16.
We must now examine what it is we mean by baptism. You came to the font, you
went down into it, you turned towards the high priest, you saw, there are the
font, the levites and the priest. What is baptism?
17.
In the beginning our Lord made man so that he would never die, so long as he
never tasted sin. But he committed sin; he became subject to death; he was cast
out of paradise. But the Lord, who wished his gifts to last for ever and to
destroy all the wiles of the serpent and to cancel out all harm it had done,
first passed sentence on man: ‘You are dust and to dust you shall return’, and
so he made man subject to death. The sentence was divine, and it could not be
remitted by human kind. The remedy was found. It was that man should die and
rise again. Why? So that what had formerly served as a sentence, should now
serve as a gift. And what is this but death? ‘How can this be?’, you ask.
Because death, when it comes, puts an end to sin. When we die, we do indeed
stop sinning. It seemed, then, that the sentence was being served; because man,
who had been created to live for ever as long as he did not sin, now became
mortal. But in order that God’s gift might continue for ever, man died but
Christ invented the resurrection, in order to restore the heavenly gift which
had been lost through the deceit of the serpent. Both death and resurrection,
therefore, are to our advantage: for death is the end of sin and the
resurrection is the reformation of our nature.
18.
But to prevent the deceit and tricks of the devil prevailing in this world,
baptism has been invented. If you would know the source of baptism, listen to
what Scripture, or rather the Son of God, says: the Pharisees refused the
baptism of John; they ‘rejected the purpose of God’. Baptism is therefore God’s
purpose. What grace there must be when God’s purpose is in operation!
19.
Listen. To break the hold of the devil in this world, as well, a means was
found for making a living man die and a living man rise again. What does
‘living’ mean? It means living by the life of the body, since the man can come
to the font and be immersed in it. Where does water come from if not from the
earth? The heavenly sentence is thus served, without the loss of consciousness
involved in death. Because you are immersed, the sentence, ‘You are dust and to
dust you shall return’, is served. With the sentence served there is room for
the gift and the heavenly remedy. I said what water comes from the earth; the
conditions of human life did not permit us to be covered by the earth and then
rise again from it. Besides, it is not earth which washes, but water. So it is
that the font is a kind of grave.
20.
You were asked: ‘Do you believe in God the Father almighty?’ You replied: ‘I
believe’, and you were immersed: that is, buried. You were asked for a second
time: ‘Do you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his cross?’ You replied:
‘I believe’, and you were immersed: what means that you were buried with
Christ. For one who is buried with Christ rises again with Christ. You were
asked a third time: ‘Do you believe also in the Holy Spirit?’ You replied; ‘I
believe’, and you were immersed a third time, so that the threefold confession
might absolve the manifold lapses of the past.
21.
We can give you an illustration of this. The holy apostle Peter appeared to
lapse through human weakness during the Lord’s passion. To wipe out and absolve
the fault of his denial, he was asked by Christ three times if he loved Christ.
Peter replied: ‘Lord, you know that I love you’. He answered three times so as
to be absolved three times.
2.
Thus the Father forgives sin, so does the Son, and so does the Holy Spirit. Do
not be surprised that we are baptized in one name: in the name, that is, of the
father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; because Christ spoke of only one
name where there is one substance, one divinity, one majesty. This is the name
of which it is written: ‘”in this must all find salvation’. It is in this name
that you have all been saved, that you have been restored to the grace of life.
23.
So the apostle exclaims, as you have just heard in the reading, ‘Whoever is
baptized, is baptized in the death of Jesus’. What does ‘in the death’ mean? It
means that just as Christ died, so you will taste death; that just as Christ died
to sin and lives to God, so through the sacrament of baptism you are dead to
the old enticements of sin and have risen again through the grace of Christ.
This is a death, then, not in the reality of bodily death, but in likeness.
When you are immersed, you receive the likeness of death and burial, you
receive the sacrament of his cross; because Christ hung upon the cross and his
body was fastened to it by the nails. So you are crucified with him, you are
fastened to Christ, you are crucified with him, you are fastened to Christ, you
are fastened by the nails of our Lord Jesus Christ lest the devil pull you
away. May Christ’s nail continue to hold you, for human weakness seeks to pull
you away.
24.
So you were immersed, and you came to the priest. What did he say to you? God
the Father Almighty, he said, who has brought you to a new birth through
water and the Holy Spirit and has forgiven your sins, himself anoints you into
eternal life. See where the anointing has brought you: ‘to eternal life’,
he says, Do not prefer this present life to eternal life. For example, if an
enemy should come against you, wishing to rob you of your faith, if he
threatens you with death to make you do astray, consider what choice you should
make. Do not choose the life in which you have not been anointed. Choose the
one in which you have been anointed. Choose eternal life rather than this life.
(Ambrose of Milan, “Sermon on the Sacraments,” II. 16-24, in Edward Yarnold, The
Awe Inspiring Rites of Initiation: Baptismal Homilies of the Fourth Century [Slough,
U.K.: St Paul Publications, 1971], 115-19)
2.
What is regeneration? You can read in the Acts of the Apostles that a verse
from the second Psalm, ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you’, seems to
refer to the resurrection. The holy apostle Peter interprets it in this way in
the Acts of the Apostles: when the Son rose from the dead the Father’s voice
was heard proclaiming: ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you’. That is why
he is also called ‘The first-born from the dead’. For what is resurrection
except that we rise from death to life? So it is in baptism, which is an image
of death: when you are immersed and rise up again, there, certainly, is an
image of the resurrection. So as Christ’s resurrection is interpreted by the
apostle as a regeneration, so also this resurrection from the font is a
regeneration.
3.
But what conclusions do you draw from the fact that it is in water that you are
immersed? Are you a little lost here? Does some doubt creep in? We read: ‘”Let
the earth produce from himself vegetation:” and the earth produce vegetation yielding
seed’. You have read the same about the waters: ‘”let the waters produce living
things:” and living things were born’. These were born in the beginning, at the
creation; but this gift was kept for you: that the waters should regenerate you
into grace, even as those other waters generated into life. Imitate the flesh;
it received a lesser grace than you, but you should still consider it a marvel.
It is in the sea and above the waves. It is in the sea and swims on the waters.
On the sea the tempest rages, violent winds blow; but the fish swims on. It
does not drown because it is used to swimming. In the same way, this world is
the sea for you. It has various currents, huge waves, fierce storms. You too
must be a fish, so that the waves of this world do not drown you. Those are
wonderfully apt words of the Father: ‘Today I have begotten you’. It means
‘when you redeemed my people, when you fulfilled my will, you prove that you
are my son’. (Ambrose of Milan, “Sermons on the Sacraments,” III.2-3, in Edward
Yarnold, The Awe Inspiring Rites of Initiation: Baptismal Homilies of the
Fourth Century [Slough, U.K.: St Paul Publications, 1971], 120-21)
