Ephrem the Syrian: Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan and the Cleansing and Healing of the Heart Sunday, Jan 13 2013

(Addressed to the Church)

Give thanks, O daughter, that thy crownings have been doubled;—for lo! thy temples and thy sons rejoice. —The dedication of thy temples is in the ministration;—The dedication of thy sons is in the anointing.—Blessed art thou that at once…[art] the tabernacle for them that dwell in thee,—and the Spirit has abode upon thy sons!

Our Lord opened up Baptism—in the midst of Jordan the blessed river.—The height and the depth rejoiced in Him;—He brings forth the first fruits of His peace from the water,—for they are first fruits, the fruits of Baptism.—The good God in His compassion will bring to pass—that His peace shall be first fruits on earth.

Moses stretched out the temporal Tabernacle;—the priests bathed themselves in water,—and went in and ministered; and were stricken and punished,—because their heart within was not cleansed.—Blessed art thou that in the Passover of the great Passion,—the priests by the savour of their oblations,—lo! are cleansing souls in thee!

Great was the mystery that the Prophet saw,—the torrent that was mighty.—Into its depths he gazed and beheld—thy beauty instead of himself; thee it was he saw, for thy faith passes not away,—thou whose flood unseen shall overwhelm—the subtleties of idolatry.

Though John was great among them that are born of women,—yet he that is little is greater than he,—in this that his baptized were again baptized,—in the baptism that was of the Apostles.—Blessed art thou that thy priest is greater than he—in this alone that forever—abides his baptism.

The baptism that was of Siloam—did not bring mercy to the man that was laid there—who for thirty and eight years awaited it,—for he was a respecter of the persons of the Levites.—Blessed art thou that thy healing is in thee for all men,—and thy priests are devoted and ready—for all that are in need of thy help.

The Prophet healed the waters that were unwholesome,—and cured the disease of the land that was barren,—so that its death was done away and its region resounded, for its offspring increased and its bosom was filled.—Greater is Thy grace, Lord, than Elisha’s!—Multiply my lambs and my flocks—at the great stream of my fountain!

Great is the marvel that is within thy abode;—the flocks together with the Shepherds,—those at the stream of the waters,—two unseen with one manifest who baptizes.—Blessed is he who is baptized in their fountains!—for three arms have upheld him,—and three Names have preserved him!

Ephrem the Syrian (c.306-373): Fifteen Hymns on the Epiphany, 11.

Leave a Response »

 

Gregory Nazianzen: Christ is the True Light that Lightens Every Man that Comes into the World Sunday, Jan 13 2013

The Holy Day of the Lights…, which we are celebrating to-day, has for its origin the Baptism of my Christ.

He is the true Light that lightens every man that comes into the world, and effects my purification, and assists that light which we received from the beginning from Him from above, but which we darkened and confused by sin.

[...] “The Light shines in darkness”, in this life and in the flesh, and is chased by the darkness, “but is not overtaken by it”.

I mean, it is not overtaken by the adverse power which leaps up in its shamelessness against the visible Adam, but which encounters God and is defeated.

This happens so that we, putting away the darkness, may draw near to the Light, and may then become perfect Light, the children of perfect Light.

See the grace of this Day; see the power of this mystery.

[...] At His birth we duly kept festival, both I, the leader of the Feast, and you, and all that is in the world and above the world.

With the star we ran, and with the magi we worshipped, and with the shepherds we were illuminated, and with the angels we glorified Him.

With Symeon we took Him up in our arms, and with Anna the aged and chaste we made our responsive confession.

[...]  Now, we come to another action of Christ, and another mystery.  I cannot restrain my pleasure; I am rapt into God.

Almost like John I proclaim good tidings; for though I am not a Forerunner, yet am I from the desert.

Christ is illumined, let us shine forth with Him.  Christ is baptized, let us descend with Him that we may also ascend with Him.

[...] John baptizes, Jesus comes to Him…, perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water.

And before this, and for the sake of this, He comes to sanctify Jordan; for as He is spirit and flesh, so He consecrates us by Spirit and water.

[...] But further—Jesus goeth up out of the water…, for with Himself He carries up the world….

He sees the heaven opened which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity, as the gates of Paradise by the flaming sword.

And the Spirit bears witness to His Godhead, for he descends upon One that is like Him, as does the voice from heaven (for He to Whom the witness is borne came from thence).

He descends like a dove, for He honours the body (for this also was God, through its union with God) by being seen in a bodily form.

 

Gregory Nazianzen (c.330-390): Oration 39, 1-2; 14-16.

 

Leave a Response »

 

Gregory the Wonderworker: Water, Spirit and Fire Saturday, Jan 12 2013

Continued from here…

Jesus answered…Lend me, therefore, O Baptist, your right hand for the present economy, even as Mary lent her womb for my birth.

Immerse me in the streams of Jordan, even as she who bore me wrapped me in children’s swaddling-clothes. Grant me your baptism even as the Virgin granted me her milk.

[...] With your right hand lay hold of this head, that is related to yourself in kinship. Lay hold of this head, which nature has made to be touched.

Lay hold of this head, which for this very purpose has been formed by myself and my Father.  Lay hold of this head of mine, which, if one does lay hold of it in piety, will save him from ever suffering shipwreck.

Baptize me, who am destined to baptize those who believe on me with water, and with the Spirit, and with fire: with water, capable of washing away the defilement of sins; with the Spirit, capable of making the earthly spiritual; with fire, naturally fitted to consume the thorns of transgressions.

[...] He who alone is Lord, and by nature the Father of the Only-begotten, He who alone knows perfectly Him whom He alone in passionless fashion begat…opened the gates of the heavens. He sent down the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, lighting upon the head of Jesus, pointing out thereby the new Noah, yea the maker of Noah, and the good pilot of the nature which is in shipwreck.

And He Himself calls with clear voice out of heaven, and says: “This is my beloved Son.”

[...] This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: my Son, of the same substance with myself, and not of a different; of one substance with me according to what is unseen, and of one substance with you according to what is seen, yet without sin.

[...] This Son of mine and this son of Mary are not two distinct persons; but this is my beloved Son—this one who is both seen with the eye and apprehended with the mind.

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him.

If He shall say, “I and my Father are one,” hear Him. If He shall say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” hear Him. If He shall say, “He that hath sent me is greater than I,” adapt the voice to the economy.

If He shall say, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” answer Him thus: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Gregory the Wonderworker (c.213-c.270): Homily on the Holy Theophany.

Leave a Response »

 

Peter Chrysologus: The Adoration of the Magi, the Baptism in the Jordan, and the Wedding at Cana Thursday, Jan 10 2013

The great events we celebrate today disclose and reveal in different ways the fact that God himself took a human body.

[...] In choosing to be born for us, God chose to be known by us. He therefore reveals himself in this way, in order that this great sacrament of his love may not be an occasion for us of great misunderstanding.

Today the Magi find, crying in a manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky. Today the Magi see clearly, in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars.

Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.

As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.

So the Gentiles, who were the last, become the first: the faith of the Magi is the first fruits of the belief of the Gentiles.

Today Christ enters the Jordan to wash away the sin of the world. John himself testifies that this is why he has come: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.

Today a servant lays his hand on the Lord, a man lays his hand on God, John lays his hand on Christ, not to forgive but to receive forgiveness.

Today, as the psalmist prophesied: The voice of the Lord is heard above the waters. What does the voice say? This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

Today the Holy Spirit hovers over the waters in the likeness of a dove. A dove announced to Noah that the flood had disappeared from the earth; so now a dove is to reveal that the world’s shipwreck is at an end forever.

The sign is no longer an olive-shoot of the old stock: instead, the Spirit pours out on Christ’s head the full richness of a new anointing by the Father, to fulfil what the psalmist had prophesied: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.

Today Christ works the first of his signs from heaven by turning water into wine. But water has still to be changed into the sacrament of his blood, so that Christ may offer spiritual drink from the chalice of his body, to fulfil the psalmist’s prophecy: How excellent is my chalice, warming my spirit.

Peter Chrysologus (c.380–c.450): Sermon 160 (PL 52, 620-622) from the Office of Readings for the Monday between the Feasts of the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord @ Crossroads Initiative.

Leave a Response »

 

John Chrysostom: “To Fulfil Every Righteousness” Wednesday, Jan 9 2013

For whom was Jesus baptised, if this was done not for repentance, nor for the remission of sins, nor for receiving the gifts of the Spirit?

[...] When John said: I have need to be baptised of Thee, and Thou art come to me?—He answered thus: Stay now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil every righteousness (Matthew 3:14-15).

[...] What does He mean: To fulfill every righteousness? By righteousness is meant the fulfillment of all the commandments, as is said: Both were righteous, walking faultlessly in the commandments of the Lord (Luke 1:6).

Since fulfilling this righteousness was necessary for all people, but no one of them kept it or fulfilled it, Christ came then and fulfilled this righteousness.

And what righteousness is there, someone will say, in being baptised? Obedience for a prophet was righteous.

As Christ was circumcised, offered sacrifice, kept the sabbath and observed the Jewish feasts, so also He added this remaining thing, that He was obedient to having been baptised by a prophet.

[...] If obedience to God constitutes righteousness, and God sent John to baptise the nation, then Christ has also fulfilled this along with all the other commandments.

Consider, that the commandments of the law is the main point of the two denarii (see Luke 10:35). The human race needed to pay this debt [i.e. observing the commandments] but did not pay it…, and so is embraced by death. Christ…paid the debt…and seized from it those who were not able to pay.

Wherefore He does not say: It is necessary for us to do this or that, but rather, To fulfill every righteousness. It is for Me, being the Master, says He, proper to make payment for the needy.

[...] Wherefore also the Spirit did descend as a dove: because where there is reconciliation with God, there also is the dove.

So also in the ark of Noah the dove did bring the branch of olive—a sign of God’s love of mankind and of the cessation of the flood.

And now in the form of a dove, and not in a body…the Spirit descended, announcing the universal mercy of God and showing with it, that the spiritual man needs to be gentle, simple and innocent, as Christ also says: Except ye be converted and become as children, you shall not enter into the Heavenly Kingdom (Mt 18:3).

But that ark, after the cessation of the flood, remained upon the earth; this ark, after the cessation of wrath, is taken to heaven, and now this Immaculate and Imperishable Body is situated at the right hand of the Father.

John Chrysostom (c.347-407): Discourse on the Day of the Baptism of Christ @ Pravoslavie.

One Response »

 

Cyril of Alexandria: “I Saw the Spirit Descending from Heaven, and It Abode Upon Him” Tuesday, Jan 8 2013

The first man, being earthy, and of the earth, and having, placed in his own power, the choice between good and evil, being master of the inclination to each, was caught of bitter guile.

Having inclined to disobedience, he falls to the earth, the mother from whence he sprang, and, over-mastered now at length by corruption and death, transmits the penalty to his whole race.

The evil growing and multiplying in us, and our understanding ever descending to the worse, sin reigned, and thus at length the nature of man was shown – denuded of the Holy Ghost Which indwelt him.

For the Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee deceit, as it is written, nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. 

Since then the first Adam preserved not the grace given him of God, God the Father was minded to send us from Heaven the second Adam.

For He sends in our likeness His own Son Who is by Nature without variableness or change, and wholly unknowing of sin in order that, as by the disobedience of the first, we became subject to Divine wrath, so through the obedience of the Second, we might both escape the curse, and its evils might come to nought.

But when the Word of God became Man, He received the Spirit from the Father as one of us. He did not receive anything for Himself individually, for He was the Giver of the Spirit.

He received the Spirit that He Who knew no sin, might, by receiving It as Man, preserve It to our nature, and might again inroot in us the grace which had left us.

For this reason…the holy Baptist profitably added, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven, and It abode upon Him. 

For It had fled from us by reason of sin, but He Who knew no sin, became as one of us, that the Spirit might be accustomed to abide in us, having no occasion of departure or withdrawal in Him.

Therefore through Himself He receives the Spirit for us, and renews to our nature, the ancient good. For thus is He also said for our sakes to become poor. 

[...] As then, being by Nature Life, He died in the Flesh for our sakes, that He might overcome death for us, and raise up our whole nature together with Himself – for all we were in Him, in that He was made Man.

So does He also receive the Spirit for our sakes, that He may sanctify our whole nature.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on John, 2, 1.

Leave a Response »

 

Gregory Palamas: John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit Tuesday, Jan 8 2013

Proclaiming beforehand the mystery of eternal life, the great Paul says, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44).

That is to say, the body will be indwelt and motivated by the supernatural power of the divine Spirit in the age to come.

In the same way, John was sown and shaped in his mother’s womb as a natural body, but by the mysterious anointing of the Holy Spirit while he was within her, he was shown to be a spiritual body, who leapt and rejoiced in the Spirit and made his mother a prophetess.

Through her tongue he blessed God with a loud voice and declared the Virgin who was with child to be the Mother of the Lord, and he addressed her unborn Babe as the fruit of her womb, proving that she was at the same time both pregnant and a virgin (Lk. 1:41-45).

John did not merely, in the words of the Scripture, choose the good before knowing evil (Is. 7:16), but while still unborn, before knowing the world, he surpassed it.

Then once he was born he delighted and amazed everyone by reason of the miraculous events surrounding him, because, it says, “The hand of the Lord was with him” (Lk. 1:66), working wonders again as it had in earlier time.

His father’s mouth, which had been closed because he had not believed in the child’s strange conception, was opened and filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied, among other things, about this his son, saying,

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people” (Lk. 1:76-77).

Once this divine child, this living instrument of grace from his mother’s womb, had been conceived, he was moved by grace to rejoice in the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, after being born, he grew and waxed strong in the Spirit.

As the world was unworthy of him, he dwelt continuously in desert places from his earliest years, leading a frugal life without cares or worldly concerns, a stranger to sadness, free from coarse passions and above base, material pleasure, which merely beguiles the body and its senses.

He lived for God alone, beholding only God and making God his delight. It was as if he lived somewhere exalted above the earth.

“And he was in the deserts”, it says, “till the day of his shewing unto Israel” (Lk. 1:80).

Gregory Palamas (1296-1359): Homily on St John the Baptist @ Mystagogy.

Leave a Response »

 

Gregory the Wonderworker: “Thus it Becometh Us to Fulfil All Righteousness” Monday, Jan 7 2013

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. (Matthew 3:13-15) 

Jesus answered…when you see me cleansing the lepers, then proclaim me as the framer of nature. When you see me make the lame ready runners, then with quickened pace also prepare your tongue to praise me.

When you see me cast out demons, then hail my kingdom with adoration. When you see me raise the dead from their graves by my word, then, in concert with those thus raised, glorify me as the Prince of Life.

When you see me on the Father’s right hand, then acknowledge me to be divine, as the equal of the Father and the Holy Spirit, on the throne, and in eternity, and in honour.

Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness.

I am the Lawgiver, and the Son of the Lawgiver; and it becomes me first to pass through all that is established, and then to set forth everywhere the intimations of my free gift.

It becomes me to fulfil the law, and then to bestow grace. It becomes me to adduce the shadow, and then the reality.

It becomes me to finish the old covenant, and then to dictate the new, and to write it on the hearts of men, and to subscribe it with my blood, and to seal it with my Spirit.

It becomes me to ascend the cross, and to be pierced with its nails, and to suffer after the manner of that nature which is capable of suffering, and to heal sufferings by my suffering, and by the tree to cure the wound that was inflicted upon men by the medium of a tree.

It becomes me to descend even into the very depths of the grave, on behalf of the dead who are detained there.

It becomes me, by my three days’ dissolution in the flesh, to destroy the power of the ancient enemy, death.

It becomes me to kindle the torch of my body for those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

It becomes me to ascend in the flesh to that place where I am in my divinity. It becomes me to introduce to the Father the Adam reigning in me.

It becomes me to accomplish these things, for on account of these things I have taken my position with the works of my hands. It becomes me to be baptized with this baptism for the present, and afterwards to bestow the baptism of the consubstantial Trinity upon all men.

Gregory the Wonderworker (c.213-c.270): Homily on the Holy Theophany.

One Response »

 

Hippolytus of Rome: When Christ the Bridegroom was Baptized, it was Fitting that the Bridal-Chamber of Heaven should Open its Brilliant Gates Monday, Jan 7 2013

Do you see…how many and how great blessings we would have lost, if the Lord had yielded to the exhortation of John, and declined baptism?

For the heavens were shut before this; the region above was inaccessible.

We would in that case descend to the lower parts, but we would not ascend to the upper. But was it only that the Lord was baptized?

He also renewed the old man, and committed to him again the sceptre of adoption.

For straightway “the heavens were opened to Him.”

A reconciliation took place of the visible with the invisible; the celestial orders were filled with joy; the diseases of earth were healed; secret things were made known; those at enmity were restored to amity.

For you have heard the word of the evangelist, saying, “The heavens were opened to Him,” on account of three wonders.

For when Christ the Bridegroom was baptized, it was meet that the bridal-chamber of heaven should open its brilliant gates.

And in like manner also, when the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the Father’s voice spread everywhere, it was meet that “the gates of heaven should be lifted up.”

“And, lo, the heavens were opened to Him; and a voice was heard, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The beloved generates love, and the light immaterial the light inaccessible.

“This is my beloved Son,” He who, being manifested on earth and yet unseparated from the Father’s bosom, was manifested, and yet did not appear.

[...] For this reason did the Father send down the Holy Spirit from heaven upon Him who was baptized.

For as in the ark of Noah the love of God toward man is signified by the dove, so also now the Spirit, descending in the form of a dove, bearing as it were the fruit of the olive, rested on Him to whom the witness was borne.

For what reason? That the faithfulness of the Father’s voice might be made known, and that the prophetic utterance of a long time past might be ratified.

And what utterance is this? “The voice of the Lord is on the waters, the God of glory thundered; the Lord is upon many waters.”

And what voice? “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This is He who is named the son of Joseph, and who is according to the divine essence my Only-begotten.

“This is my beloved Son”—He who…suffers, and yet heals sufferings; who is smitten, and yet confers liberty on the world; who is pierced in the side, and yet repairs the side of Adam.

Hippolytus of Rome (c.170-c.236): Discourse on the Theophany, 6-7.

One Response »

 

Gregory the Great: The Human Eye does not Suffice to Penetrate the Mystery of the Incarnation Sunday, Dec 23 2012

John answered them, saying: … The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose (John 1:26-27).

What reverence is due to Him he then teaches us by his own humility; going on to say: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose…!

[...] Who does not know that sandals are made from the skins of dead animals?  The Lord, in becoming Incarnate, appears among men, as though shod; because over His Divinity, he has put on as it were the mortal covering of our corruptibility.

Hence also the prophet says: Into Edom will I stretch out my shoe (Ps. 15:10).  The Gentiles are signified by Edom; His assumed mortality by the shoe.

The Lord therefore declares that He extends His shoe into Edom, because through the flesh He became known to the Gentiles; as if the Divinity had come to us with feet shod.

But the human eye does not suffice to penetrate the mystery of this incarnation. For in no way may we search out how the Word became embodied; how the Supreme Life-Giving Spirit, was quickened within the womb of a mother; how That Which has no beginning was both conceived and came into existence.

The latchets of His shoe are therefore the seals of a mystery.  John was not worthy to loose His shoe, because he was unable to search into the mystery of His Incarnation.

What then does he mean when he says, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose, except openly and humbly to confess his ignorance?

It is as though he were to say: what wonder that He is preferred before me, Whom I know to be born after me, but the Mystery of Whose Birth I am unable to comprehend.

Behold John, filled with the Spirit of prophecy, shining with knowledge, yet he plainly declares that as to this mystery he knows nothing.

In this connection, Dearest Brethren, we should note and ponder with careful thought, how holy men of God, in order to safeguard themselves in humility, when they know many things well, endeavour to keep before their minds that which they do not know.

Thus on the one hand, they remind themselves of their own limitations, and on the other, they are not raised above themselves because of those things in which their mind is accomplished.

Knowledge indeed is virtue, but humility is the guardian of virtue.  For the future then, let you be humble in your minds with regard to whatever you may know, lest what the virtue of knowledge has stored, the wind of vanity may carry off.

Gregory the Great (c.540-604): Homilies on the Gospels, @ Lectionary Central.

Leave a Response »