He gave us repentance as a
purifying water. If we trespass at all, we are washed clean through it. We have
it as a laver not of regeneration only, but of renewal. If we commit any sin,
once washed through it, we become pure. The Law had the ashes of a heifer for
sprinkling; we have the mortification of repentance. There they were made clean
through ashes, and we by eating bread like ashes are delivered from the charges
against us. The Law also provides hyssop for purification, but the Gospel proclaims
the eating of herbs for forgiveness through repentance. The Baptist, eating
herbs, rendered himself a perfect man because, through his preaching of
repentance, he became a beacon to those repenting. The sprinkling of
purification also contained water, as among us, too, it is customary for the
penitent to drink water in moderation. (Saint Ephrem the Syrian: On Repentance
[trans. Matthew Keil; Patristic Nectar, 2026], 26)
Commenting on the use of Titus 3:5, the translator noted
that:
There is a distinction being
drawn here between the two, final clauses of this verse from Titus, Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy he saved
us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit. The
distinction is thus between baptism (the washing of regeneration) and
repentance after baptism (renewing of the Holy Spirit). (Ibid., 26 n.
24)
You say there is no repentance after
baptism. And how did John the Evangelist say that, We have Christ as our advocate
with the Father, and He is the propitiation for our sins, not for our only, but
also for the whole world? And the Saint included himself, so that he might
show that repentance extends even to those who, after receiving such great
grace as this, have sinned, to the extent and degree that the most holy Evangelist
John attained. You say there is no repentance after baptism. You are the wicked
servant who buried his talent beneath the earth, for you did not preach
repentance, so that the word through it might traffic the souls of sinners unto
the acquisition of salvation from condemnation. Learn, therefore, that it is
impious to disobey repentance. (Saint Ephrem the Syrian: On Repentance [trans.
Matthew Keil; Patristic Nectar, 2026], 100)
