Everyone, God bless you. Thanks so much for tuning in.
It has made my heart so happy these last few years that so many people are pouring into the Church and seeking the great grace of union with Jesus Christ in holy baptism. Baptism is the sacred right through which you enter into the Church. If you want to become a member of the Body of Christ, you want to take up your position in the Church, that's done through baptism.
Baptism is the first of Christian sacraments. Together with Chrismation and the Eucharist, those three sacraments form what we call the rites of initiation. This is how a person becomes a Christian, says how a person establishes himself as a member of the Church united to Christ.
Here are the major miracles that take.
Place when a person is baptized, is baptized, they are united to Christ. They literally become in dwelt by God. This union with Christ, which is Saint All's favorite description of what a Christian is. A Christian is a human being in Christ and CHRISTO And how do you become Christ? Though you become in Christ through holy baptism. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we two might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of his death, certainly we
shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, For he who has died is freed from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with him. This is a marvelous text, and as I said, it's read actually in the sacrament itself,
in the service itself. We're buried with Christ into his death and raised with Christ into his resurrection.
In baptism.
Saint Paul says, this is why the Church baptizes by trying or triple immersion. And immersion we immerse and the person emerges three times in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And in this miracle. In this sacrament and this mystery, a person is joined to Christ, literally bound to his death and his resurrection. You die to sin, and you are joined to Christ's life, his resurrection life. You come out of the baptismal font no longer a slave to sin,
no longer tyrannized, but now joined to Christ. The great twentieth century theologian who suffered for Christ in Romania, Saint Dmitri Standaloi. He says, after we have accepted death to sin in baptism, together with that death, which is the sacrifice of our being offered to God, we must therefore go go on with the process of dying. Not the death of the old man, because he has died definitively, but death as continuous surrender to God.
Together with Christ.
He remains in the state of sacrifice of self giving to God, so that we too might be with him in this same sacrificial condition. We die to sin by being joined to Christ, and then we emerge from the waters united to Him. In this state of offering ourselves to God. This is what constitutes true love for God and the Christian life. It's a marvelous, marvelous text. The life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but
alive to God in Christ, Jesus our Lord. So this is the first great miracle of baptism. It's a union with Christ. We die to sin. With Christ, we rise to life, and we take up this position of offering our hearts, our life to God.
This is how Christians live.
A second miracle of holy baptism is new birth. Is new birth. We see this, of course in Jesus's conversation with Nicodemus in the third chapter of Saint John's Gospel, where Jesus speaks about being born from again, being born again by water and the spirit. This is also a beautifully described by Saint Paul and his epistle to his spiritual son Titus in chapter three. I'll read this to you.
It's a beautiful text. But when the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Here again you have this beautiful description of holy baptism as a washing of regeneration and a renewal of the Holy Spirit. This is new birth, the second great miracle of baptism.
Another miracle of baptism is the complete remission of sins. Saint John Chrisostom describes in great detail his baptismal instructions. These are instructions given to catechumens and those who are newly lumined about baptism, and he says that no matter what darkness, whatever what stain on your soul you have, when you go into the baptismal font and come out,
you are made resplendent. You are completely washed and forgiven, and you come out radiant, So radiant he says that the angels can't bear the glory of your face and have to turn away. Can you imagine the mercy of God in baptism to take sinners like ourselves and to do a cleansing light We could never imagine a forgiveness of our sins like we could never dream of. A fourth miracle is that baptism incorporates you into the Body of Christ, into the Church. Baptism is entrance into the Church.
Saint Paul writes this in First Corinthians, Chapter twelve, verse thirteen four. By one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. How do you become a member of the church. It's not by signing a pledge card. It's not just by showing up either or just by saying a prayer and asking Jesus to be your savior in your closet. As wonderful as all of those things are a plus on all those things, but that's not the way that you become a member of the Church, the body of Christ.
Saint Gregor that Theolochian says, baptism is the striking of a covenant for a second life, for a second life. I think that's super beautiful, and we could go on and on. It's baptism is also the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Church calls baptism fotisms or illumination. It affects everything. Baptism gives us a whole new site on how we interpret the world. Salvation is if salvation itself is what baptism is. This is the summation of the
miracles of baptism. It is simply salvation. And Saint Peter says that in his First Epistle three verse twenty one. He says, Baptism now saves you for incredible words. Baptism now saves you an incredible text. Salvation is something that's given definitively in baptism, something that is worked out, as Saint Paul says, right, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It's worked out through the process of loving God and keeping his words. If you love me, Jesus said,
keep my commandments, and salvation is progressive. It's definitive in baptism, and then it grows. Your sanctification grows. The process of conforming your life to Christ grows by keeping the commandments.
Of course, that's very clear in the Great Commission, isn't it.
Jesus says to his disciples, go into all the world, make disciples of all the nations. How do you begin a disciple baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you even to the end of the age. This is the commission of the Church. The miracle of baptism brings salvation and brings you into a life of progressive sanctification. It
is in fact the constitutive part of discipleship. It's how you begin discipleship is by receiving your catechism and being baptized. The great Saint Nicholas Cabasilas He says, baptism engraves an image and in parts of form to our souls by conforming them to the death and resurrection of the Savior. It is then that we are formed and shaped, and are shapeless and undefined. Life receives shape and definition. Besides,
we become known to Him who knows his own. On this day we hear the significant word our own name. The servant of God, John, for instance, is baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On this day we hear the significant word our name, as though then we were properly known.
For to be known by God is to become truly known.
This is from Saint Nicholas Cambasilasis The Life in Christ, an incredible text.
You know.
These days young people especially use this language of wanting to be and needing to be seen. They want to be seen well. The way to be seen is to be baptized, be catechized, be formed into disciples of Christ. And in holy baptism, be named. Let God give you your name, Let Him know you as one of his own. Let Christ become your shepherd, and you his sheep, and he calls his sheep by name. You're seen by Christ, known by God. It's marvelous. We could go on and
on on the miracles of baptism. Baptism is called regeneration on the enecees, clothing with Christ, washing away of scene of sin apolusis adoption, weal, theesia, illumination, fotismos a planting, a first resurrection. These are all scriptural names for the miracles of holy baptism. Baptism is a great gift. It is God's will that every human being be joined to Jesus our Savior through holy baptism. Those of you who are baptized, thank God for the miracles of your baptism.
Live them out faithfully. And those of you who are not yet baptized, it's time. This time, God is calling you to become his own. God be with you and keep you. Hey, everyone, I hope you've downloaded the Patristic nectar app on your phone. It is a treasure trove of soul nourishing content and I hope you'll consider becoming a regular donor to Patristic Nectar today