The following is from “Homily 3: On the Incarnation of the Lord”:
IV. The festivals of the Christians, on the
other hand, are divine and wondrous, truly fountainheads and treasuries of salvation.
For the first of our feats proclaims the advent of God among men. The second represents
the sanctification of the waters and the womb of baptism (η δε
μετ’ εκεινην
υδατων αγιασμον
και βαπτισματος
εικονογραφει μητραν). The third
joyfully announces the destruction of death, the trophy of the cross, the gift of
resurrection, and the liberation of our fathers. The fourth proclaims both the ascension
of the first fruit of humanity into the heavens and its seat at the right hand
(of the Father). The fifth heralds the descent of the Holy Spirit and the thunderous
rain of a thousand graces. These are the feasts “which the Lord has made, let
us rejoice and be glad in them.” (Nicholas Constas, Proclus of Constantinople
and the Cult of the Virgin in Late Antiquity: Homilies 1-5, Texts and
Translations [Supplements to Vigilae Christianae 86; Leiden: Brill, 2003], 199-200)
Commenting
on this passage, the translator, Nicholas Constas, wrote:
3.IV,28: ‘The womb of baptism.’ Proclus frequently
describes the baptismal font as an indefatigable womb ceaselessly bearing
children, based in part on Jn. 3.5, where baptism is described as a ‘birth
understood by Nicodemus as a return to the ‘maternal womb,’ cf. Proclus,
hom.5.III: “’God is with us,’ and the baptismal font gives birth without tiring”
(μεθ’ ημων
ο Θεος
και η κολυμβηθρα τικτουσα
συ καμνει) (lines 102-103);
hom. 12.1: “The empress (i.e., Pulcheria) . . . marvels at the baptismal font
that is both a virgin and the mother of many” (την τασουστου
τεκουσαν και
μεινασαν παρθενον) (PG
65.788C); hom. 16.61: GK (ed. Leroy, 197; cf. 250); hom. 18.1: την κολυμβηθρας (PG 65.820A); hom. 19.3: την του βαπτισματος μητραν (PG 65.825C); hom. 28.2: η Βηθλεεμ εκει λοιπον ατεκνος, η κολυμβηθρα δε
ενταυθα πολυτεκνος (ed. Leroy, 197); Basil of Seleucia, Thom., 4: την πνευματικης κολυμβηθρας ωδινες (Pg 28.1085C). (Ibid., 207)
