In sanctam theophaniam seu baptismum Christi

On the Holy Theophany. The fountain of evangelical teachings has its streams opened, and if one who thirsts drinks from that fountain, he is given life; he is given life according to the spirit and the law of the commandments, receiving a joy beyond wine. For the sweetness of spiritual discourses is insatiable; it does not delight the belly, but the heart, and leads the thoughts of the pious to love of God. For you heard just now in the Gospel the Baptist John crying out to the multitude of Jews, which had come together from everywhere and was being baptized: “I baptize you in water for repentance; but the one coming after me is stronger than I. The one coming after me—after, because of the birth of his generation. The one coming after me is stronger than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.” And what sandals were to be carried that the Lord endured, that he said, “I am not fit to carry the sandals”? Here he calls “sandals” the mysteries of the economy; for the sandals signify the incarnation of the Lord. And a witness to this is the Lord crying out through the prophet: “I will stretch my sandal over Idumea.” For this reason the incarnation of the Lord was also called a footstool, as it appeared on earth and reached the end of the earth. This the prophet also cried out, making the manifestation from both sides: “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at the footstool of his feet.” “I baptize you in water for repentance; but the one coming after me is stronger than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.

He whose winnowing fan is in his hand will gather the grain into his storehouse, and burn the chaff with inextinguishable fire. As John gave these warnings and sounded the trumpet for the mightier Lord, those being baptized by him opposed John, saying, “Do you have someone mightier than yourself, O prophet? Why do you slander yourself? You are the son of the great Zechariah, you are beloved by men and fearsome to beasts. Do you have someone mightier than yourself? Why do you babble? There is none mightier than you. You were born according to a promise, you were announced by Gabriel, you were revealed in the sanctuary, you loosed the tongue of your father, which was bound by Gabriel, you are called John, which means ‘grace of God.’ Why then do you slander yourself? You have none mightier than you.” But John, bearing witness as a servant on behalf of his Master, and not deigning to usurp divine dignity, cried out in reply to the opposing crowds, saying, “You speak of what you do not know; I bear witness to what I know. One mightier than I is coming. I am for his sake, he is not for mine; I am from a barren woman, he is from a virgin; I am a soldier, he is a king; I am a forerunner, he is heavenly; I have borrowed the Spirit, he provides life to all men; I am a herald of repentance, he is a giver of adoption; I baptize you in water, cleansing you beforehand like vessels befouled by sins, he will pour in the ointment of grace; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, not a consuming fire, but a sanctifying one.

I stir the tongue of admonition; he, bearing the winnowing fan of righteous judgment, will carry the just like ripe grain into the storehouse of the heavens, and will deliver the sinners and those who have not repented like chaff to the inextinguishable fire. The one coming after me is mightier than I. Wait there for him; receive the perfect baptism from him. I am a lamp in part, he is the sun everywhere. The one coming after me is mightier than I. As John gave these warnings and others like them, the crowds baptized by him waited, debating among themselves and saying, Let us be patient and see the coming kingdom or apparition that is to pass by. John has burdened our ears with terrifying words; he says that one mightier than he is to arrive, bearing a winnowing fan and fire and Spirit. While the crowds were thus expecting the arrival of an earthly kingdom, the Lord and God of all, passing from above—behold also the Lord in the appearance of the incarnation, alone, simple, in a single garment, like one of the common people—arrived at the Jordan and inclined his head to John, wishing to be baptized by him. When the Baptist John saw this humble sight of Christ’s presence, contrary to all expectation, he grew dizzy, was at a loss, and was astounded. He looked around for a place of flight, wishing to flee, but found none, for he was invisibly held and constrained. He cried out to the restraining Lord, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me? What are you doing, Master? Why do you betray me to the crowds to be put to death? Now as a liar.

Crowds will stone you. I proclaimed great things about you, and you have come as a commoner and a stranger. What are you doing, Lord? Above, a King’s Son; below, a King’s Son—and no royal scepter at all? Show your worth. Why have you come alone and in common guise? Where is your throng of angels? Where is the order of archangels? Where is the six-winged ministry of the Cherubim? Where is the winnowing fan? Where is the fire? Where is your Holy Spirit? You glorified Moses: you set a bright cloud before him, you prepared a pillar of fire to go before him, you surrounded his face with angelic glory, you clothed the servant in such glory—and you, the Master, coming in private guise, bow your head to me? Lift it up; you are the head of all. Show what you are. You have shown the lowly; show also the lofty. Baptize those present, and above all, me. What do you wish to baptize? The Jordan will not receive you. It recognized you, its maker; it turned its streams backward, it does not advance forward, it refuses its order. The elements recognize you, and I should not recognize you? If you wish to be baptized, baptize yourself. I do not stretch out my hands. They refuse the composition; they grow numb, they contract. What they have not learned to hold, they do not accept. I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me? I know who you are, and you know that I know you. Why do you hide yourself from the one who knows you? While I was still in my mother’s womb, sealed and unable to find an exit before the time, I alone saw you borne by the one who is borne by you.

I recognized you, and not finding what to say, using my mother’s mouth, I cried out through her my own words: “Whence this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” There I was not mistaken, and here do I not know? I have need to be baptized by you, and you come to me? And the Lord to him, as you just now heard: “Let it be for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Let it be for now; you do not know what you are saying; I know what I am doing. You seek the glory of my divinity to be revealed to you; the time is not right; all things are good in their own time.” You speak truly, but you are not believed; for the Jewish nation is faithless. Did you not call them offspring of vipers? How then do you wish me to be revealed to these? They do not accept your testimony about me; they suspect you, because of the suspicion, as being a forerunner. “Let it be for now; they will receive a greater testimony. Let it be for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” And John says to him: “How, Master?” And the Lord to him: “Just as I was circumcised to fulfill the law, I am baptized to confirm the grace. If I fulfill a part, and a part

I will not leave it incomplete, I will not leave the economy truncated; I must fulfill everything, so that afterward Paul may write: "Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to every believer." Let it be for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Let it be, John, that the nature of the water be sanctified; I must fulfill everything. If I am not baptized by you, a king will not deign to be baptized by a poor priest. Let it be for now, let it be that from above I call upon the Father, "This is my beloved Son," so that the Jews may not begin to say "son of the carpenter," but of the heavenly Father. Let it be for now; do not oppose Adam; I have become a second Adam, wishing to wash away his filth of transgressions; if I am not baptized, how will he be cleansed? For this reason I am also baptized at thirty years of age, awaiting his time, so that mine may be confirmed by his. Let it be for now, so that what was spoken through the prophet may be fulfilled: "The voice of the Lord upon the waters." And there was to be seen a terrifying spectacle. John touched the top of the Lord's head, trembling; from above, the heavens having been opened, angels looked down upon what was happening; and the grace of the Spirit, in the form of a dove, alighting upon the Lord's head, pushed aside John's right hand.

The crowd stood there perplexed all the more, and they were saying to one another, "Who is this?" Then, as if answering the crowds who were seeking among themselves, "Who is this?" the Father cried out, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him." The begetter proclaims his affection for the Son, so that you may learn the Creator's disposition toward the world, that he gave up such a Son for such slaves, the beloved for the hated, the sinless for the sinful, the glorious for the inglorious. Let us therefore glorify the Lord who has appeared, together with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.