The
following is from a monograph on angels from Catholic theologian Jean Danielou
on the topic of how early Christians viewed angels having a role in preparing
one for baptism as well as their role in the salvific efficacy of baptism. I am
reproducing it, not that I am endorsing the theology of Origen et al., on this
issue, but as further evidence of how early Christians viewed water baptism,
not as a mere symbol, but the instrumental means of receiving a remission of
one’s past and then-present sins:
This role of the angels begins with baptism.
Baptism is the continuation of the great works of God in both Testaments. It is
a new creation. It is a resurrection. It is also the anticipation of the
judgment at the end of the world. The same angels who assist the Trinity in the
accomplishment of its admirable work are at hand here too as witnesses full of
amazement and servants full of zeal. Thus the Shepherd of Hermas shows them working on the construction of the
Tower that is built upon the water: that is, the Church, which is established
upon baptism. “The tower that you see under construction is the Church . . . It
is built upon water because your life has been saved by water . . . [These six
young men who are building it] are the angels of God, the first to be set up,
to whom the Lord has delivered all creatures, to organize, build, and govern
them. It is y them that the construction of the Tower will be accomplished” (Vis., 3, 3, 2-4. See also Sim., 9, 12, 7-8). How could the angels,
who are the associates of all the works of God, be anything less in this work
of works, which is the Church?
Just as they were at the same time
instruments for what was prepared and the witnesses of what was accomplished in
the mysteries of Christ, so they are in baptism. They play an active role in
the preparations for it. Just as the Apostles were sent visibly to the pagan
nations, the angels are sent invisibly to draw them to the Church. “There are
other angels who gather the faithful from all nations. Let us think for a
moment whether this is not true: just as in a certain city, for example, when
as yet no Christians have been born, if someone comes in and begins to teach
and work and instruct and lead to the Faith, he afterwards becomes the leader
and the ‘bishop’ of those whom he has taught; so also the holy angels will in
the future become the leaders of those whom they have drawn together from
different nations and made to advance by the work of their ministry” (Hom. In Num., 11, 4) . . . The
Sacramentary of Gelasius contains a prayer for the catechumens where they beg
God “that He vouchsafe to send His holy angel to preserve His servants and to
lead them to the grace of baptism” (Wilson, Gelasian
Sacramentary, p. 48). Origen develops this theme with his usual lively
manner: “Come, angel, receive him who has been converted from his former error,
from the doctrine of the demons . . . Receive him as a careful physician; warm
and heal him . . . Receive him and give him the baptism of the second birth” (Hom. In Ez., 1, 7).
Origen clearly associates the angel not only
with the preparation for baptism but with baptism itself. This idea is
developed by Tertullian, who attributes to the angel a role of the first
importance in the sacrament: “Cleansed in the water by the action of the angel,
we are prepared for the Holy Spirit . . . Thus the angel set in charge of baptism
makes ready the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit by the washing away of
sins” (De bapt., 6). It would seem,
from a reading of this text, that the baptized person is first of all purified
in the water by the angel, and then consecrated by the Holy Spirit” (See Amann,
“L’ange de baptême chez Tertullian,” Rev.
Sc. Rel., 1981, pp. 206 f.) This strange theory is interesting only for the
allusion it contains to the angel of baptism.
The teaching of the Fathers goes no farther than
to show the angels assisting at baptism. Origen writes: “At the time that the
Sacrament of the Faith was administered to you, there were present heavenly
Powers, the ministrations of the angels, the Church of the first-born” (Hom. In Jos., 9, 4). Gregory Nazianzen
also thinks that “the angels give glory to the baptism because of its relation
with their own sparkling purity” (Or.,
40, 4). And Didymus of Alexandria shows them assisting at the sacrament: “On
the level of the visible, the baptismal pool gives birth to our visible body by
the ministry of the priests; on the level of the invisible it is the invisible
Spirit of God who plunges (βαπτιζει) both our body and our soul into Himself and
regenerates us with the aid of the angels” (De
Trin., 2). Thus both the earthly Church of the priests and the heavenly
Church of the angels are ministers of the regeneration operated through the
Holy Spirit. (Jean Danielou, The Angel
and their Mission: According to the Fathers of the Church [trans. David
Heimann; Notre Dame: Christian Classics, 1957], 56-57, 58-60)
