Of those who fail [to be baptized]
some are utterly animal or bestial, according to whether they are foolish or
wicked. This, I think, they must add their other sins, that they have no
reverence for this gift, but regard it as any other gift, to be accepted if
given them, or neglected if not given them. Others know and honor the gift; but
they delay, some of their carelessness, some because of insatiable desire.
Still others are not bale to receive it, perhaps because of infancy, or some
perfectly involuntary circumstance which prevents their receiving the gift,
even if they desire it. . . .
I think that the first will have to
suffer punishment, not only for their other sins, but also for their contempt
of Baptism. The second group will also be punished, but less because it
was not through wickedness as much as through foolishness that they brought
about their own failure. The third group will be neither glorified nor punished
by the just Judge; for through unsealed they are not wicked. They are not so
much wrong-doers as persons who have suffered a loss. . . . If you are ae to
judge a man who intends to commit murder solely by his intention and without
there having been any act of murder, then you can likewise reckon as baptized
one who desired Baptism without having received Baptism. But if you cannot do
the former, how the latter? I cannot see it. If you prefer, we will put it like
this: if in your opinion desire has equal power with actual Baptism, then make
the same judgment in regard to glory. You will then be satisfied to long for
glory, as if that longing itself were glory. Do you suffer any damage by not
attaining the actual glory, as long as you have a desire for it? (Gregory of
Nazianzus, Oration on the Holy Lights 40.23, A.D. 381, The Faith of the
Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The
Liturgical Press, 1979], 2:36-37, emphasis added)
Commenting
on “baptism” (in bold), we read that:
Throughout the present passage Gregory
has been referring to Baptism as χαρισμα; now he
calls it λουτρον. (Ibid., 39 n. 41)
