Angels rejoiced at our baptism; Angels: Day 309

Last updated on: May 28, 2017 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

Angels rejoiced at our baptism; Angels: Day 309 2017-05-19T21:21:12-05:00 Pete Socks

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All the angels, and the Lord of angels, rejoice at a baptism, says St. John Chrysostom. In that water a sinful human being dies and a new person is born. So if we’re dead to the flesh, why do we worry so much about material things?

“When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4).

So if we shall appear, let us not grieve when we are not honored. If this life is no life, but our real life is hidden, then we should live this life as though we were dead. Then, he says, you will also appear with him in glory—in glory, he says, not just that we should appear. The pearl is hidden when it’s in the oyster.

So if we’re insulted, or whatever we suffer, let us not grieve. This isn’t our life; we’re foreigners and travelers. “For you have died,” he says (Col. 3:3). Who would be stupid enough to buy servants, or build a house, or make expensive clothes for a corpse already dead and buried? No one. Then you shouldn’t either. The only thing we need is not to be naked; that’s all we should look for.

Our first man is buried—not in the earth, but in water; not destroyed by

death, but buried by death’s destroyer; not by the law of nature, but by the com- mandment that’s stronger than nature. Whatever nature has done may perhaps be undone, but what has been done by God’s command can never be undone.

Nothing is more blessed than this burial. Everyone rejoices at it—angels, humans, and the Lord of angels. There’s no need of an expensive suit, or a coffin, or any of those things at this burial.

Would you like to see a symbol of it? I can show you a pool where one was buried and the other raised. It’s the Red Sea: the Egyptians sank under it, but the Israelites walked up out of it. In the same act God buries the one and regenerates the other. –St. John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on Colossians

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I recognize the presence of the angels when I celebrate the sacraments? They were there at my baptism, but they are also with me at every Confession and every time I receive Holy Communion.

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, we thank you for the graces you have given us in the sacraments. Not the least among these graces is the companionship of the holy angels.

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A Year with the Angels

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Saint John Chrysostom

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