1. Having been baptized into Christ, and put on Christ, you have been
given the same form as the Son of God; for God, having foreordained us
to adoption as His children, gave us the same features as the body of
Christ’s glory. Having therefore become partakers of Christ, you are
properly called Christs (anointed ones), and of you God said: “Do not
touch my Christs, (or anointed ones)”. Now you have been made Christs,
by receiving the stamp of the Holy Spirit [Holy Chrism]; and
everything’s been done to you in imitation, because you’re images of
Christ. He washed in the River Jordan, and having imparted the fragrance
of His Godhead to the waters, He emerged from them; and the Holy Spirit
in the fulness of His being lighted on Him, like resting upon like.
And, in a similar way, after you emerged from the pool of the sacred
streams, you were given the Chrism, a copy of that with which Christ was
anointed. This is the Holy Spirit of whom also the blessed Isaiah, in
his prophecy about Him, said : “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He has anointed me: He has sent me to preach glad tidings to the
poor”.
2. For Christ was not anointed by men
with oil or material ointment, but by the Father, Who had previously
appointed Him to be the Saviour of the whole world, Who anointed Him
with the Holy Spirit, as Peter says: “Jesus of Nazareth, whom God
anointed with the Holy Spirit”. David the Prophet also cried, saying,
“Your throne, God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of your kingdom is
the sceptre of righteousness. You have loved righteousness and hated
iniquity; therefore God,Your God, has anointed you with the oil of
gladness above your fellows”. And as Christ was, in actual fact,
crucified, buried and raised, you, too, in Baptism are deemed worthy of
being crucified, buried, and raised together with Him, in His likeness.
So is it with anointing also. As He was anointed with the notional oil
of gladness, that is, with the Holy Spirit, Who is called oil of
gladness because He is the author of spiritual gladness, so you, too,
were anointed with Chrism, having become partakers and fellows of
Christ.
3. But beware of supposing this to be
plain oil. Just as the Bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of
the Holy Spirit, is no longer mere bread but the Body of Christ, so also
this holy Chrism is no more simple oil, nor (so to say) common, after
the invocation, but it’s a gift of Christ and of the Holy Spirit,
through the presence of His divinity, and is made active. This Chrism is
symbolically applied to your forehead and your other sense organs. And
while your body is anointed with the perceptible Chrism, your soul is
sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.
4. You were first anointed on the
forehead, so that you might be delivered from the shame which the first
transgressor carried everywhere with him; and so that, with unveiled
face, you might reflect, as a mirror, the glory of the Lord. Then on
your ears, so that you might receive the ears which are able to hear the
Divine Mysteries, of which Isaiah said: “The Lord also gave me an ear
to hear”. And the Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, says: “He that has ears to
hear let him hear”. Then, on the nostrils, so that receiving the sacred
Chrism you may say, “We are to God a sweet savour of Christ, among the
saved”. Afterwards, on your breast, so that, having put on the
breast-plate of righteousness, you may stand against the wiles of the
devil. For as Christ after His Baptism, and the visitation of the Holy
Spirit, went out and vanquished the adversary, in the same way you, who
after Holy Baptism and the Mystical Anointing, have put on the whole
armour of the Holy Spirit, are to stand against the power of the
adversary, and vanquish it, saying: “I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me”.
5. Now that you’ve been deemed worthy of
this Holy Chrism, you are called Christians, confirming the name also
by your new birth. Because, before you were found worthy of receiving
this grace, you actually had no right to this title, but were advancing
on your way towards being Christians.
6. Besides, you should know that the
symbol of this Chrism lies in the Old Scripture. For when Moses gave his
brother the command of God, he made him High-priest. After he had
bathed in water, Moses anointed him; and Aaron was called “Anointed”,
evidently from the rite of Chrismation. So also the High-priest, in
advancing Solomon to the throne, anointed him after he had bathed in
Gihon. To them, however, these things happened as a formal procedure,
but to you they occurred in truth, because you were truly anointed by
the Holy Spirit. Christ is the beginning of your salvation; for He is
truly the First-Fruit, and you the leaven; but if the First-Fruit is
holy, then clearly His holiness will pass to the leaven also.
7. Keep this unblemished, for it will
teach you all things, if it abides in you, as you have just heard
declared by the blessed John, talking in depth about this Anointing. For
this holy thing is a spiritual safeguard of the body, and salvation of
the soul. The blessed Isaiah, prophesying of old, said: “And on this
mountain” (he also calls the Church a mountain elsewhere, as when he
says, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest”)
“the Lord will make a feast for all the nations ; they shall drink wine,
they shall drink gladness, they shall anoint themselves”. And to
confirm his words, listen to what he says about this myrrh being
mystical: “Impart all these things to the nations, for this counsel is
for all nations”. Having been anointed, therefore, with this holy
Chrism, keep it unspotted and unblemished in you, prospering in good
works, and becoming well-pleasing to the Captain of your salvation,
Christ Jesus, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
