Baptismal Instructions

1How lovely and desirable this company of our new brothers is! I call you brothers already, even before the birth pangs, and I embrace our kinship before the delivery. For I know—I know clearly—to what great honor you are about to be led, and to what great authority. Everyone is accustomed to honor those who are about to receive authority even before they receive it, storing up goodwill for themselves through their attentiveness for the future. This is what I am doing now. For you are about to be led not to mere authority, but to a kingdom itself—or rather, not simply to a kingdom, but to the very kingdom of heaven. Therefore I ask and beg you: remember me when you enter that kingdom. What Joseph said to the chief cupbearer—"Remember me when things go well for you" (Genesis 40:14)—this I now say to you: remember me when things go well for you. I do not ask for this reward in return for dreams, as he did. For I have not come to interpret dreams for you, but to tell you of the realities in heaven and to bring you good tidings of such blessings as "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the human heart—such are the things God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Joseph said to that cupbearer, "In three more days Pharaoh will restore you to your office of chief cupbearer" (Genesis 40:13). But I do not say, "In three more days you will be brought to the cupbearing of a tyrant." Rather, in thirty more days not Pharaoh but the King of heaven will restore you to the homeland above, to the free Jerusalem, to the city in the heavens. And Joseph said, "You will place the cup in Pharaoh's hands." But I do not say that you will place the cup in the King's hands. Rather, the King himself will place in your hand the cup that is awesome and full of great power, more precious than either of the two creations. Those who have been initiated know the strength of this cup, and you will know it a little later. Remember me, then, when you enter that kingdom, when you receive the royal robe, when you put on the purple dyed with the Master's blood, when you bind on the diadem whose radiance flashes out on every side more brightly than the rays of the sun. Such are the bridegroom's gifts—greater than our worth, but worthy of his love for humanity. For these reasons I call you blessed already now, even before those sacred bridal chambers. And I do not only call you blessed; I also praise your good judgment, because you did not come to baptism at your last breath, like the more careless among people. Instead, already now, like good and faithful servants, you have prepared yourselves to obey the Master with great goodwill. You have brought the neck of your soul under the yoke of Christ with great gentleness and eagerness, and you received the good yoke and took up the light burden.

2For even if the gifts of grace are equal for you and for those who are initiated at the end of life, the gifts of deliberate purpose are not equal, nor are the gifts of preparation for the realities. Those receive baptism in their bed, but you receive it in the bosom of the Church, the common mother of us all. Those are weeping and shedding tears, but you are rejoicing and celebrating. Those are groaning, but you are giving thanks. Those are weighed down by much fever, but you are filled with much spiritual pleasure. Therefore here everything is in harmony with the gift, but there everything is opposed to the gift. For there is much lamentation and wailing of those being initiated, and children stand around crying, and a wife tears her cheeks, and friends are downcast, and servants are full of tears. The whole appearance of the house imitates a wintry and gloomy day. And if you open up the heart of the one lying there, you will find it more sullen than these things. For just as winds rushing against each other with great force cut the sea into many parts, so the thoughts of the terrible things that then hold sway fall upon the soul of the sick person and split his mind into many cares. When he looks at his children, he thinks of their orphanhood. When he turns his eyes to his wife, he reckons her widowhood. When he sees his servants, he considers the desolation of the whole house. When he returns to himself, he remembers his present life, and being about to be torn away, he receives a great cloud of despondency. Such is the soul of the one about to be initiated. Then, in the midst of the confusion and its disturbance, the priest enters, more frightening than the fever itself and harsher than death to the sick person's relatives. For the entrance of the priest is considered a greater despair than the voice of the physician who gives up hope for his life, and the very subject of eternal life seems a symbol of death. But I have not yet put the capstone on the evils. For in the midst of the confusion of friends and their preparations, the soul often leaves the body behind and leaps away, and even when present it benefited many people not at all. For when the one about to be baptized does not recognize those present, nor hears a voice, nor is able to answer those words through which he will make the blessed covenant with the common Master of us all, but lies there like a useless log or stone, differing nothing from a corpse, what is the benefit of initiation in such insensibility?

For the one about to approach these sacred and awesome rites must be awake and alert, must be clean of every worldly care, must be full of much self-control and much eagerness, must banish from his mind every thought foreign to the sacred rites, and must prepare the house clean on every side, as if he were about to receive the King himself. Such is the preparation of your mind, such are the thoughts among you, such is the deliberate purpose of your soul. Therefore await the worthy recompense of this excellent resolve from God, who surpasses with his rewards those who show obedience to him. But since we must also contribute what is ours to our fellow servants, we will contribute what is from us—or rather, not even these things are ours, but these too belong to the Master.

3For what do you have, Paul says, that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Corinthians 4:7). I wanted first of all to say: Why did our fathers pass over the whole year and ordain that the children of the Church be initiated at this season? And why, after our instruction, do they loosen your sandals and strip off your clothes, and send you barefoot and wearing only a tunic to the voices of those who exorcize? For they did not design this posture and this season for us simply or at random; both of these things hold a mystical and ineffable meaning. And I wanted to tell you this meaning. But I see that the argument now presses us toward something more necessary. For I must say what baptism is, and why it entered our life, and how many good things it brings us.

But if you wish, let us first discuss the name of this mystical cleansing. For it does not have one name, but many and varied. This purification is called the washing of regeneration: He saved us, Paul says, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). It is also called enlightenment, and Paul himself called it this as well: Remember the earlier days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle of sufferings (Hebrews 10:32); and again: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift, and then fell away, to be renewed again to repentance (Hebrews 6:4-6). It is also called baptism: For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). It is called burial: You were buried with him, Paul says, through baptism into death (Romans 6:4). It is called circumcision: In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the stripping off of the body of the sins of the flesh (Colossians 2:11). It is called cross: Our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing (Romans 6:6). There are many other names I could mention besides these, but so that we do not spend the whole time on the titles of the gift, let us come to the first title, explain its meaning, and bring the discussion to rest. But first let us draw the teaching back a little.

There is a washing common to all people, the washing in the bathhouses, which is accustomed to wipe away the filth of the body. There is also a Jewish washing, more solemn than that one, but far inferior to the washing of grace. For it too wipes away bodily filth, but not simply bodily filth—it also touches a weak conscience. For there are many things that are not unclean by nature, but become unclean from the weakness of the conscience. And just as with children, masks and other bogeymen are not frightening by nature, but seem frightening to children because of the weakness of their nature, so it is with the things I mentioned. For example, touching dead bodies is not unclean by nature, but when it takes hold of a weak conscience, it makes the one who touches unclean. That the thing is not unclean by nature, Moses himself—the very one who ordained these things—made clear, for he carried with himself the whole corpse of Joseph and remained clean. For this reason Paul, speaking to us about this uncleanness that does not come by nature but through weakness of conscience, says something like this: Nothing is common in itself, except to the one who considers something common (Romans 14:14).

4Do you see that uncleanness comes not from the nature of the thing itself, but from the weakness of the reasoning? And again: All things are clean, but it is evil for the person who eats to another's stumbling (Romans 14:20). Do you see that it is not the eating, but the eating to another's stumbling, that causes uncleanness?

The Jewish washing cleansed away that kind of stain. But the washing of grace does not cleanse that kind; it cleanses the uncleanness that is truly real, the stain that has been deeply impressed upon the soul along with the body. For it does not make clean those who have touched dead bodies, but those who have touched dead deeds. If a man is soft, if he is a fornicator, if he is an idolater, if he has done anything dreadful at all, if he possesses every wickedness found among human beings—when he falls into the pool of the waters, he comes up from the divine streams purer than the rays of the sun.

And so that you do not think what I am saying is empty boasting, listen to Paul speaking about the power of the washing: Do not be deceived: neither idolaters, nor fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the soft, nor men who lie with males, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). And what does this have to do with what was said, someone asks? For the question was to show whether the power of the washing cleanses away all these things. Then listen to what follows: And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

We promised to show you that those who approach the washing become clean from all fornication, but the word has demonstrated something more: that they become not only clean, but also holy and righteous. For he did not say only, You were washed, but also, You were sanctified and justified. What could be more astonishing than this, when righteousness is born without labors and sweat and achievements? Such is the loving-kindness of the divine gift: it makes people righteous without sweat.

If a letter from a king, a few written words set before someone, releases people liable to countless charges and sets them free, and brings others to the greatest honor, how much more will the Holy Spirit of God, who can do all things, deliver us from every evil, grant us abundant righteousness, and fill us with great confidence? And just as a spark falling into the middle of a vast sea would immediately be quenched, or rather would disappear, drowned by the mass of waters, so too all human wickedness, when it falls into the pool of the divine streams, is drowned and destroyed more quickly and easily than that spark.

And why, someone asks, if the washing forgives us all our sins, is it not called a washing of forgiveness of sins, nor a washing of cleansing, but a washing of regeneration? Because it does not simply forgive us our sins, nor simply cleanse us of our offenses, but does so as if we had been born again from above. For it creates us anew and fashions us again, not by molding us from earth, but by creating us from another element, the nature of the waters.

For it does not simply wipe the vessel clean, but recasts it entirely anew. Things that are wiped clean, even if they are cleansed with precision, still bear traces of their former quality and carry the remnants of the stain. But things that fall into a smelting furnace and are renewed through the flame put off all filth and, coming out of the furnace, give off the same brightness as vessels newly made.

5Suppose someone takes a golden statue that has been fouled by long years, by smoke, by dust, and by rust, and melts it down. He gives it back to us spotless and gleaming. That is what God has done with our nature. It had rusted over with the rust of sin, it had absorbed a great deal of smoke from our offenses, and it had lost the beauty He deposited in it at the beginning. He took it and melted it down from above. He plunged it into the waters as into a smelting furnace, and He let the grace of the Spirit play over it instead of flame. Then He brings us up from there freshly formed and new, able at last to look the sun's rays in the face with great radiance. He has crushed the old man and fashioned a new one, more splendid than the first.

It was this crushing and this mystical cleansing that the prophet was hinting at long ago when he said, 'You will crush them like a potter's vessel' (Psalm 2:9). That he is speaking about the faithful is shown clearly by what comes before: 'You are my Son,' he says, 'today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession' (Psalm 2:7-8). Do you see how he remembered the Church drawn from the nations, and spoke of Christ's kingdom stretching everywhere? Then he says again, 'You will shepherd them with an iron rod'—not a burdensome one, but a strong one—'you will crush them like a potter's vessel' (Psalm 2:9). See how the washing is presented here in a more mystical way. He did not simply say 'earthen vessels,' but 'a potter's vessel.' Pay close attention. Earthen vessels, once crushed, cannot be repaired, because of the hardness the fire has produced in them once for all. But a potter's vessels are not earthenware; they are clay. So even when they are distorted, they can easily return to a second shape through the craftsman's skill. When Scripture speaks of an incurable disaster, it does not say 'a potter's vessel' but 'an earthen vessel.' For example, when God wanted to teach the prophet and the Jews that He had handed the city over to an incurable disaster, He commanded him to take an earthen jar, crush it before all the people, and say, 'So shall this city be destroyed and crushed' (Jeremiah 19:10-11). But when He wants to hold out good hopes to them, He brings the prophet down to a potter's workshop. He does not show him an earthen vessel; He shows him a clay vessel taking shape in the potter's hands, falling apart, and then He adds, 'If this potter takes up the vessel that fell apart and reshapes it, will I not be far more able to set you right after you have fallen apart?' (Jeremiah 18:3-6).

God is able not only to set right those who are clay through the washing of regeneration, but also to bring back to their original state those who have received the Spirit's working and then slipped away, through careful repentance. But this is not the time for you to hear about repentance. Rather, may the time never come when you need those medicines. May you always preserve intact the beauty and radiance you are about to receive now. So that you may always preserve it, let me speak to you briefly about your way of life. In this wrestling school, the athletes' falls carry no danger. The contest is against friends, and they practice everything on the bodies of their teachers.

6But when the time of the contests arrives, when the stadium is opened, when the theater above is seated, when the judge of the contest is present, then there is no choice: either you have been careless and you fall and retreat in great shame, or you have trained hard and you win the crowns and the prizes. So it is with you. These thirty days are like a wrestling school, like training grounds, like practice. Let us learn from this moment how to overcome that evil demon. For it is against him that we are going to strip for the contest after baptism; it is against him that we will box and fight. Let us learn from this moment, then, what his grips are, where his evil lies, where he can easily harm us, so that when the contests arrive we are not caught off guard or thrown into confusion at the sight of unfamiliar wrestling moves. Instead, having already practiced among ourselves and learned all his tactics, let us engage him in the wrestling with confidence.

He is accustomed to harm us from every direction, but especially through the tongue and through the mouth. For no instrument is so well suited to him for deceiving us and destroying us as an undisciplined tongue and a mouth without doors. From here come most of our falls; from here come our serious accusations. Someone, showing how easily slips happen through the tongue, said: "Many have fallen by the sword, but not so many as by the tongue" (Sirach 28:18). And the same person, showing how serious the fall is, said: "A slip on the floor is better than a slip of the tongue" (Sirach 20:18). What he means is this: It is better, he says, to fall and break your body than to let out a word that destroys our soul. And he does not only speak of the falls, but he also urges us to take great care so that we are not tripped up, saying: "Make a door and bars for your mouth" (Sirach 28:25)—not so that we build actual doors and bars, but so that with great security we shut the tongue against improper words. And again elsewhere, showing that along with our own effort we need help from above even before our own, the prophet lifted his hands to God and said: "The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice. Set a guard, Lord, over my mouth, and a door of enclosure over my lips" (Psalm 141:2-3). And the one who gave the earlier advice also says: "Who will set a guard over my mouth, and a cunning seal over my lips?" (Sirach 22:27). Do you see how each one fears these falls, and laments them, and counsels, and prays that the tongue may enjoy great protection?

And why, someone says, if this instrument brings us so much destruction, did God put it in us in the beginning? Because it also has great usefulness. And if we are diligent, it has only usefulness and no destruction at all. Listen, then, to what the one who said those earlier things says: "In the hand of the tongue are life and death" (Proverbs 18:21). And Christ shows the same thing when he says: "By your words you will be condemned, and by your words you will be justified" (Matthew 12:37). For the tongue stands in the middle, able to be used for either purpose. You are its master. So too a sword lies in the middle: if you use it against enemies, the instrument has become your salvation; but if you thrust the blow against yourself, it is not the nature of the iron but your own lawlessness that causes the slaughter.

7Let us think the same way about the tongue. It is a sword lying in the middle. Sharpen it, then, against the accusation of your own sins, but do not thrust the blow against a brother. For this reason God surrounded it with a double wall—the barrier of the teeth and the enclosure of the lips—so that it may not easily and thoughtlessly utter words that are not fitting. Bridle it within. But it will not submit? Then discipline it with your teeth, as if handing over its body to these executioners and making it bite itself. For it is better for the tongue to be bitten by the teeth now while it is sinning, than to seek a drop of water then, while being roasted, and not obtain that comfort.

The tongue is accustomed to commit many other sins as well: insulting, blaspheming, uttering shameful words, slandering, swearing oaths, committing perjury. But so that we do not bury your mind today by telling you everything at once, we lay down for you for the present one law, the law about guarding against oaths. And we declare and announce this in advance: if you do not flee from oaths—I do not mean only perjury, but even oaths made for a just cause—if you do not flee from them, we will no longer discuss any other subject with you. For it would be absurd if teachers of letters do not give children a second lesson until they see the first one firmly fixed in their memory, but we, unable to deliver the earlier lessons with accuracy, pile on others again. That is nothing other than drawing water from a pierced jar.

So that you may not stop our mouths, make every effort in this matter. For this sin is difficult, exceedingly difficult. And it is exceedingly difficult because it does not seem difficult. This is why I fear it—because no one fears it. This is why the disease is incurable—because it does not even seem to be a disease. Just as ordinary conversation is not a crime, so this does not seem to be a crime either, but this lawlessness is committed with great boldness. And if someone rebukes it, immediately there follows laughter and much mockery—not against those who bring charges concerning oaths, but against those who want to correct the disease. For this reason I stretch out my discourse at length about these things. I want to pull up a deep root and wipe away a long-standing evil. I do not mean only perjury, but even truthful oaths themselves.

But someone says, “That man is decent, he is enrolled for the priesthood, he lives with great self-control and piety.” Do not tell me about this decent man, this self-controlled man, this pious man, this man enrolled for the priesthood. If you wish, suppose that he is Peter or Paul, or even an angel come down from heaven. Even so I do not turn toward the dignity of persons. For the law I read about oaths is not a slave’s law but a king’s law. And when a king’s letters are read, let all the dignity of slaves be silent. If you can say that Christ commanded us to swear, or that Christ does not punish this when it happens, show me and I am persuaded. But if he forbids it with such earnestness and shows such care for the matter that he places the one who swears alongside the Evil One—for “anything more than these, than yes and no,” he says, “is from the devil” (Matthew 5:37)—why do you bring this man or that man into the discussion? God will not render his verdict to you based on the negligence of your fellow servants, but based on the command of his own laws.

8He commanded, you say, and you should have obeyed, not use so-and-so as an excuse or busy yourself with other people's sins. The great David committed a serious sin. Does that make sinning safe for us? Tell me. For this very reason we must be on our guard and emulate only the successes of the saints. Wherever there is carelessness and transgression of the law, we must flee from it with all diligence. Our account is not with our fellow servants but with the Master, and to him we will give account for everything we have done in life. Let us prepare for that tribunal. Even if the one who breaks this law is a thousand times admirable and great, he will certainly pay the punishment laid down for the transgression, for God is no respecter of persons.

How then, and in what way, can we escape this sin? It is not enough to show that the charge is serious; I must also advise you how to be freed from it. Do you have a wife, a servant, children, a friend, a relative, a neighbor? Entrust the guarding of this matter to all of them. Habit is a hard thing, terrible at tripping us up, hard to guard against, and it often throws us in against our will and without our knowing it. So the more you know the power of habit, the more eagerly you should free yourself from the evil habit and move yourself over to the other one, the most useful one. Just as now, even when you are eager and on guard and anxious and careful, that habit has often managed to trip you up, so if you move yourself over to the good habit of not swearing oaths, you will never be able to fall into the pitfalls of oaths, even unwillingly or carelessly. Habit is truly a great thing and has the power of nature.

So that we do not labor constantly, let us move ourselves over to another habit, and ask this favor of each person who associates with you and spends time with you: that they counsel and urge you to flee from oaths, and convict you when you are caught. For the guard they keep over you is also counsel and exhortation for them toward this success. The one who accuses another about oaths will not easily fall into this pit himself. For frequent swearing is no ordinary pit—not only when it happens about the smallest matters, but also when it happens about the greatest. But we, buying vegetables and quarreling over two obols, angry with servants and threatening them, call on God as witness everywhere. You would not dare to call a free man, one who holds some empty honor, as witness in the marketplace over such matters; if you tried, you would pay the penalty for insult. But the King of the heavens, the Lord of the angels—when you are talking about purchases and money and ordinary things, you drag him in as witness. How can this be endured?

How then can we be freed from this evil habit? By stationing around ourselves the guards I mentioned, setting a fixed time for correction, and imposing a penalty on ourselves if we have not succeeded when the time has passed. How much time will be enough for this? I do not think that those who are very sober and awake and keeping watch over their own salvation will need more than ten days to be completely freed from the evil habit of oaths.

9But if after these ten days we are seen swearing oaths, let us impose a penalty on ourselves, and let us fix the greatest punishment and condemnation for the transgression. What then is the condemnation? I no longer fix it myself, but I leave you to be masters of your own verdict. Let us manage our own affairs in this way, not only with oaths but also with our other failings, setting a time for ourselves and the harshest punishments if we ever fall into them, so that we may depart clean to our Master, be delivered from the Gehenna of fire, and stand with boldness before the judgment seat of Christ. May we all attain that boldness, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.

SECOND INSTRUCTION. To those about to be baptized; and concerning women who adorn themselves with braided hair and gold; and concerning those who use omens, or amulets, or incantations, all of which are foreign to Christianity.

1. I have come to demand from your love the fruits of what was said before. For we do not speak merely so that you may hear, but so that you may remember what was said and give us the demonstration through your deeds—or rather, not to us, but to God, who knows the secrets of the mind. For this reason it is called instruction, so that even when we are absent the word may sound in your minds. And do not be surprised that after only ten days have passed we have come to demand the fruits of the seeds. For in a single day it is possible both to cast down seeds and to make a harvest. For we are called to the contests not by our own power alone, but strengthened also by the help of God.

Let those, then, who have accepted what was said and fulfilled it through their deeds remain stretching forward to what lies ahead. But those who have not yet touched this good work, let them touch it from now on, so that they may drive away the condemnation that comes from negligence by their zeal from this point forward. For it is possible—it is possible—for one who has been extremely negligent, if he afterward uses zeal, to recover all the loss of the time that has passed. Therefore it says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion" (Psalm 95:7-8). It says this to exhort and counsel us never to despair, but as long as we are here, to have good hopes, to press on toward what lies ahead, and to pursue the prize of the upward call of God (Philippians 3:13-14).

Let us do this, then, and let us examine the names of this great gift. For just as the greatness of an honor that is unknown makes those who are honored more negligent, so when it is known it makes them grateful and more diligent. And besides, it would be shameful and ridiculous for those who enjoy such glory and honor from God not even to know what its names are meant to signify. And why do I speak about this gift? If you consider the common name of our race, you will receive the greatest teaching and encouragement toward virtue. For we do not define the name "human being" as those outside do, but as the divine Scripture has commanded.

10For a human being is not simply someone who has the hands and feet of a human, nor someone who is merely rational, but someone who practices piety and virtue with boldness. Listen, then, to what is said about Job. After saying, “There was a man in the land of Uz,” it does not describe him by those definitions the outsiders use, nor does it say that he had two feet and broad nails, but it sets down the distinguishing marks of that piety and says, “Righteous, truthful, God-fearing, turning away from every evil thing,” showing that this is what a human being is. So another also says, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole human being” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). If the name “human being” offers so great an encouragement to virtue, how much more does the name “faithful”? For you are called faithful for this reason: because you believe in God, and you believe that from him you receive righteousness, holiness, purity of soul, adoption, the kingdom of heaven. God has entrusted and deposited these things with you. You in turn entrusted other things to him and deposited them: almsgiving, prayers, self-control, and all the rest of virtue. And why do I speak of almsgiving? Even if you give him a cup of cold water, you will not lose even this, but he guards it with care for that day and will repay it with great abundance. For this is the wonderful thing: he does not merely guard the deposits, but he increases them with his returns. This is what he commanded you also to do according to your ability: to increase the holiness you received, to make the righteousness from the washing more radiant, and to make the gift more splendid. Paul did this, increasing all the good things he received by his later labors, zeal, and eagerness. Consider God's care for you. He neither gave you everything here, nor did he deprive you of everything, but he gave some things and promised others. And why did he not give everything here? So that you might show your faith in him, believing in what has not yet been given on the strength of his promise alone. And why again did he not store up everything there, but gave also the grace of the Spirit, righteousness, and sanctification? To lighten your labors and to make you hopeful from what has already been given and from what is to come. For this reason you are about to be called newly baptized, because the light is always new for you, if you wish it, and it is never extinguished. For this light, whether we wish it or not, night takes over, but darkness does not know that ray. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). The world is not so bright when the sun's ray rises as the soul is illuminated and becomes more radiant when it receives the grace of the Spirit. Learn the nature of these things more precisely. When night holds sway and darkness is present, a person often sees a rope and thinks it is a snake, flees from a friend approaching as if he were an enemy, and becomes terrified at some noise. But when day comes, nothing like that happens; everything appears as it really is. This is what happens to our soul as well.

11For when grace comes and drives the darkness from the mind, we learn the truth about things, and what once terrified us becomes contemptible. We no longer fear death, because we have learned precisely from this sacred initiation that death is not death, but sleep and a temporary slumber. We do not fear poverty, or sickness, or anything else of that kind, because we know that we are traveling toward a better life, pure and incorruptible, free from every such irregularity.

Let us no longer remain gaping at the things of this life, nor at the luxury of the table, nor at the extravagance of clothing. For you have the greatest garment, you have a spiritual table, you have the glory from above, and Christ becomes everything for you: table, garment, house, head, and root. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). See how he has become your garment. Do you want to learn how he also becomes your table? “Whoever eats me,” he says, “as I live because of the Father, so he also will live because of me” (John 6:57). And that he becomes your house: “Whoever eats my flesh remains in me, and I in him” (John 6:56). And that he is the root, he says again: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5). And that he is brother, and friend, and bridegroom: “No longer do I call you servants, for you are my friends” (John 15:15). And Paul again: “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). And again: “That he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). And we become not only his brothers, but also his children: “Behold,” he says, “I and the children whom God has given me” (Isaiah 8:18). And not only this, but also his members, and his body. For as if the things already said were not enough to show the love and goodwill he displays toward us, he added something greater and closer than all these, calling himself our head.

Knowing all these things, beloved, repay your benefactor with the best way of life, and when you consider the greatness of the sacrifice, adorn the members of your body. Consider what you receive in your hand, and never endure to strike anyone, nor disgrace the hand honored with so great a gift by the sin of a blow. Consider what you receive in your hand, and keep it pure from greed and all robbery. Reckon that you do not receive it only with your hand, but you also bring it to your mouth, and keep your tongue pure from shameful and abusive words, from blasphemy, from perjury, and from all other such things. For it is destructive to turn a tongue that serves such awe-inspiring sacred rites, that has been dyed red with such blood and become a golden sword, to use it for insults, abuse, and coarse jesting. Respect the honor with which God has honored it, and do not drag it down into the cheapness of sin. But consider again that after the hand and the tongue, the heart receives that awe-inspiring mystery, and never stitch up deceit against your neighbor, but keep your mind pure from all wickedness. In this way you will also be able to guard your eyes and your hearing. For how is it not absurd, after that mystical voice that comes from heaven—I mean the voice of the Cherubim—to defile your hearing with pornographic songs and effeminate melodies? And how is it not worthy of the utmost punishment, with the eyes with which you see the ineffable and awe-inspiring sacred rites, to look at prostitutes with those same eyes and commit adultery in your mind? You have been invited to a wedding, beloved. Do not enter wearing filthy clothes, but take a garment suited to the wedding.

12When people are invited to an ordinary wedding, even if they are poorer than everyone else, they often borrow or buy a clean garment and go to their hosts dressed in that. But you have been invited to a spiritual wedding and a royal banquet. Consider what kind of garment you ought to buy. Yet there is no need to buy one at all: the one who invites you gives it to you as a gift, so that you cannot even plead poverty as an excuse. Guard the garment you have received, then. If you lose it, you will no longer be able to borrow or buy another, because such a garment is not sold anywhere.

You heard how those who were initiated long ago groaned and struck their chests when their conscience rose up against them here. Take care, beloved, that you never suffer the same thing. And how will you not suffer it, if you do not cast out the wicked habit of evil deeds? This is why I said before and say now, and will not stop saying: if anyone has not corrected the defects of his character and made virtue easy for himself, let him not be baptized. The washing can forgive former sins, but there is no small fear and no ordinary danger that we may return to them again, and the medicine may become a wound for us. For the greater the grace has been, the greater the punishment for those who sin afterward.

So that we may not return to our former vomit, let us train ourselves from this point on. For you must first repent and turn away from your former evils, and only then approach the grace. Listen to what John says, and what the chief of the apostles says to those about to be baptized. John says: “Bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’” (Matthew 3:8). And Peter said to those who asked: “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). The one who repents no longer touches the same deeds over which he repented. This is why we are commanded to say: “I renounce you, Satan,” so that we may never return to him again.

Let it be now as it is with painters. They set out their panels, draw white outlines, and sketch the royal images. Before they apply the truth of the colors, they have full authority to erase some lines and draw others in their place, correcting what is wrong and changing what is badly placed. But once they apply the dye, they are no longer free to erase and redraw, because that ruins the beauty of the image and the thing becomes a charge against them. Do the same yourself. Consider your soul to be an image. Before the true dye of the Spirit comes upon you, erase the bad habits that have been implanted in you. Whether you have a habit of swearing oaths, lying, insulting, speaking shamefully, playing the fool, or doing any other such thing that is not permitted, remove the habit, so that you will not return to it again after baptism. The washing destroys sins; you must correct the habit, so that when the colors have been applied and the royal image shines, you will no longer erase it and inflict wounds and scars on the beauty God has given you.

13So restrain your anger and quench your rage. If someone wrongs you or insults you, weep for that person. Do not be indignant; sympathize with him. Do not be provoked, and do not say, "I have been wronged in my soul." No one is ever wronged in his soul unless we wrong our own souls. How is that? Let me explain. Has someone taken your property? He has not wronged your soul, but your money. But if you bear a grudge, you have wronged your own soul. The loss of money did you no harm—it even helped you—but if you do not let go of your anger, you will give an account for that grudge in the next life. Has someone reviled and insulted you? He has not wronged your soul, nor even your body. But if you revile and insult him in return, you have wronged your own soul, because you will have to give an account for the words you spoke. And this above all I want you to know: no one can wrong the soul of a Christian believer—not even the devil himself.

And this is not the only remarkable thing, that God has made us invulnerable to every plot. He has also made us fit for the practice of virtue, and there is no obstacle if we are willing—whether we are poor, weak in body, cast off, without a name, or slaves. Neither poverty, nor sickness, nor maiming of the body, nor slavery, nor anything else of that kind can ever stand in the way of virtue. And why do I speak of the poor man, the slave, the nameless one? Even if you are a prisoner, that is no obstacle to virtue. How is that? Let me explain. Has one of those inside grieved and provoked you? Let go of your anger toward him. Have your chains, your poverty, your dishonor been any obstacle to that? And why do I say obstacle? They have actually helped and worked with you to restrain your pride. Have you seen another person prospering? Do not envy him. Poverty is no hindrance here either. Again, when you need to pray, do it with a sober and watchful mind, and nothing will hinder you there either. Show all gentleness, forbearance, self-control, and dignity. None of these things needs external help.

And this is the greatest thing about virtue: it has no need of wealth, or power, or reputation, or anything else of that kind. It needs only a sanctified soul, and it seeks nothing more. See how the same thing happens with grace. If someone is lame, or has had his eyes gouged out, or is maimed in body, or has fallen into the most extreme sickness, grace is not prevented by any of these from coming to him. For grace seeks only a soul that receives it eagerly, and it passes by all these external things. In the case of earthly soldiers, those who are going to enlist them in the camp require a certain height of body and good physical condition. And the man who is going to serve as a soldier must not only have these things—he must also be free. If someone is a slave, he is rejected. But the King of heaven seeks nothing of the kind. He accepts even slaves into his camp, and those who have grown old, and those with limbs paralyzed, and he is not ashamed.

14What could be more loving toward humankind than this? What could be more gracious? For he seeks only what is in our power, while those others seek what is not in our power. To be slave or free is not ours; to be tall or short is not in our power; to be old or in one's prime, and all such things—these are not ours. But to be gentle or good and things like these belong to our own will. And God demands from us only these things, of which we are masters. And rightly so. For he does not call us to his grace for his own need, but for our benefit, while kings do so for their own service. And those kings drag men off to a war perceived by the senses, but this one calls us to a spiritual battle.

And one could see the same analogy not only in external wars but also in athletic contests. For those who are about to be led into that theater do not enter the contests until the herald takes them and leads them around before the eyes of all, shouting and saying, "Does anyone accuse this man?" And yet there the wrestling is not of souls but of bodies. Why then do you demand proofs of noble birth? But here there is nothing of the sort—rather the complete opposite. Our wrestling does not consist in the grappling of hands but in the discipline of the soul and the virtue of the mind. The judge of the contest does the opposite. For he does not take the man and lead him around saying, "Does anyone accuse this man?" Instead he cries out: "Even if all human beings, even if demons together with the devil stand against him and accuse him of the most extreme and unspeakable evils, I do not cast him out, I do not abhor him. Having freed him from his accusers and released him from wickedness, I lead him into the contests." And rightly so. For there the judge of the contest contributes nothing to the competitors toward victory, but stands in the middle. Here, however, the judge of the contests of godliness becomes an ally and helper, joining with them in the battle against the devil.

And this is not the only wonder—that he forgives our sins—but that he does not uncover them, nor make them visible and public, nor compel us to come forward into the open and declare what we have done wrong. He commands us to give an account to him alone and to confess to him. And yet, among the judges outside, if someone told one of the convicted robbers or grave-diggers to declare what he had done wrong and be released from punishment, he would accept this with all eagerness, despising shame out of desire for safety. But here there is nothing of the sort. He both forgives the sins and does not compel us to parade them out in the presence of others. He seeks only one thing: that the one who enjoys the forgiveness should learn the greatness of the gift.

How then is it not absurd that in the things where he himself benefits us, he is content with testimony from us alone, while we, in the things where we serve him, seek other witnesses and do something for display? Let us therefore marvel at his kindness and show what is on our side. And before all else, let us bridle the rush of the tongue, and not always be talking. For "from much talking you will not escape sin" (Sirach 23:8). If you have something useful to say, open your lips. But if there is nothing necessary, be silent. For it is better.

15Are you a craftsman? Sit at your work and sing psalms. But you do not want to sing psalms with your mouth? Do it with your mind. A psalm is a great companion. You will suffer nothing terrible from this, but you will be able to sit in your workshop as if in a monastery. For it is not the suitability of places but the discipline of our habits that gives us quiet. Paul, at any rate, worked at his trade in a workshop and suffered no harm to his virtue. So do not say, "How will I be able to practice philosophy when I am a craftsman and poor?" For this very reason you will be able to practice philosophy all the more. Poverty is more suited to piety than wealth, and work than idleness, just as wealth becomes a hindrance to those who are not careful. For when you need to let go of anger, to quench envy, to relax your temper, to show prayer, to show gentleness and meekness, to show kindness and love, where could poverty be an obstacle? These things are not accomplished by paying out silver, but by showing a right choice. Almsgiving is the thing that most requires money, but even this shone more brightly through poverty. For the woman who put in two obols was poorer than all people, and she surpassed them all (Mark 12:42). Let us not, then, think wealth is something great, nor consider gold better than clay. For the honor of a material comes not from its nature but from our own thinking. If someone examined carefully, iron is far more necessary than gold. Gold brings no need into life, but iron has furnished most of our needs, serving countless crafts. And why do I compare gold and iron? These ordinary stones are more necessary than precious stones. From those nothing useful could come, but from these houses, walls, and cities have been built. But show me what gain could come from these pearls—or rather, what harm could not come from them? For so that you may wear a single pearl, thousands of poor people are strangled by hunger. What defense will you find then? What pardon? Do you want to adorn your face? Not with pearls, but with self-control and dignity. That is how your husband will see your face as more graceful. That other adornment usually casts suspicion of jealousy, and leads to enmities, quarrels, and fights. For nothing is more unpleasant than a face that is suspected. But the adornment of almsgiving and self-control casts out every evil suspicion and draws your husband to you more powerfully than any bond. For the natural beauty of a face does not make it appear lovely as much as the disposition of the one looking at it does. And nothing creates that disposition as much as self-control and dignity. So even if a woman is beautiful, if her husband is hostile toward her, she will seem uglier than everyone to him. And if a woman happens not to be attractive, but her husband is kindly disposed toward her, she will seem more beautiful than everyone to him. For the judgments are made not in the nature of the things seen, but in the disposition of those who see. Adorn your face, then, with self-control, dignity, almsgiving, love for humanity, love, kindness toward your husband, gentleness, meekness, forbearance. These are the colors of virtue. Through these you will draw angels, not human lovers, to yourself. Through these you have God himself as your admirer. And when God approves, he will certainly subject your husband to you as well.

16For if a man's wisdom makes his face shine, how much more does a woman's virtue make her appearance shine. But if you think this world is something great, tell me: what good will those pearls do you on that day? And why speak of that day, when it is possible to prove all this from the present as well? When those who were thought to have insulted the king were dragged into court and were in danger of losing everything, then their mothers and wives laid aside their necklaces and gold and pearls and all their adornment and their golden garments, took plain and cheap clothing, sprinkled themselves with ashes, and rolled before the doors of the courtroom, and in this way they bent the judges. Now if in the courts here gold and pearls and embroidered clothing would be a plot and a betrayal, while gentleness and meekness and ashes and tears and cheap garments draw the judge to one's side, how much more will this be so at that incorruptible and fearful verdict. For what argument will you have to make, tell me, what defense, when the Master accuses you about these pearls and brings into the midst the poor who were destroyed by famine? This is why Paul said: not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or expensive clothing (1 Timothy 2:9). For from these a plot could arise; and even if we enjoyed them continually, we will certainly be separated from them by death. But from virtue comes all security, and no change or fall; it makes us safer here, and it crosses over with us there. Do you want to acquire pearls, and never to lay aside this wealth? Strip off all your adornment and deposit it into the hands of Christ through the poor. He will guard all your wealth for you, when he raises your body with great splendor; then he will put on you better wealth and greater adornment, since this present one is cheap and ridiculous. Consider, then, whom you want to please, and for whose sake you wear this adornment: so that the rope maker, the bronze smith, and the market man may see you and marvel. And are you not ashamed, do you not blush, displaying yourself for them—doing everything for people you do not even consider worthy of your greeting? How, then, will you laugh at this delusion? If you remember that voice which you uttered when you were being initiated: I renounce you, Satan, and your pageantry and your worship. For the madness over pearl adornment is Satan's pageantry. You received gold not so that you might bind up your body, but so that you might release the poor and feed them. Say, then, continually: I renounce you, Satan. No voice is safer than this, if we demonstrate it through our deeds.

This voice I ask you also to learn, you who are about to be initiated. For this voice is a covenant with the Master. And just as we, when we buy servants, first ask those who are being sold whether they want to serve us, so Christ also does. Since he is about to take you into his service, he first asks whether you want to abandon that cruel and savage tyrant, and he receives a covenant from you. For his lordship is not forced.

17Consider God's love for humanity. We, before we pay the price, ask those who are being sold, and when we learn that they are willing, then we pay the price. But Christ did not do this. He paid the price for all of us—his precious blood. For it says, “You were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Yet even so he does not force those who are unwilling to serve him. If you are not grateful, he says, and do not wish of your own accord to have his lordship inscribed upon you, I do not compel or force you.

We would not choose to buy wicked servants. And if we ever did choose to, we would buy them with evil intent, and we would pay a price suited to such servants. But Christ, buying ungrateful and lawless servants, paid the price of a prime slave—or rather far more, and so much more that no word or thought can present its magnitude. For he did not give heaven and earth and sea, but he laid down what is more precious than all these—his own blood—and so he bought us back. And after all this he does not demand witnesses from us or written documents, but he is satisfied with a bare word. If you say from the heart, “I renounce you, Satan, and your pageantry,” he has received the whole.

Let us say this, then: “I renounce you, Satan,” as those who are about, on that day, to be asked for this word, and let us guard it, so that we may return this deposit intact at that time. Satan's pageantry is theaters and horse races, and every sin, and observance of days, and omens and chance encounters.

And what are chance encounters? someone says. Often a man goes out of his house, sees a one-eyed man or a lame man, and takes it as an omen. This is Satan's pageantry. For it is not the meeting of a person that makes the day evil, but living in sins. When you go out, then, guard one thing only: that no sin meets you. For this is what trips us up, and apart from this the devil cannot harm us.

What are you saying? You see a man and take an omen, and you do not see the devil's snare—how he makes you an enemy of one who has done you no wrong? How he makes you hostile to your brother for no just cause? God commanded you to love even your enemies, but you turn away from one who has done you no wrong, having nothing to accuse him of, and you do not consider how much laughter, how much shame—or rather how much danger—there is?

Shall I say something even more ridiculous? I am ashamed and I blush, but I am compelled for your salvation to say it. If a virgin meets you, he says, the day becomes unprofitable; but if a prostitute meets you, the day is favorable and good and full of much business. Do you cover your faces and strike your foreheads and bow down to the ground? But not now while the words are being spoken—rather when the deeds are being done!

See here too how the devil hid his deceit, so that we turn away from the chaste woman and welcome and love the licentious one. For since he heard Christ saying, “Whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her” (Matthew 5:28), and saw many overcoming licentiousness, wishing by another road to cast them again into sin, through this observance he persuaded them to give heed willingly to prostitute women.

18What could anyone say about those who use incantations and amulets, and bind bronze coins of Alexander of Macedon around their heads and feet? Tell me, are these our hopes—that after the cross and the death of the Master, we place the hopes of salvation in the image of a Greek king? Do you not know how much the cross accomplished? It destroyed death, quenched sin, made hell useless, dissolved the devil's power, and raised up the whole world—and is it not worthy of trust for the health of the body? And do you not trust in it? Tell me, what would you deserve?

And you do not only carry amulets around with you, but also incantations, bringing drunken and raving old women into your house. And you are not ashamed, you do not blush, after so much philosophy, to be terrified by these things? And here is the more difficult part of the deceit: when we advise against these things and try to draw you away, they think they are defending themselves by saying, 'The woman who chants these things is a Christian, and she says nothing other than the name of God.' For this very reason, then, I hate and turn away from her most of all—because she has abused the name of God to insult Him, because while claiming to be a Christian, she displays the practices of the Greeks. For the demons also spoke the name of God, but they were demons, and they spoke to Christ in this way: 'We know who you are, the Holy One of God' (Mark 1:24). And yet he rebuked them and drove them away.

For these reasons, then, I urge you to keep yourselves pure from this deceit, and to hold this saying as a staff. And just as none of you would choose to go down into the marketplace without sandals or clothing, so never go into the marketplace without this saying. But when you are about to cross the threshold of the gate, say this saying first: 'I renounce you, Satan, and your pageantry and your worship, and I join myself to you, Christ.' And never go out without this utterance. This will be your staff, this your weapon, this your unassailable tower. And with this saying, trace the cross on your forehead. For in this way, not only will no human being who meets you be able to harm you, but not even the devil himself, when he sees you appearing everywhere with these weapons.

Train yourself in these things from now on, so that when you receive the seal, you may be a prepared soldier, and having set up the trophy against the devil, you may receive the crown of righteousness. May it be granted to all of us to obtain it, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.