Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Baptismal Regeneration in Ambrose, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (c. A.D. 389)

  

The Lord was baptized, not to be cleansed Himself but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ, which knew no sin, might have the power of Baptism. Whoever comes, therefore, to the washing (lavacrum) of Christ lays aside his sins. (Ambrose of Milan, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 2.83, c. A.D. 389, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 2:162)