to be changed. For thus Daniel says: "A thousand thousands ministered unto him." But he who has been accepted by Him, who is the true sacrifice, and has constituted himself a high priest to the chief of priests, remains altogether a priest forever, nor is he prevented from enduring in eternity. But for him who deemed himself worthy to see God, there is no other fruit than this very thing, namely, that he was considered worthy to see God. For the sum of all hope, the perfection of every desire, and of every blessing of God, and of every promise, and of the ineffable goods which are believed to be beyond sense and knowledge, is this end and head. This Moses sought, this many prophets and kings desired to see: but only those are considered worthy who are pure in heart, who for this very reason are and are called blessed, because they themselves shall see God; of whom we wish that you too may be one, that, having been crucified together with Christ, you may present yourself as a pure priest to God, and having become a clean sacrifice, through all purity by means of chastity, you may prepare yourself under His protection for the coming of the Lord, so that you too may behold God with a pure heart, as the promise was made to us by God and our Savior Jesus Christ, with whom is glory to the almighty God, together with the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.
BY THE SAME GREGORY: AN ORATION AGAINST THOSE WHO DELAY BAPTISM.
A The kings of this world, when they write laws which well regulate the lives of men, entrusting them to magistrates, command through them that they be published to the citizens, so that what has been commanded may be kept inviolate in this way. But the great God also gave laws to the leaders of the Churches, which we bring forth in their proper seasons each year, read them to you, and command that what is written be kept to the best of your ability. Behold, therefore, the good steward of all things, who turns the years and governs the cycle of time, has brought a salutary day on which we are accustomed to call foreigners to adoption as sons, the needy to the participation of grace, and those who are stained with the filth of sins to the cleansing of sins. And this is that ancient proclamation, which was shortly before the Savior B appeared: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." But if
I am neither John nor David, let the humility of the servant not hinder the power of the Master's law. For it is not out of reverence for the writers of the laws that we obey what is commanded by them, but because we fear the authority of the Lawgiver, we submit to the precepts. A Royal grace has come, granting remission to two afflicted classes: liberation to the captives, and the remission of debt to the debtors. And for this reason I, too, open up the appropriate remedy to both classes, and with great confidence I promise that help will come from this diligence.
That no one may think the cure is expensive, I declare beforehand the very medicines with which I heal those who are suffering. B For to some I guarantee health through water and the laver, while for others I wipe away the disease with a few tears. For the application is simple, the gift is God-sent, and the success is truly great, to be freed without cauterization or incision from those chronic wounds which we suffered poorly from the bites of the serpent. Come, therefore, you who are afflicted with evils, to your own healing, and do not treat the matter with indifference. For a disease that has grown old and become chronic surpasses the skill of healing. You poor and needy, hasten to the distribution of the royal gifts; you sheep, to the seal and the sign of the cross, which brings help and remedy to evils. Give me your names, so that I may inscribe them in sensible books and write them with ink; C but God will mark them on the incorruptible tablets, into which decay does not enter, writing with His own finger, as He once wrote the law for the Hebrews.
"Come to him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed. Wash yourselves, take away your sins." [Ps. XXXIII, 6; Isa. I, 16.] These things were written long ago; but the power of the words has not grown old, but flourishes and strengthens day by day. Come out of the prison, I beseech you. Hate the dark dwellings of vice. Flee from the devil, as a bitter jailer who feeds and profits from the calamity of sinners. For just as God rejoices in our righteous deeds, so the author of sin rejoices in our transgressions. You are outside of paradise, O catechumen, a partner in the exile of Adam, our first parent. D But now, with the door opening for you, enter from where you went out, and do not delay, lest by chance death may intervene and block the entrance. The head is already turning white; the summer of life is near; perhaps the sickle is being sharpened against us, and I fear that while we sleep and are occupied with vain vanities, the terrible reaper may arrive suddenly. But you, who are young, will say: "I have not yet grown old." Do not be deceived, therefore. For death is not defined by set times of age, nor does it fear those who are in their prime, nor does it hold dominion over the elderly alone. Take daily experience as your teacher of this. For you see the funeral bier, how indiscriminately and, as it happens, it carries away every age,
A today the old man, tomorrow the flourishing and graceful youth, a little later the one on whom the down has begun to appear, then the man B robust and strong in his powers, and again the old woman, and along with her the maiden. Seeing these things, let us secure ourselves against the uncertainty. For it is no great task for a wineskin of spirit to be emptied, when the mouth is opened but slightly, nor is it difficult for a human to yield up his soul in a single moment of time.
I see that whenever an earthquake has occurred in the world, or famine, or pestilence has raged, or an incursion of enemies has taken place, all hasten with speed to the baptistery, so that they may not depart from among men empty of grace. What then? Do not those other varied and unexpected mishaps have the same force as those evils? Apoplexies, swoons, unexpected suffociations, the onsets of gusty winds? C Do we not see those who are running fall, those who are eating cease entirely from their nourishment, and those who sleep being led away to death, the sister of sleep? Secure the instability and uncertainty of life. Do not trade in or peddle grace, lest you fall from the gift. Owe as much as is possible to be forgiven, and as much as will not exclude the benevolence of the King. For the princes of the earth, when they have seized someone who has greedily coveted public resources beyond measure, and has glutted himself with royal funds beyond satisfaction, despair indeed that he will make restitution; but they punish him severely, content with the penalty in place of the money. You have given much time to pleasure; give something also to philosophy. Strip off the old man like a filthy garment, which is full of ignominy and disgrace, which has been forged from a multitude of sins and cobbled together from the miserable rags of iniquity. But receive the garment of incorruptibility which Christ, having unfolded and spread out, offers to you; and do not repel the gift, lest you insult the One who gave it. You have long wallowed in the mire; hasten, O man, to my Jordan, not with John calling, D but with Christ exhorting. For the river of grace flows everywhere, not having its springs in Palestine and being concealed in the neighboring sea, but circling the whole inhabited world and entering into Paradise; flowing opposite to those four which stream out from there, and bringing into Paradise things far more precious than those which are exported from thence. For those indeed bring aromatics, agriculture, and the produce of the earth; but this one brings in men, the offspring of the Spirit. Wherever you draw it, it flows over to that place; it is diverted into the whole world, and it does not spend the stream upon those among whom it is divided. For it has a rich fountain, Christ, and flowing from Him, it floods the entire world. This is sweet and potable, drawing in nothing of the unpleasant salinity. For it is made sweet by the arrival of the Spirit, as the spring of Mara was by the touch of the wood. It is passable for the pious, but for the profane it is very deep and cannot be approached even by them. Imitate Joshua the son of Nun. Carry the Gospel, just as he carried the ark; dismiss the
desert, that is, sin; cross the Jordan; hasten to the life that is in Christ, to the land that bears the fruit that brings joy, the land which, according to the promise, flows with milk and honey. Overthrow Jericho—namely, your ancient custom—do not leave it fortified. Destroy from the foundations the mother of sinful thoughts. Make the deceitful Gibeonites the servants of Israel, that is, make your evil thoughts the servants of the Gospel life. Let Achan be stoned, that sophist and greedy person who laid claim to what was not his, he who stole the golden tongue. He is the one who destroyed the observance of the precious commandment. All those things are a type of our own, all are foreshadowings of the things that now appear. B
Dismiss, then, from your life that ravenous crow—sin. Give the dove an opportunity to fly to you, which Jesus first brought down typically from heaven, which is guileless, most gentle, and most fruitful; which, once it finds a man who is purified—like silver that has been rightly refined and polished—dwells within him willingly, and, nurturing the soul like eggs with fire, brings forth for him many children. These children are good actions and virtuous words: faith, piety, justice, temperance, chastity, purity. These are the children of the Spirit, but they are our possessions. How long will you be a disciple of the first elements? Open your soul like a tablet, and allow us to imprint upon it a perfect discipline; do not go on forever stuttering with children, nor be an infant in your mind. I am ashamed on your behalf that, though you have grown old, you are still cast out with the catechumens like a foolish boy, unable to keep secrets when a mystery is being spoken. Unite yourself with the mystical people and learn the secret words. C Recite with us those things which the six-winged Seraphim sing with the perfect Christians. Desire the food that strengthens the soul; taste the drink that gladdens the heart; love the mystery which, in a way that does not fall under the senses, transforms the old into youth. Imitate the Ethiopian eunuch of fervent desire. For he, after taking Philip—brought by the Holy Spirit—as a fellow-passenger in his chariot, and learning in the course of the journey not merely to read but also to understand the wise Isaiah, tasted through the interpretation, like a good hunting dog, of the blood and of the slain Lamb; he barked vehemently at Philip, until he led him to the perfect hunt of the prophecy he held in his hands. And he received the baptism he had requested D spontaneously, neither waiting for an inn, nor a city or village, nor waiting for a place of sanctification, but prudently considering that every place belongs to the common Master, and every water is suitable for the need of baptism, provided only that it finds the faith of the recipient and the blessing of the sanctifying priest. Do not provoke the baptizer by delaying, nor anger him by putting it off day after day, and wasting time in promises—
lest he pursue you with the same words as John, calling you a brood of vipers, or a deaf asp that grows savage at the voice of the enchanter; or show you a sharpened and gleaming axe, lying beside the tree and threatening you with A amputation. In the choice of evils, it is better to have been deemed worthy of the saving washing and then to fall again into sin than to end one’s life devoid of grace. For the former transgression will perhaps merit forgiveness or the clemency of which there is great hope among the good; but for the latter, salvation is altogether denied by a fixed and certain decree. For when I hear that voice which does not lie, saying: "Amen, amen I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God," I can expect nothing good for those who have not been initiated into the mysteries. For what forgiveness is it truly just to grant to those who have treated the King’s grace with contumely, not accepting the cancellation of their debts, nor embracing the freedom that descended to them of its own accord from heaven; but, through contempt of the gift, visiting reproach and disgrace upon the One who gave it? A soul not at all illuminated, nor adorned with the grace of regeneration, I know not whether the angels receive it after it has been separated from the body. For how should they receive one that is unsealed, that bears no mark of its Lord? B Indeed, it is likely that it is borne through the air, wandering and roaming, and sought by no one, as it lacks a Lord, seeking rest and a place to dwell and finding none, weeping in vain and repenting uselessly, just like the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and whom delicate and luxurious food of every kind nourished, the material of the unquenchable fire.
I wish also to tell you a story of a certain wretched man who had not attained that great hope and was seeking water in a time when water failed. For recently, when the incursion of the nomadic Scythians destroyed and overturned much of the land along with its inhabitants, in this city of the Comani, which is adjacent to the suburbs of the barbarians, a certain young man of noble birth, Archias by name—whom I knew to be deeply grieved C by both the private and common evils of the fatherland—went out from the city and the garrison to observe diligently how many the plundering barbarians were, and what were the events taking place; and having fallen in with the enemy, he was struck by arrows. Having fallen and being hastened toward death, with as loud a voice as he could he cried out (for he was one of the uninitiated): "Mountains and glens, baptize; trees and rocks and springs, grant the grace!" And uttering these miserable cries, he ended his life. When the city learned of these, it lamented them more than the event of the war. Similar to him are those who are suddenly D pressed by diseases. For when one who was healthy yesterday and promised himself long years of
A life, describing the things of the foolish man of old, it is said to him out of despair, "This night thy soul is required of thee," then there is noise and clamor; and everything is sought out in a moment of time, with urgency—the vessels, the water, the priest, the discourse preparing one for grace, which necessity demands, but which the disease obscures, causing a violent and incessant panting. B And it creates a noise no less than the constraint of war; all who are in the house, meeting one another, break out; and there is pushing, and confusion, and a mournful and indistinct murmuring, just as if in a naval battle, with servants, relatives, friends, children, and wife becoming entangled with one another. While there is still a time of peace, therefore, let us set our affairs in order with sobriety. In leisure and tranquility of life, receive the gift of Christ, when he who receives the high and incomparable benefit is, with pleasure, numbered in the catalog of those being adopted as sons, and all those acquainted with him feel special joy and gladness at that change for the better.
"But I fear," he says, "the propensity of our nature toward sin, and for this reason I delay coming to the grace of regeneration." Your pretext of timidity is fair-seeming, and you cleverly disguise yourself with the mask of caution; but a brief question put to you will suffice to lay bare the pretense easily. For since you, who say that you fear sin, are a catechumen, which kind of life do you claim to live—one that is beyond reproach, or one that is sinless, or one in sins? C For if you mean the sinless life, why do you dread baptism, even while observing the established strictness before it? But if your life is impure and unguarded, and you delay while dwelling in iniquities, and are acquiring the habit of evil through long familiarity, it is obvious that you are waiting for your final breath, so that, by receiving baptism at the last hour, your life might be concluded at the same time. This is a vain and strange kind of commerce—not one of gold or garments, but a curious peddling of a multitude of iniquities instead of the purification of the soul. And just as swine pass from mire to mire and have the mud as their dwelling place, so do those who live in impurities connect D consecutive iniquities. For they are either defiled by fornication, or they plot the ill-famed sin of adultery, or they practice drunkenness, the tinder of evil desires, or they pursue sins akin and related to these. They fear baptism as an impediment to pleasures and as an abstinence from vile indulgences. When, therefore, he who seeks excuses for sins says that he is afraid, it is clear that he is not fearful of sinning, but that he wishes to remain for as long as possible in his way of life in sins. Those who have this wicked intention in the depth of their heart are not even considered worthy of the grace in the first place; but they [deceive] themselves with vain hopes.
A They are unexpectedly led astray, as death, like a wily thief, falls upon them silently and suddenly. Yet, even if God, in the abundance of His own forbearance and goodness, should deem the lover of sin worthy of the mysteries on the final day, the gain from this transaction is not as great as they imagine. For they think that the kingdom will be opened to them immediately, and that they will be granted some place full of wonderful good things and be deemed worthy of the same honors as the just. But this is a vain hope, beguiling the soul with false estimation. B For, as it seems to me, the affairs of men in the life to come will be divided into three classes, to speak generally for the moment, without subdivisions. The first is the order of the praiseworthy and just; the second, of those who are neither honored nor punished; the third, of those who pay the penalty for what they have done wrong. Where, then, shall we place those who received the benefit of the laver at their obsequies? Is it not clear that it is among the second class, and this with pardon, so that we may assign it according to the philanthropy of God? For he who has betrayed the accomplishments of virtue through sloth and negligence is not free from loss and condemnation, since to desire evil is akin to criminality, and to hate good things is a manifest proof of wickedness. What great thing, then, will you gain if you fall away from the kingdom and from those promises that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard"? "I am not punished," one says, "nor do I fear the threats; it is enough for me not to suffer anything terrible, nor to be declared one who has achieved anything noble." C This is the disposition of a wicked slave, who is concerned only with avoiding the punishments of the mill, bonds, and scourges, but does not lay claim, even in small measure, to liberal glory or the splendor of honors. Such a voice is hostile and contrary to all the saints who have been from the beginning of time. For all of them loved the dangers endured for the sake of confidence, and offered their bodies to those who wished to cut and kill them in various ways; they were not softened or broken by any harsh trial, awaiting the reward of their blood and their noble deeds—the honor that is in the kingdom of heaven. For the sake of that, Abraham was commanded and sacrificed his son; and Moses labored in the dire hardships of the desert; and Elias lived a harsh and austere life in the wilderness; and all the prophets lived in sheepskins and goatskins, afflicted and vexed. D For that same goal the evangelists suffered the marks for the sake of the Gospel, and the martyrs contended against the torments of tyrants. And whoever is truly endowed with reason, is an image of God, and has a kinship with things high and heavenly, does not even desire to be or to be resurrected with the men who rise again, unless he is to be praised by God as a good slave and deemed worthy of certain rewards. It is because of this resolve that David also accepts the thirst of the stag as his own pattern for his longing for God; and he prays to see the face of God, so that [in the]
embraces which fall under the understanding, he may be gladdened. And Paul, having put off the flesh as a heavy and burdensome garment, desires to depart and be with Christ 15: both of them thinking entirely of the blessed and immutable joy. But if there is no love for that [reality], all other things, as Ecclesiastes truly says, are vanities of vanities 16.
Flee, therefore, O Christian men, participants of a heavenly calling, from every such thought, worthy of robbers and criminals; and do not think it blessed to flee punishment, but love the gifts and crowns which God has prepared for the athletes of righteousness; desire baptism without deceit; receive the talent, and add the labor; for thus, according to the parable, you will become rulers of ten cities 17. But he who has been buried together with [Christ] in baptism, [yet] has hidden the talent in the earth, will surely hear those things which were said to the idle and negligent servant 18. Rightly does he who is freshly illuminated, if he has not joined the commandment to his faith, have nothing that is not related to accusation. He was a prisoner, liable for innumerable crimes, fearing the judgment, trembling at the time of giving an account. Suddenly came the kindness of the King; it opened the prison, it released the evil ones. Let Him who gave the grace be praised and worshiped, as He who, by the abundance of His goodness, saved those who did not hope to live. But let him [the recipient] know himself, and let him live in humility: let him not be so disposed as if he had done something B marvelous, because he has been released from bonds. For the remission of crimes testifies to the mercy of Him who granted it, not to a right action on the part of him who was released. He who has received the bath of regeneration is like a new soldier, who has recently been enrolled in the ranks of the heavy infantry, but has not yet shown any military or noble [deed]. Just as that man, having taken up the belt and girt on the cloak, does not immediately consider himself a hero, nor, approaching the king with boldness, speaks to him as a familiar friend, nor asks for favors that belong to those who have labored and toiled; so do not you, having obtained grace, think that you will live with the righteous and be led to their inheritance, unless you endure many dangers for the sake of piety, and wage war against the flesh and, with it, against the devil, and bravely resist all the arrows of the evil spirits. C Nay, rather, if it seems good, let us take the very voice of the Lord itself, which is to be proclaimed at the time of the common judgment, and is the teacher of what is proposed. For what does He say? "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 19." Why? It is not because you put on the garment of incorruptibility, nor because you washed away your sins, but because you practiced love. And immediately the list follows of those who were fed, who were given drink, who were clothed. And rightly does the Judge, who cannot be deceived, judge in this way. For grace is indeed the gift of the Master, but the conduct [of life] is the achievement of the one who has been honored D.