Monday, June 12, 2023

John Chrysostom Affirming Baptismal Regeneration in "On Repentance and Almsgiving"

In Homily 1 of “On Repentance and Almsgiving,” Chrysostom wrote that:

 

There were two brothers. Having divided the paternal inheritance between themselves, one remained at home, the other squandered all that was given to him and departed to a distant land because he could not bear the shame of poverty. I wanted to speak of this parable from the outset to that you could learn that, if we are attentive, there is remission of sins even after baptism. I do not way this to put you in a state of inertia, but to distance you from discouragement, because discouragement produces worse evils among us than inertia. Therefore, this son bears the image of those who suffer the fall after the Laver. (John Chrysostom, On Repentance and Almsgiving [trans. Gus George Christo; The Fathers of the Church 96; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1998], 11

 

 

Here is the relevant portion from PG 49:282:

 



Elsewhere, in Homily 3 of the same work, Chrysostom wrote that:

 

On the night Christ was betrayed, peter was standing near the hot embers warming himself, and a certain girl approached him said to him, “Yesterday, you too were together with this man.” And he said, “I do not know this man.” Then he said it a second and a third time, and his denial was complete. Afterwards, Christ looked Peter straight in the face, speaking to him with a gaze. He did not speak to him with His mouth, in order to avoid shaming him before the Jews and oppressing His own disciple. Rather, He spoke to him with a gaze. “Peter, what I was saying before is happening.” Understanding this, Peter began crying and did not simply cry but wept bitterly. He performed a second baptism with the tears from his eyes. By crying bitterly, he wiped away his sin; thereafter, he was entrusted with the keys of the heavens. (On Repentance and Almsgiving, 40)