Baptismal Instructions · §12 · John Chrysostom

The garment of baptism and the painter's board

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Chrysostom is addressing the catechumens preparing for baptism, urging them to reform their habits before receiving the washing of regeneration.

When 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.

Greek

Εἰ γὰρ εἰς γάμους αἰσθητοὺς ἄνθρωποι καλούμενοι, κἂν ἁπάντων ὦσι πενέστεροι, χρησάμενοι πολλάκις ἢ πριάμενοι ἱμάτιον καθαρὸν, οὕτω πρὸς τοὺς καλέσαντας αὐτοὺς ἀπαντῶσι· σὺ δὲ ὁ πρὸς γάμον κληθεὶς πνευματικὸν καὶ δεῖπνα βασιλικὰ, ἐννόησον, ἡλίκον ἂν εἴη δίκαιόν σε ἱμάτιον πρίασθαι· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἀγοράσαι χρεία, ἀλλ' αὐτός σοι δίδωσιν ὁ καλῶν δωρεὰν, ἵνα μηδὲ πενίαν προβαλέσθαι ἔχῃς. Τήρει τοίνυν ὅπερ ἔλαβες ἱμάτιον· ἂν γὰρ ἀπολέσῃς, χρήσασθαι οὐ δυνήσῃ λοιπὸν, οὐδὲ πρίασθαι· οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ πωλεῖται τοιοῦτον ἱμάτιον. Ἤκουσας, πῶς ἐστέναξαν οἱ πάλαι μυσταγωγηθέντες, καὶ τὸ στῆθος ἐπάταξαν τοῦ συνειδότος ἐνταῦθα διαναστήσαντος; Σκόπει τοίνυν, ἀγαπητὲ, μὴ καὶ σύ ποτε τοῦτο πάθῃ· πῶς δὲ οὐ πείσῃ, τὴν πονηρὰν συνήθειαν μὴ ἐκβαλὼν τῶν κακῶν; Διὰ τοῦτο καὶ πρώην εἶπον καὶ νῦν λέγω, καὶ λέγων οὐ παύσομαι, εἴ τις τὰ ἐλαττώματα τῶν τρόπων μὴ διώρθωσε μηδὲ παρεσκεύασεν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀρετὴν εὔκολον, μὴ βαπτιζέσθω. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ πρότερα ἁμαρτήματα ἀφεῖναι δύναται τὸ λουτρόν· δέος δὲ οὐ μικρὸν καὶ κίνδυνος οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν, μήποτε πάλιν ἐπ' αὐτὰ ἐπανέλθωμεν, καὶ γένηται ἡμῖν ἕλκος τὸ φάρμακον. Ὅσῳ γὰρ μείζων γέγονεν ἡ χάρις, τοσούτῳ πλείων ἡ κόλασις τοῖς μετὰ ταῦτα ἁμαρτάνουσιν. γʹ. Ἵνα οὖν μὴ πρὸς τὸν πρότερον ἐπανίωμεν ἐμετὸν, παιδεύσωμεν ἑαυτοὺς ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη. Ὅτι γὰρ δεῖ πρότερον μετανοήσαντας καὶ τῶν προτέρων ἀποστάντας κακῶν, οὕτω τῇ χάριτι προσιέναι, ἄκουσον τί μὲν Ἰωάννης φησὶ, τί δὲ ὁ τῶν ἀποστόλων κορυφαῖος τοῖς βαπτίζεσθαι μέλλουσιν· ἐκεῖνος μὲν γάρ φησι· Ποιήσατε καρπὸν ἄξιον τῆς μετανοίας, καὶ μὴ ἄρξησθε λέγειν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς, ὅτι Πατέρα ἔχομεν τὸν Ἀβραάμ· οὗτος δὲ τοῖς ἐρωτῶσι πάλιν ἔλεγε· Μετανοήσατε, καὶ βαπτισθήτω ἕκαστος ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ὁ δὲ μετανοῶν οὐκέτι τῶν αὐτῶν ἅπτεται πραγμάτων, ἐφ' οἷς μετενόησε· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ κελευόμεθα λέγειν· Ἀποτάσσομαί σοι, Σατανᾶ, ἵνα μηκέτι πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐπανέλθωμεν. Καθάπερ οὖν ἐπὶ τῶν ζωγράφων γίνεται, οὕτω καὶ νῦν γινέσθω· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι τὰς σανίδας προθέντες, καὶ λευκὰς περιάγοντες γραμμὰς, καὶ τὰς βασιλικὰς ὑπογράφοντες εἰκόνας, πρὶν ἢ τῶν χρωμάτων ἐπαγαγεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, μετ' ἐξουσίας ἁπάσης τὰ μὲν ἐξαλείφουσι, τὰ δὲ ἀντεγγράφουσι, καὶ διορθοῦντες τὰ ἡμαρτημένα καὶ μετατιθέντες τὰ κακῶς ἔχοντα· ἐπειδὰν δὲ τὴν βαφὴν λοιπὸν ἐπαγάγωσιν, οὐκέτι εἰσὶ κύριοι πάλιν ἐξαλεῖψαι καὶ ἀντεγγράψαι, ἐπεὶ τῷ κάλλει τῆς εἰκόνος λυμαίνονται, καὶ ἔγκλημα τὸ πρᾶγμα γίνεται· τοῦτο δὴ καὶ σὺ ποίησον· νόμισον εἰκόνα σοι τὴν ψυχὴν εἶναι. Πρὶν ἢ τοίνυν ἐπελθεῖν τὴν ἀληθῆ τοῦ Πνεύματος βαφὴν, ἐξάλειψον τὰς κακῶς ἐντεθείσας σοι συνηθείας· εἴτε ὀμνύναι, εἴτε ψεύδεσθαι, εἴτε ὑβρίζειν, εἴτε αἰσχρολογεῖν, εἴτε γελωτοποιεῖν, εἴτε ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων τῶν μὴ νενομισμένων συνήθειαν ἔχεις ποιεῖν, ἔξελε τὴν συνήθειαν, ἵνα μὴ πάλιν πρὸς αὐτὴν ἐπανέλθῃς μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα. Τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ἀφανίζει τὸ λουτρὸν, τὴν συνήθειαν διόρθωσον σὺ, ἵνα τῶν χρωμάτων ἐπενεχθέντων καὶ λαμψάσης τῆς βασιλικῆς εἰκόνος, μηκέτι λοιπὸν ἐξαλείφῃς, καὶ τραύματα καὶ οὐλὰς ἐμποιῇς τῷ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοθέντι σοι κάλλει.

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About this text

John Chrysostom (c. 349–407) addressed these instructions to catechumens preparing for baptism. He gave them as two catechetical homilies for those about to be baptized, to guide baptismal preparation, moral purification and renunciation of Satan.

He first celebrates their decision and contrasts deliberate preparation with deathbed baptism, then explains the many names of baptism, above all the washing of regeneration, as recreation of the whole person rather than only forgiveness of sins. He urges control of the tongue by renouncing all oaths and reform of habits before baptism, and warns against luxury, especially women's jewelry, and pagan practices such as omens, amulets and incantations, calling readers to use the renunciation of Satan as a daily weapon. The reader meets Joseph, Pharaoh, Moses, David, Job, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul and Alexander of Macedon. Paul, Christ, David, John the Baptist, Peter and an unnamed speaker of wisdom sayings are quoted at length, and demons are quoted speaking to Christ.

To be baptized renders the word for being enlightened, and enlightenment, initiation and sacred rites also refer to baptism and its rites, while washing of regeneration means complete re-creation. I renounce you, Satan is the baptismal renunciation, Satan's pageantry covers theaters, races, omens, amulets and all sin, and covenant and deposit describe the agreement with Christ and the grace entrusted at baptism. Oaths of every kind are forbidden, including perjury and truthful oaths, and omens, amulets and incantations mean pagan signs and spells. Uz renders Ausitis, the land of Uz and home of Job, and the coins of Alexander of Macedon were used as amulets. The quotations follow the Septuagint, here given with standard English Bible book names and Hebrew Psalm numbering, with a note where the Greek numbering is one behind.

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Translated from Migne PG text (Aegean University Digital Patrology, via (Greek)
Also checked Migne PG 49, archive.org scan patrologiae_cursus_completus_gr_vol_049 (Greek machine-read text) (Greek · check (same print; machine-read text compared word by word))

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