Sermons 124

To this sermon the title On the Grace of Baptism properly belongs, which the editors, as has been said, wrongly assigned to Homily 5 On Baptism. St. Maximus exhorts the catechumens not to delay to receive the washing of regeneration, lest they be deprived of the benefit of its grace. Since a title is a specimen of the argument of the discourse, and since this whole one is about the remission of sins and the infusion of righteousness to be acquired through baptism, no other inscription can suit the sermon than On the Grace of Baptism. This indeed is displayed by six codices attributing the sermon to St. Maximus, which are: the Sangallensis no. [III], the Vaticanus 1267 p. 158, the Taurinensis in which it is homily 13, that of Holy Cross in Jerusalem 90 no. 2 with the title:

Here begins On the Grace of Baptism, and 99 of the same Holy Cross no. 44, as also the Laurentianus 10, Pluteus 14. Had these testimonies, expressed in clear words, shone upon the Benedictine monks who edited St. Ambrose, they would have pronounced a surer judgment concerning this sermon. Since it is established, as we have already discussed before, that Jesus Christ was baptized not for His own sake but for ours, we ought, dearly beloved brethren -- I speak to you catechumens -- to receive the grace of His baptism with all haste, and from the fountain of the Jordan, which He blessed, to draw the blessing of consecration, and in that flood in which His holiness immersed itself let our sins be immersed;

namely, that the same water which surrounded the Lord may also cleanse His servants round about, so that from the venerable washing of Christ the holy wave may flow forth to us, and by the very same footsteps and mysteries by which it borrowed the blessing from the Saviour, may purify us with a more blessed cherishing, and pour back upon Christians the grace which it received from Christ. Therefore, brethren, we ought to be dipped in the same fountain as Christ, that we may be able to be what Christ is. For, as I may say with faith unimpaired, though both baptisms are the Lord's, yet I think this baptism by which we are washed so much the more gracious than that by which the Saviour is baptized. For this is celebrated through Christ, that was celebrated through John. In that the master excuses himself, in this the Saviour invites us.

In that righteousness was half-complete, in this the Trinity is perfect. To that a holy one came, a holy one went out; to this a sinner comes and departs holy. In that the blessing is conferred on the mysteries, in this through the mysteries sins are forgiven. Therefore, brethren, we ought to be baptized in the same flood as the Saviour; but that we may be immersed in the same fountain, we need not seek the Eastern region, nor the river of the land of Judaea. For where Christ now is, there too is the Jordan. The same consecration which blessed the rivers of the East sanctifies the streams of the West. Whence even if perhaps the name of the river be another from the world, yet in it there is the mystery of the Jordan.

In fine, the thing is accomplished by the same sacraments as it was then done, except that with fuller grace. For then we saw the Trinity with carnal eyes, now we contemplate the same Trinity with the eyes of faith. Then a human countenance scarcely beheld Christ, now the human mind embraces the same. Then the Holy Spirit poured itself around the man as it were in the form of a dove, now it infuses itself into the inner parts of the man by the very power of the Godhead. Then the Father came to the Lord for the Son's sake by a distant hearing of the voice, but now the Father Himself descends to us with the Son. Fuller therefore is the grace, where God, having assumed no form, descends to men, but deigns to descend to His sons in His own substance.

For there He wished to persuade of faith, as it were to unbelievers, by bodily signs; here to confer grace, as it were on the faithful, by spiritual power. It is therefore of fuller grace to see God as God is, than to see Him so that you must seek Him. Here is the perfect Trinity, there the Godhead still to be searched out. Fuller therefore is the grace to know God by His own power than to surmise Him in an assumed form. Let us then do for ourselves what we see God to have done for us; let us do about ourselves what John desired to be done about himself. If he, who was a prophet, master, and holy man, longed for the baptism of the Saviour, how much more ought we sinners, humble and ignorant, to strive after this grace. Behold the mercy of the Saviour:

this is freely offered to us, which the prophet asking does not merit to receive. But we ought to consider what the reason is that John sought Christ's baptism and we received it. For the Lord said to him as he asked: Suffer it now, for so it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness (Matt. 3). Now we know that John the Baptist bore the type of the Law: it was therefore right that he should baptize the Lord, namely, that just as according to the flesh the Saviour was begotten of the Jews, so also according to the spirit the Gospel should be born of the Law; that whence He drew the succession of His origin, thence He should also receive the handing-on of consecration. This then is what He says: For so it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

For it was right that He Himself should fulfil the commandments of the Law which He Himself had established, as He says elsewhere: I came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it (ibid.).