St. Gregory of Nyssa
“IT IS AFTER
the dignity of adoption [Baptism] that the devil plots more vehemently
against us, pining away with envious glance, when he beholds the beauty
of the new-born man, earnestly tending towards that heavenly city from
which he fell; and he raises up against us fiery temptations, seeking
earnestly to despoil us of that second adornment, as he did of our
former array. But when we are aware of his attacks, we ought to repeat
to ourselves the Apostolic words, As many of us as were baptized into
Christ were baptized into His death (Rom. 6:3). Now if we have been
conformed to His death, sin henceforth in us is surely a corpse, pierced
through by the javelin of Baptism, as that fornicator was thrust
through by the zealous Phineas (see Num. 25:7-8). Flee therefore from
us, ill-omened one! for it is a corpse thou seekest to despoil, one long
ago joined to thee, one who long since lost his senses for pleasures. A
corpse is not enamoured of bodies, a corpse is not captivated by
wealth, a corpse slanders not, a corpse lies not, snatches not at what
is not its own, reviles not those who encounter it. My way of life is
regulated for another life. I have learnt to despise the things that are
in the world, to pass by the things of earth, to hasten to the things
of Heaven, even as Paul expressly testifies, that the world is crucified
to him, and he to the world (Gal 6:14). These are the words of a soul
truly regenerated; these are the utterances of the newly-baptized man,
who remembers his own profession, which he made to God when the
mysterion was administered to him, promising that he would despise, for
the sake of love towards Him, all torment and all pleasure alike.”
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, + c. 395 A.D.
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