The Song of Victory in Baptism

Fire was kindled. Let us use that song of Miriam the sister of Moses, for it is fitting for us now just as it was for them then. Let the choir of those saints also be present with us and let it sing what it used to sing then upon the Red Sea: 'Let us sing to the Lord,' (Exod 15:1) for He has been gloriously glorified. For what has He done? He cast horse and rider into the sea. Horse and rider: the horse being the female sin, and the rider being the demon sitting upon sin, whom He drove down into the bath of the baptismal font. Let us therefore sing to the Lord, for He has been gloriously glorified; for He cast Pharaoh and his power into the sea, that is, the devil and his darkness, and He turned the camp of his demons into a sea in the bath of baptism. I no longer fear to hear: 'You are earth and to earth you shall return'; (Ps 118:22) for in baptism I laid aside the earth and clothed myself with heaven. And I hear: 'You are heaven and to heavens you shall return'; (Rom 6:4) for all of you who were baptized into Christ, you clothed yourselves with Christ. As the swine are, so are those swine, and as the heavenly are, so are the heavenly. We must mount upon clouds and fly up into the heavens; the word is not without witness, listen to Paul saying: 'We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.' (1 Thess 4:17) Therefore, just as we recently heard our psalmist exhorting and saying: 'This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.' (Ps 118:24) Let us therefore rejoice, not being intoxicated or darkened by stupor, for this would not be joy but folly and the darkening of the heart. Let us rejoice, leaping in the Spirit, let us rejoice, feasting on love, rejoicing in hope. And if we must conceive of another joy of the heart, having received the heavenly bread with pure palms, let us send forth the soul with the provision of eternal life. Having received with pure palms, I say, not washed in common water, but shining with goodness. And let us fill ourselves with the divine and heavenly mixture with rose-colored lips, not reddening with some Phoenician dye, but turning purple with the blood of Jesus Christ. O great day, truly and good, in which the Lamb is slaughtered and the world is purchased and our Shepherd lives: 'For I am,' (John 10:11) He says, 'the good Shepherd.' O new mystery and wondrous paradox! The Cross stood and Christ was hung, and an unjust death was what appeared, and a holy chamber was what was happening; a cross was what appeared and a sowing was what was being completed: yesterday He was sown and today a people is harvested. O death of Christ, death of death, springing sweet life out of the most bitter death! O mystery of Abraham being fulfilled in Christ! Isaac upon the altar...