Vigils Reading – Baptism of the Lord

BY WATER AND

THE HOLY SPIRIT

From a commentary by Hippolytus of Rome

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As soon as he had been baptized, Jesus came out of the water. The

heavens were opened to him and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove came

down and rested on him. Then a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved

son, in whom I am well pleased.

If the Lord had yielded to John’s persuasion and had not been baptized,

do you realize what great blessings and how many we should have been

deprived of? Heaven was closed until then; our homeland on high was

inaccessible. Once we had descended into the depths we were incapable of rising

again to such lofty heights. The Lord was not only baptized himself; he also

renewed our fallen nature and restored to us our status as God’s children. At

once the heavens were opened to him. The world we see was reconciled with the

world that lies beyond our vision; the angels were filled with joy, earthly

disorders were remedied; mysteries were revealed; enemies were made friends.

The heavens were opened to him you have heard the evangelist say. This

happened for three wonderful reasons. The heavenly bridal chamber had to

open its shining gates to Christ at his baptism because he was himself the

bridegroom. The gates of heaven also had to be lifted up to allow the Holy Spirit

to descend in the form of a dove and the Father’s voice to resound far and wide.

The heavens were opened to him and a voice said: This is my beloved Son, in

whom I am well pleased.

This is my beloved Son who appeared on earth without leaving his

Father’s side. He both appeared and did not appear, for he was not what he

seemed. As far as appearance goes the one who gives baptism is superior to the

one who receives it. This is why the Father sent the Holy Spirit down on him

from heaven. As in Noah’s ark a dove revealed God’s love for the human race, so

now it was in the form of a dove, as though with an olive branch in its beak that

the spirit descended. He did so to make sure that the Father’s voice would be

recognized and the ancient mystery would be believed. Which prophesy? The

one that says: The Father’s voice resounded over the waters. The God of glory

thunders. The Lord thunders across many waters. And what does he say? This

is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Pay close attention now, I beg you, for I want to return to the fountain of

life and contemplate its healing waters at their source. The Father of

immortality sent His immortal Son and Word into the world; he came to us to

cleanse us with the water and the spirit. To give us a new birth that would make

our bodies and souls immortal, He breathed into us the Spirit of life and armed

us with incorruptibility.

Therefore in a herald’s voice I cry: Peoples of every nation; come and

receive the immortality given in baptism. To you who have spent all the days of

your life in the darkness of ignorance I bring the good news of life. Leave your

slavery for freedom, the tyrant’s yoke for a kingdom. corruptibility for eternal

life. Do you wish to know how to do this? By water and the Holy Spirit. That is to

say, by the water through which we are born again and given life, and by the

Spirit who is the Comforter sent for your sake to make you a child of God.