Homilies and Sermons 13.1–13.6

Exhortation to holy baptism.

[1] The wise Solomon, distinguishing the seasons of the affairs of life and assigning to each thing that happens the time that suits it, said: “For all things there is a time, and a season for every matter: a time to give birth and a time to die.” But I, changing the wise man's saying a little, would say, as I preach to you the saving proclamation, that there is a time to die and a time to be born. What is the reason for the change? Because he, discussing things subject to generation and corruption, following bodily nature, put birth before death (for it is impossible for one not first born to experience death); but I, about to speak of spiritual rebirth, put death before life. For through dying to the flesh we gain being born to the Spirit, as the Lord too says: “I will kill, and I will make alive.” Let us die, then, that we may live. Let us put to death the mind of the flesh, which cannot be subject to the law of God, so that the mind of the Spirit may become strong [in us]. Let us be buried with Christ, who died for us, that we may also rise with him who procured the resurrection for us. Now different seasons suit different things: one for sleep and one for waking, one for war and one for peace; but the season for baptism is the whole of human life. For neither can a body live that does not breathe, nor can a soul subsist that does not know its Creator; for ignorance of God is the death of the soul. And one not baptized has not been enlightened. Without light neither does the eye see its objects, nor can the soul receive the contemplation of God. Every time, then, is opportune for the salvation that comes through baptism, whether you say night or day, an hour, a moment of time, or the briefest instant. But surely the time more akin to it is the more fitting. And what could be more akin to baptism than the day of Pascha? For that day is a memorial of the resurrection, and baptism is a power toward the resurrection. On the day of the resurrection, then, let us receive the grace of the resurrection. That is why the Church calls her nurslings together long beforehand with a lofty proclamation, so that those she has long been in labor with she may then bring to birth, and, weaning them from the words of catechesis, may give them a taste of the solid food of doctrines. John preached a baptism of repentance, and all Judea went out to him; the Lord preaches a baptism of adoption, and who of those who [hope] in him … baptism; this one is perfecting. That one was a turning away from sin; this is intimacy with God. The proclamation of John was that of one man, and it drew all to repentance; but you, taught through the prophets, “Wash yourselves, be clean”; admonished through the psalms, “Come to him and be enlightened”; evangelized through the apostles, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit”; received by the Lord himself, who says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (for all these came together today in the readings): do you hesitate, deliberate, and delay? Instructed in the word from infancy, have you not yet assented to the truth? Always learning, have you never come to knowledge? A tester all your life, a spy until old age, when will you become a Christian? When shall we know you as ours? Last year you were waiting for the present season; now again you are waiting for the next. See that you are not found making promises that reach beyond … the end of life. You do not know what the next day will bring forth; do not promise what is not yours. We call you to life, man; why do you flee the call? To a share in good things; why do you pass over the gift? The kingdom of heaven is open; the one who calls does not lie; the road is easy; there is no need of time, of expense, of business. Why delay? Why shrink back? Why fear the yoke, like a heifer that has never borne one? It is kind, it is light; it does not chafe the neck, but glorifies it. For the yoke-strap is not bound about the neck; it seeks one who draws of his own free will. Do you see that Ephraim is accused as a heifer stung to frenzy, because it wanders about in disorder, dishonoring the yoke of the law? Put your untamed neck under it; become a yoke-animal of Christ, lest, released from the yoke and living at large, you become easy prey for the wild beasts.

[2] “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” How shall I declare the sweetness of honey to those who do not know it? “Taste and see.” The perception of the word … … circumcision, he does not put it off because of the threat that “every soul that is not circumcised on the eighth day shall be destroyed from its people”; but you put off the circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the flesh, which is completed in baptism, though you have heard the Lord himself: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of God.” There, pain and a wound; here, dew for the soul and healing for the wound of the heart. Do you worship the one who died for you? Then consent to be buried with him through baptism. If you do not become united with the likeness of his death, how will you share in the resurrection? That Israel [was baptized] into Moses … handing down the types and sketching the truth to be shown at the end of the times; but you flee baptism, which is not prefigured in the sea but completed in truth; not in a cloud, but in the Spirit; not into Moses the fellow servant, but into Christ the Creator. If Israel had not crossed the sea, it would not have been separated from Pharaoh; and you, if you do not pass through the water, will not be separated from the bitter tyranny of the devil. He would not have drunk from the spiritual rock had he not been baptized in type; nor will anyone give you the true drink unless you are truly baptized. He ate the bread of angels after the baptism; how will you eat the living bread unless you first receive the … [of] promise through the baptism; how will you return to paradise, if you are not sealed by baptism? Or do you not know that a flaming sword was set to guard the way to the tree of life, fearful and burning to unbelievers, but approachable to believers and shining with longing? And the Master made it to turn: for when it sees a believer, it turns its back; but when it sees one of the unsealed, against …

[3] Elijah was not terrified by the chariot of fire and the fiery horses that came to him, but in desire for the journey above he dared the fearful things and with great joy mounted the fiery vehicles, though still living in the flesh; but you, who are not to mount fiery chariots but to ascend into heaven through water and the Spirit, do you not run to the call? Elijah showed the power of baptism at the altar of the burnt offerings, burning the sacrifice not by fire but by water. Otherwise the nature of fire fights against water; but since the water was then poured on the altar three times, in a mystery, it became a starting point for the fire and kindled the flame like oil. “Bring me jars,” he says, “and pour water on the burnt offering and on the wood.” And … and they did it a third time: the word showing that through baptism the one who is brought near is made God's own, and that a pure and heavenly light shines in the souls of those who come, through faith in the Trinity. If I were distributing gold in the church, you would not say to me, “I will come tomorrow, and tomorrow you will give”; you would demand the distribution at once, pressing me, and you would be annoyed at the postponement. But since it is not the fine color of matter but purity of soul that the munificent Giver holds out to you, you invent pretexts and enumerate excuses, when you ought to run to the gift. O the wonder! … without being crushed; you are healed without pain; and you do not count the grace [worth having]. If you were a slave of men, and freedom were proclaimed to slaves, would you not run to the appointed [day], begging to be set free by every means? Would you not even accept a slap, the last blow given to slaves, for the sake of release from outrages thereafter? But since the herald calls you, a slave not of men but of sin, to freedom, to release you from captivity, make you a fellow citizen of the angels, and show you a son of God adopted by grace and an heir of the good things of Christ, you say that it is not yet the season for you to receive what is given. O the wicked hindrances! O the shameful and endless preoccupation! How long, pleasures? How long, luxury? We have lived a long time for the world; let us live henceforth for ourselves too. What is worth as much as a soul? What equals the kingdom of heaven? What counselor is more trustworthy for you than God? Who is wiser than the wise one, or more beneficial than the good one? Who is closer to you than the Creator? Not even for Eve was it better to be persuaded by the serpent's counsel rather than the Master's. O the absurdity of the words! “I have no leisure to be healed; do not yet show me the light; do not yet bring me to the King.” Is this not plainly what you say? Or rather things even more unreasonable. But you, if you had been enrolled among the public [debtors, and remissions] had been proclaimed, and then someone had tried out of spite to deprive you of this pardon, you would be indignant and cry out that you were being robbed of your share of the common grace. But since not only forgiveness of the past but also gifts for the future have been proclaimed beforehand, wronging yourself as none of your enemies would have spitefully wronged you, do you think that you have deliberated fittingly and reflected profitably about yourself, you who do not accept the forgiveness but die in your debts? And this though you know that the debtor of ten thousand talents would have obtained forgiveness, had he not himself renewed the exaction against himself by his inhumanity toward his fellow servant. Let us take care not to suffer this ourselves, when we have obtained the grace, by not forgiving our debtors, so that the gift may remain secure for us.

[4] Enter into the storeroom of your soul; stir up the memory of what you have done. If your sins are many, do not lose heart at their number: … grace, if you receive the grace; for “to one who owes much, much will be forgiven,” that he may love the more. But if your sins are small and slight and not unto death, why are you anxious about the future, you who bore the past not ignobly, and that when you were not yet trained by the law? Now consider that your soul stands as on a balance, drawn on one side by angels and on the other by demons. To which will you give the inclination of your heart? What will win within you: the pleasure of the flesh or the sanctification of the soul? Enjoyment of present things, or desire for things to come? Will angels take you, or will those who hold you hold you fast? In battle the generals give out the watchword to those under them, so that friends may easily call to one another and, if they are mixed up with the enemy in the fighting, the separation may be clear. No one will recognize whether you are ours or the enemy's unless you show your belonging by the mystical tokens, unless the light of the Lord's face is marked upon you. How will the angel claim you? How will he rescue you from the enemies, if he does not recognize the seal? How will you say, “I am God's,” if you do not bear the marks? Or do you not know that the destroyer passed over the sealed houses, but killed the firstborn in the unsealed ones?

[5] Are you young? Secure your youth with the bridle of baptism. Has your prime passed? Do not forfeit the provisions for the journey; do not lose the safeguard; do not think of the eleventh hour as if it were the first; for even one who is beginning life ought to keep its end before his eyes. If some physician promised to make you young again from an old man by some devices and contrivances, would you not long for that day to come on which you would see yourself returning to your prime? But since baptism promises to make your soul bloom again, which you have made old and wrinkled and stained by your lawless deeds, you despise the benefactor and do not run to the promise. Do you not desire to see the great wonder of the promise? How a man is born again without a mother? How one who is growing old and corrupt according to the deceitful desires becomes vigorous again, grows young, and returns to the true bloom of youth? Baptism: ransom for captives, forgiveness of debts, death of sin, rebirth of the soul, garment of light, seal that cannot be assailed, chariot to heaven, procurer of the kingdom, gift of adoption. Wretch, do you prefer pleasure to goods so many and so great? For I perceive your postponement, even if you wrap it in words; the facts themselves cry out, even if your voice is silent. “Let me use the flesh for the enjoyment of shameful things, let me wallow in the mire of pleasures, bloody my hands, take away what belongs to others, … and then, when I finally cease from evils, I will receive baptism.” If sin is a good thing, keep it to the end; but if it is harmful to the one who does it, why do you persist in what is deadly? No one who is trying to vomit up bile gathers it many times over by a bad and unrestrained diet. One ought to purge the body of what troubles it, not build up the disease beyond one's strength. A ship evidently bears the weight of its cargo up to a point, but beyond that it sinks. Fear lest you too suffer the like, and, making your sins greater than the forgiveness, suffer shipwreck before the harbor you hoped for. Does God not see what is done? Does he not perceive your thoughts? Or does he work along with you in your lawless deeds? “You supposed lawlessness,” it says, “that I would be like you.” When you are seeking the friendship of a mortal man, you win him over by benefits, saying and doing the things you perceive please him; but when you are being made God's own and hope to be received into the rank of a son, do you do what is hateful to God, and dishonor him by transgressing the law, and do you hope for intimacy from the very things by which you most offend him? See that you do not, in hope of redemption, gather a multitude of evils for yourself, amassing the sin and missing the pardon. “God is not mocked.” Do not traffic in grace. Do not say, “The law is good, but sin is sweeter.” Pleasure is a hook of the devil, dragging to destruction. Pleasure is the mother of sin, and sin is the sting of death. Pleasure is the nurse of the eternal worm; for the moment it … gall in its returns. The postponement cries out nothing other than this: “Let sin reign in me first, then the Lord will reign sometime too. I will present my members as weapons of unrighteousness to lawlessness; then sometime I will present them as weapons of righteousness to God.” So Cain too offered his sacrifices: the first things to his own enjoyment, the second to God who created him and gave him gifts. When you are strong for deeds, you spend your youth on sins; when your instruments are worn out, then you bring them to God, when they are of no use for anything but must lie idle because of the wasting of time, their tension slackened. Self-control in old age is not self-control but incapacity for licentiousness. A corpse is not crowned; no one is righteous through inability to do evil. While you have strength, master sin by reason. For this is virtue: turning away from evil and doing good. Mere idleness in wickedness is in itself worthy neither of praise nor of punishment. If you cease from sin because of age, the credit belongs to your weakness. We praise those who are good by choice, not those kept from evil by some necessity. And who fixed for you the limit of life? Who set for you the term of old age? Who is so trustworthy a guarantor of the future for you? Do you not see infants snatched away, those in their prime led off? Life has no single appointed term. Why do you wait for baptism to become the gift of a fever? When you will not even be able to utter the saving words, and perhaps not even be allowed to hear clearly, the disease having settled in your very head; not able to raise your hands to heaven, nor to stand up on your feet, nor to bend the knee in worship, nor to be taught profitably, nor to confess securely, nor to make your compact with God, nor to renounce the enemy; perhaps not even able to follow intelligently what is said, so that those present are in doubt whether you perceived the grace or are insensible to what is happening. And even if you receive the grace knowingly, you then have the talent, but do not bring the trading.

[6] Imitate the eunuch. He found someone to instruct him and did not disdain to learn; the rich man took the poor man up into the chariot, the grand and haughty man the unlearned and contemptible one; and having been taught the Gospel of the kingdom, he received the faith in his heart and did not put off the seal of the Spirit. For when they came to water, “See,” he said, “water.” The words come from great joy: “See, what we were looking for! What prevents me from being baptized?” Where the will is ready, nothing prevents. For the one who calls is a lover of mankind, the minister is ready, the grace is abundant: let the eagerness be there, and the obstacle will not be. There is one who prevents, who blocks our roads to salvation; let us overcome him by understanding. He produces sluggishness in us; let us rise up to the work. He deceives our hearts with empty promises; let us not be ignorant of his designs. Does he not suggest that we commit sin today and persuade us to store up righteousness for tomorrow? That is why the Lord, undoing his wicked counsels, says, “Today, if you hear my voice.” He says, “Today for me, and tomorrow for God.” The Lord cries back, “Today hear my voice.” Observe the enemy: he does not dare to counsel us to depart from God altogether (he knows that this is hard for Christians to hear), but he pursues his attempt by deceitful arts. He is “wise to do evil.” He sees that we human beings live in the present, and every action is done in the present. So, stealing our today by his scheming, he leaves us the hopes of tomorrow. Then, when tomorrow comes, the wicked sharer comes again, claiming today for himself and tomorrow for the Lord; and so, always filching the present through pleasure and leaving the future to our hopes, he drives us out of life before we notice.

[7] I once saw such cunning in a resourceful bird. Since its chicks were easy to catch because they were tender, it threw itself forward as ready prey, and turning about in the hands of the hunters, it was neither easily caught by the hunters, nor did it make them despair, … holding out [hope]; by keeping them busy about itself it gave the chicks freedom to flee, and then at last it flew off with them. Fear lest you too suffer the like, giving up what is evident in hopes of what is uncertain. Come to me, then; transfer yourself wholly to the Lord; give in your name; be enrolled with the Church. The soldier is counted in the lists; the athlete … you are accountable, as a soldier of Christ, as an athlete of piety, as one whose citizenship is in heaven. Be registered in this book, so that you may be transcribed into the one above. Learn, be taught the gospel way of life: watchfulness of the eyes, restraint of the tongue, subjection of the body, a humble mind, purity of thought, the removal of anger. When pressed into service, add more; when defrauded, do not go to law; when hated, love; when persecuted, endure; when blasphemed, entreat. Die to sin; be crucified with Christ; transfer all your love to the Lord. “But these things are hard.” And what good thing is easy? Who set up a trophy while asleep? Who, living in luxury and being piped to, was adorned with the crowns of endurance? No one who did not run has carried off the prize. Labors … “through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of heaven,” I too say; but the blessedness in the kingdom of heaven awaits these afflictions, while the painful and gloomy [punishment] of Gehenna awaits the toils of sin. Indeed, to one who examines carefully, not even the works of the devil come to the workers of lawlessness without toil. What sweats does chastity have? The fornicator is drenched in sweat, his pleasure melting him away. What does self-control take from the body as much as loathsome and frenzied licentiousness destroys? Sleepless are the nights of those who spend the night in prayer, but much harder are those of people who keep vigil for wrongdoing. For both the fear of being caught and the frenzy for pleasures drive away all rest completely. But if, fleeing the narrow way that leads to salvation, you pursue the broad way of sin, I fear lest, having traveled the wide road to the end, you find a lodging that matches the road. “But the treasure is hard to guard.” Then keep watch, brother. You have helpers, if you wish: … let them keep watch with you in the field over the guarding of your … precious things. What is better, tell me: to be rich and anxious about guarding our precious things, or not to have anything to guard at all? No one rejects good things for fear of losing them. Otherwise nothing human would ever have come about, if in each of our pursuits we reckoned with failure. For barrenness lies beside farming, shipwreck beside commerce, widowhood beside marriage, childlessness beside the raising of children. Yet we undertake the work, relying on the better hopes and entrusting the outcome of what we hoped for to God, who manages our affairs. But you in word extol sanctification, while in deed … of your evil counsels, when there is no profit … the [virgins] be your example. Those who did not have oil in their vessels, when they had to go in with the bridegroom, then realized that they lacked what was necessary. That is why the word called them foolish, because, [spending] the time for using the oil in going about [to buy it], they were shut out from the brightness of the bridal chamber. See that you too, putting off year after year, month after month, day after day, and not taking the oil, the food of the light, do not fall at some point into a day you do not expect, when the means of life have failed you, and there is helplessness on every side and affliction without comfort, the physicians having given up, your household having given up; when, gripped by frequent and dry gasping, with a violent fever burning and smoldering within, you will groan from the depth of your heart but find no one to grieve with you. You will utter something faint and feeble, but there will be no one to hear; everything you say will be dismissed as delirium. Who will give you baptism then? Who will remind one stupefied by the illness? Your relatives are disheartened, those outside the suffering are indifferent, a friend shrinks from reminding you because it would cause distress; perhaps the physician too deceives you, and you do not give up on yourself because of the natural love of life. Night, and no one to help; the one who baptizes is not present. Death has come; those who lead you away are pressing. Who will rescue you? God, whom you despised? But he will listen to you then, for you listen to him now! Will he grant a respite? For you used well the one you were given! “Sudden destruction will come upon you, and the overthrow will be present likewise.” A gloomy angel will come, dragging … bound by its sins, turning back often to the things here and lamenting without a voice, the instrument of lamentation being already shut off. Oh, how you will tear at yourself! How you will groan, repenting uselessly of what you decided, when you see the radiance of the righteous in the bright distribution of the gifts, and the gloom of sinners in the deepest darkness! What will you say then in the anguish of your heart? “Alas, that I did not cast off this heavy burden of sin, when putting it down was so easy, but dragged this heap of evils along! Alas, that I did not wash away the stains, but am branded with sins! Now I would be with the angels; now I would be delighting in the heavenly goods. Oh, the wicked counsels! For a temporary enjoyment of sin I am tormented forever; for the pleasure of the flesh I am handed over to the fire. Just is the judgment of God: I was called, and did not obey; I was taught, and did not attend; they bore witness to me, and I laughed.” These things and the like you will say, weeping over yourself, if you are snatched away before baptism. Man, either fear Gehenna or lay hold of the kingdom. Do not dishonor the call. Do not say, “Have me excused because of this and that.” No pretext is enough for refusing. Tears come to me when I reflect that you prefer the works of shame to the great glory of God, and, clinging to sin because the sweetness of licentiousness makes you hard to tear away from it, you shut yourself out of the good things in the promises, so as not to see the good things of the heavenly Jerusalem. There are myriads of angels, assemblies of the firstborn, thrones of apostles, seats of honor of prophets, scepters of patriarchs, crowns of martyrs, praises of the righteous. Desire to be numbered with them, washed and sanctified according to the gift of Christ; to whom be the glory and the power to the ages of ages. Amen.