Sunday, February 11, 2024

Gregory of Nazianzus using λουτρον to describe the act of Baptism in Oration on the Holy Lights (A.D. 381)

  

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)