward;

let nothing drag down your eagerness.

While the longing is strong, lay hold of what you long for;

while the iron is hot, let it be tempered by the cold, lest something fall in between and sever the longing.

"What hinders me from being baptized?" Seize the moment;

and having said, "Be baptized," and having been baptized, be saved;

and though you be an Ethiopian in body, be made white in soul.

Attain the salvation than which nothing is higher, nothing more precious, at least to those who have understanding.

Is this one a metropolitan, or one of Jerusalem (for grace belongs not to places, but to the Spirit), and is he of noble birth?

Or is he only a presbyter—yet this one too is among the unmarried, this one too is among the continent and angelic in their way of life;

for it would be a terrible thing if at the time of cleansing I were to be defiled.

Do not look for the trustworthiness of the one who preaches, nor of the one who baptizes.

Another is the judge of these things, and the tester of what is more hidden;

since man looks on the outward appearance, but God on the heart.

But for you, everyone is trustworthy enough for your cleansing;

Only let him be one of the approved, and not one of the manifestly condemned, nor a stranger to the Church.

Do not judge the judges, you who have need of healing;

do not scrutinize for me the worthiness of those who cleanse you, nor make distinctions among those who beget you.

One man may be better than another, or more lowly;

let the one be gold and the other iron, yet both are rings, and let them both be engraved with the same royal image; then let them be pressed upon wax.

In what will this seal differ from that seal? In nothing.

Recognize the material in the wax, however wise you may be;

tell me which impression came from the iron and which from the gold, and how they are one;

for the difference lies in the material, not in the stamped figure.

So let every baptizer be to you.

Even though one may excel in his manner of life, yet the power of baptism is equal;

and every one alike perfects you who has been formed by the same faith.

Do not, being rich, disdain to be baptized together with the poor; nor you, the nobly born, with the lowly; nor the master with the slave who is yet a slave until now.

You will not yet have humbled yourself as much as Christ, in whom you are baptized today, who for your sake took even the form of a servant.

From the day you are transformed, all the old marks have given way;

in one form Christ has been imposed upon all.

Do not disdain to confess your sin, knowing how John baptized, that you may here escape the shame that is there (since even this is part of your punishment there), and may show that you have truly hated sin, making an example of it and triumphing over it as worthy of disgrace.

Do not spurn the ministration of exorcism, nor grow weary of it because of its length.

This too is a testing of the genuineness of your disposition toward the gift.

What labor would you undergo so great as that of the queen of Sheba, who set out from the ends of the earth to behold the wisdom of Solomon? And behold, a greater than Solomon is here, in the judgment of those who reason rightly.

Do not shrink back—neither for the length of the road, nor the measure of the sea, nor fire, even if this lies before you, nor any other obstacle, whether small or great—from obtaining the gift.

But if without any toil or trouble on your part you may obtain what you long for, what folly it is to defer the gift! "Ye that thirst," he says, "go ye to the water" (Isaiah thus commands you);

"and ye that have no money, come ye, buy and drink wine without money and without price."

Oh, the swiftness of His loving-kindness!

Oh, the easiness of the exchange!

This good is yours to purchase by the mere willing of it;

He accepts the very desire in place of a great price.

He gives drink to those who are willing to drink;

He is benefited by being asked for His benefaction;

He is ready and lavishly generous;

He gives more gladly than others receive.

Only let us not be condemned for pettiness, in asking for small things, and things unworthy of the Giver.

Blessed is he of whom Christ asks a drink, as He did of that Samaritan woman, and to whom He gives a spring of water welling up unto eternal life.

Blessed is he who sows beside all waters, and upon every soul—one that tomorrow shall be reaped and watered, though today it is trodden by the ox and the ass, being parched and waterless, and oppressed by unreason.

Blessed is he who, even if he be a rushing torrent of reeds, is given drink from the house of the Lord, and becomes a bearer of grain instead of a bearer of reeds, and cultivates food fit for man, not what is rough and useless.

For this end every effort must be put forth, so as not to miss the grace that is common to all.

Let this, he says, suffice concerning those who seek baptism.

But what would you say concerning those still infants, who perceive neither the loss nor the grace? Shall we baptize these also? Most certainly, if any danger presses.

For it is better to be sanctified without conscious awareness than to depart unsealed and uninitiated.

And the proof of this for us is the circumcision on the eighth day, which was a kind of typical seal, and was administered to those who were as yet without reason;

as also the anointing of the doorposts, which through insensible things preserved the firstborn.

But concerning the others, I give my opinion: that we wait for three years, or a little less or more (when they are able to hear something of the mystery and to respond, even if they do not understand fully, yet are being shaped by it), and so sanctify both their souls and bodies by the great mystery of perfection.

For they begin to be accountable for their lives only then, when reason is matured and they learn the mystery (since for sins of ignorance they are held guiltless on account of their age);

but to be fortified by the laver is, by every account, more profitable, because of the sudden assaults of dangers that fall upon us, and to have a stronger help.

But Christ, one says, is baptized at thirty years of age, and that though He is God;

and do you bid us hasten baptism? In calling Him God you have solved the question.

For He was Himself purity itself, and had no need of cleansing;

but He is cleansed for your sake, just as He also wears flesh for your sake, though He is fleshless.

Nor was there any danger to Him in deferring His baptism;

for He was Himself the steward of His own suffering, as also of His own birth.

But for you the danger is no small one, if you depart having been born only into corruption, and not having put on incorruption.

And I consider this also, that for Him this time of baptism was necessary;

for He was manifested when He had reached His thirtieth year, and not before, both that He might not seem to be ostentatious (for ostentation is the failing of those who lack good taste), and because this age has within it the full testing of virtue, and the proper time for teaching.

And since the world's saving Passion had to be suffered, all that pertained to the Passion had to converge toward the Passion: the manifestation, the baptism, the testimony from above, the preaching, the gathering of the multitude, the miracles—so that they might become as it were one body, not torn apart nor severed by intervals of time.

For from the baptism and the preaching came the shaking of those who flocked together (for so the Scripture calls that time); and from the multitude came the display of signs, and the miracles that drew men to the Gospel;

and from the hatred came the plotting and the betrayal;

and from this came the cross, and all the things by which we have been saved.

Such, then, are the things concerning Christ, and so they stand, so far as it is attainable by us;

though perhaps some other account might also be found, more ineffable than these.

But for you, what necessity is there—following examples that are above you—to take counsel amiss?

For many other things recorded of that time appear otherwise than as they now stand with us, and do not correspond to our seasons. For instance, He fasted a little before His temptation, but we fast before the Pasch.

The fast itself is one and the same, but the interval between the two seasons is no small one.

For He sets the fast forward as a defence against temptations;

but to us it signifies our dying-together with Christ, and is a purification preparatory to the feast.

And He fasts forty days (for He was God), while we have measured this according to our strength, even if zeal persuades some to soar beyond their strength.

Again, He initiates the disciples into the mystery of the Pasch in an upper room, after supper, and one day before His suffering;

but we celebrate it in houses of prayer, before supper, and after the Resurrection.

He rises again on the third day, but we after a long time;

and our observances are neither severed from His, nor joined to them in respect of time;

but, being handed down only as a kind of type of our own observances, they have escaped exact correspondence in every detail.

[As though it followed] that, because baptism was received for our sake, it must also differ from it in time? This you seem to me to put forward as some great and wonderful argument against your own salvation.

If, then, you will be persuaded by me, bid farewell to all such arguments;

and instead leap forward to the good, and fight a twofold contest:

the one, to purify yourselves beforehand for baptism; the other, to preserve the baptism after it;

since it is a matter of equal difficulty both to acquire some good that one does not possess, and to keep safe what one has acquired.

For often what diligence has gained, sloth has destroyed;

and what hesitation has lost, careful attention has recovered.

These are good helps for you toward attaining what you long for: vigils, fastings, sleeping on the ground, prayers, tears, compassion for the needy, and almsgiving.

Let this be to you at once a thanksgiving for what you have received, and a safeguard of it.

You have in benefaction a reminder of many commandments.

Has a poor man come to you? Remember how poor you once were, and how rich you have become.

Is one in need of bread or drink, perhaps some other Lazarus cast down at your gates? Reverence the mystical table to which you have drawn near;

the bread of which you have partaken;

the cup in which you have communed, being perfected in the sufferings of Christ.

Has a stranger fallen before you, homeless and a sojourner? Receive through him the One who for your sake became a stranger, and that among His own, and who came to dwell in you through grace, and drew you up to the heavenly habitation.

Become a Zacchaeus, yesterday a tax collector, and today great-hearted;

yield up all your fruit at the entrance of Christ, that you may be shown to be great, even though you be small in bodily stature, having beheld Christ aright.

Does a sick man, a wounded man, lie before you? Reverence your own health, and the wounds from which Christ has set you free.

If you see one naked, clothe him, honouring your own garment of incorruption;

since as many of us as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

If you find a debtor falling at your feet, tear up every bond, whether unjust or just.

Remember the ten thousand talents which Christ forgave you;

do not become a harsh exactor of the lesser debt.

Let your washing be not of the body only, but also of the image;

not a cleansing away of sins only, but also a correction of your manner of life;

let it not merely wash off the former filth, but cleanse the very source as well;

let it not only fashion you to acquire rightly, but also to part with rightly, or, what is the very least, to lay aside what has been ill-gotten.

For what profit is it that your sin should be forgiven you, while the wronged man is not released from the loss inflicted by you,

there being two evils on your part — both to have acquired unjustly, and to keep holding what was acquired? Of the one you have received remission, but in the other you do wrong even today.

For today the property of another is still with you;

and the sin has not been done away with, but only interrupted by time.

The one was a deed dared before baptism, the other is one remaining after baptism;

for the washing gives remission of sins that have been committed, not of sins still being committed.

[Let the gift cause] you to be made perfectly bright, and not to be stained;

and let the gift have not a mere covering over of sins, but a deliverance from them.

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven;

this belongs to the perfect purification;

and they whose sins are covered;

this belongs to those not yet purified in the depths.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin;

this is a third order, that of those still sinning,

whose deed indeed is not praiseworthy, but whose disposition is blameless.

What then do I say, and what is my message? Yesterday you were a Canaanite soul, bowed down through sin;

today you have been made upright by the Word.

Yesterday you were withered while flourishing with the issue of blood (for you were welling up with crimson sin);

today you have blossomed afresh, after being dried up.

For you touched the hem of Christ's garment, and stayed the flow.

Guard for me your purification; do not flow with blood again, lest you have no strength to lay hold of Christ, so as to steal your salvation.

For Christ does not often love to be stolen from, however exceedingly kind to mankind He is.

Yesterday you were cast upon your bed, palsied and helpless, and had no man to put you into the pool when the water was troubled;

Today you have found a man who is at once God—or rather, God and man.

You have been raised from your bed—or rather, you yourself took up the bed and made public the benefit you received.

Do not by sinning again be cast back upon the bed, slackened by pleasures into the evil ease of the body;

but as you now are, walk, mindful of the commandment:

Sin no more, lest something worse befall you, having proved yourself wicked after so great a kindness.

"Lazarus, come forth!"—you heard the great voice while you lay in the tomb (for what is more mighty in voice than the Word?), and you came out, not a corpse of four days, but of many days, raised together with Him who rose on the third day, and you were loosed from the bonds of burial.

Do not become dead again, nor join those who dwell among the tombs, nor be bound fast with the cords of your own sins;

for it is uncertain whether you will rise again from the tombs before the last and common resurrection, which will bring every creature to judgment—not to be healed, but to be judged, and to give account of all that it has stored up, whether for good or for ill.

If until now you were teeming with leprosy—the formless wickedness—but have been scraped clean of the evil matter and have received back the image whole, show me your priest the cleansing, that I may know how much more precious it is than the legal one.

Be not of the nine ungrateful ones, but imitate the tenth;

for even though he was a Samaritan, yet he was more thankful than the rest.

Take care lest you break out again in foul eruption, and find the disorder of the body hard to heal.

Formerly stinginess and miserliness withered your hand;

today let giving and love of mankind stretch it out.

A good remedy for an ailing hand is to scatter abroad, to give to the poor, to draw out lavishly from what we have until we touch the very bottom (perhaps even this will well up nourishment for you, as it did for the woman of Zarephath—especially if you should happen to be feeding an Elijah). It is to count this a goodly abundance: to be poor for Christ's sake, who for our sake became poor.

If you were deaf and dumb, let the Word resound within you;

or rather, lay hold of Him who has sounded forth within you.

Do not close your ears to the chastening and admonition of the Lord, like the asp to the charmers' songs.

If you are blind and unenlightened, lighten your eyes, lest at any time you sleep unto death.

In the light of the Lord behold light; in the Spirit of God be illumined by the Son—the threefold and undivided Light.

If you receive the whole Word, you will gather upon your own soul all the healings of Christ which each man received in part.

Only do not fail to recognize the measure of the grace;

only let not the enemy, while you sleep and are careless, sow tares upon you for evil;

only, having become an object of envy to the evil one because of your purity, do not again make yourself pitiable through sin;

only, being overjoyed at the good and exalted beyond measure, do not fall in the very moment of being lifted up;

only ever labor lovingly at the cleansing, setting in your heart ascents to God;

and the forgiveness which you obtained as a free gift, guard it with diligence;

so that the forgiving may be from God, but the preserving may come also from you.

And how shall this come about? Ever bear in mind that parable, and you will help yourself best and most perfectly.

The unclean and material spirit went out from you, driven away by baptism;

it does not consent to be homeless and without a hearth.

It goes through waterless places, dry of the divine influx;

there it wishes to make its dwelling;

it wanders seeking rest, and finds none;

it lights upon souls whose wickedness the laver has washed away;

it is choked by the purification, just as the Legion was drowned in the sea.

Again it turns back toward the house from which it departed.

It is shameless, it is contentious, it attacks again, it tries again.

If indeed it finds Christ having taken up residence and filled the place which it itself had emptied,

it is beaten back again, it departs unsuccessful, it becomes a pitiable wanderer.

But if it finds the place within you swept and garnished, empty and idle, ready alike to receive this one or that one who first lays claim, it leaps in, takes up its dwelling with even greater equipment, and the last state becomes worse than the first—inasmuch as then at least there was hope of correction and security;

but now the wickedness is manifest, drawing on the evil by its flight from the good;

and for this reason the occupant's hold is the more secure.

Again I will remind you of the illuminations, gathering them often out of the divine oracles.

For I myself shall be the more gladdened by their remembrance (for what is sweeter than light to those who have tasted of light?), and I shall flash light around you with the things I say.

"Light is risen for the righteous," and gladness its yoke-fellow;

and "Light shall be for the righteous continually."

"You shed light wondrously from the everlasting mountains," it is said unto God;

from the angelic powers, I think, who work together with us toward the better things.

"The Lord is my light and my Saviour."

And at one time he prays that the light and the truth may be sent forth unto him;

at another he gives thanks that he has partaken of this also, in that the light of God was signed upon him—that is, that the signs of the illumination given were marked and made known.

One light alone let us flee—the offspring of the bitter fire.

Let us not walk in the light of our own fire, and in the flame which we ourselves have kindled.

For I know a purifying fire, which Christ came to cast upon the earth, and He Himself is called a fire in the language of uplifting interpretation.

This fire is consuming of matter and of the evil disposition, which He desires also to be kindled with all speed.

For He longs for the swiftness of the benefit;

since He gives us even coals of fire for our help.

I know also a fire that is not purifying, but punishing;

whether it be the Sodomitic fire which He rains upon all sinners, mingled with brimstone and tempest;

whether it be that which is prepared for the devil and his angels;

or that which goes before the face of the Lord, and burns up His enemies round about;

and there is yet another more fearful than these:

that which is joined with the worm that does not sleep, never quenched but enduring for ever upon the wicked.

For all these belong to the power that destroys—

unless it please someone to understand even this more mercifully here also, and as befits the One who chastises.

And just as I know fire to be twofold, so also light: the one being the lamp of the ruling faculty, guiding aright our steps toward God;

the other deceitful and meddlesome, opposed to the true light, pretending to be that light so that it may steal by its appearance;

this is darkness, and yet seems to be noonday—the very height of light.

Thus I understand it of those who continually flee in the noonday darkness.

This too is night, yet is reckoned as illumination by those who have been corrupted by luxury;

for they supposed that luxury was illumination.

But such are those men, and in such a state they are;

let us, however, light for ourselves the light of knowledge.

And this shall come to pass through sowing unto righteousness and reaping the fruit of life (for practice is the gateway to contemplation), that, among other things, we may learn this also: what is the true light and what is the false, and may not unawares fall upon the worse as though it were good.

Let us become light, as the disciples heard from the great Light who said, 'You are the light of the world.'

Let us become lights in the world, holding forth the word of life—that is, a life-giving power to others.

Let us lay hold of the Godhead, let us lay hold of the first and purest Light.

Let us lay hold of Him before our feet stumble upon the dark and hostile mountains.

While it is day, let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revellings and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, which are the thefts of night.

Let us cleanse every member, brethren, let us sanctify every sense;

let nothing in us be unfinished, nothing left over from our first birth, let us leave nothing unenlightened.

Let us enlighten the eye, that we may see aright, and that we may carry within ourselves no lascivious image from busy and curious gazing.

For even if we do not bow down to the passion, yet we have defiled the soul.

If there is any beam in us, if any mote, let us cleanse it away,

that we may be able to see also the faults of others.

Let us enlighten our hearing, let us enlighten our tongue;