Monday, January 19, 2004
Mark, Metropolitan of Ephesus, Pillar of Orthodoxy
Kellia: 4 Kings 5:9-14 Epistle: James 2:14-26 Gospel: St. Mark 10:46-52
4 Kings 5:9-14 LXX (MT = 2 Kings), especially vs. 14, "So he
went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of
God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." St. Irenaeus
connects the Baptismal Mystery with the cleansing of Naaman the leper as follows: "It was not
for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being
baptized, but it served as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean by
means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord from our old transgressions...."
In the first place, the cleansing of Naaman directs us to the mystical nature of Holy Baptism and
warns us against excessively rational defenses for, or explanations of, what takes place in the
Church's initiatory rite. Certain well-meaning analysts, observe that there are numerous
instances in which persons who are baptized as infants apostatize as adults from the Christian
Faith, and so they condemn the practice of infant Baptism. These critics assert that initiation into
Christ should be reserved for those who fully understand the commitments they are making.
Thus, they say, candidates for the rite should have reached the age of discretion.
There certainly is justification for deploring the numbers of children who grow up to become
apostate adults, and for seeking, in the Church's present practice, whatever happens that leads
some to such an unfortunate choice. Father Alexander Schmemann himself deplores the depth of
"our liturgical decadence" and the "begging for shorter services."
The problem lies not in Baptizing infants but in the loss of connection with what Father
Schmemann calls "the dimensions of the baptismal mystery, its truly cosmical content and
depth." Truly, Beloved of the Lord, the initiatory rites of the Church are best served when they
are reverentially celebrated as Holy Mysteries, as the Divine means by which one becomes "a
member of the Body of Christ, a consecrated vessel of the Holy Spirit, a fellow citizen with the
Saints." Baptism is not a magical act nor an expression of cultural, social, or ethnic heritage.
What arrests the reader's attention in the account of Naaman's cleansing is his comical rage when
the Prophet Elisha asks him to carry out a simple ritual which his logic tells him could just as
well have been accomplished by bathing in the "Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus"
(vs.12). His demand for reason and practicality are exposed as foolish, a fact which even his
servants are able to see. Human rationality ultimately will never penetrate the workings of God.
No well-catechized and devout adult comes to Baptism and fully understands what God is
accomplishing in his life - neither in this age nor in the age to come. Baptism is a Mystery.
The cleansing of Naaman does emphasize the importance of being willing to comply humbly and
in the fear of God with the requirements of the Church when we approach the Holy Mysteries.
This is true at any point in the life in Christ - whether we are children or adults. The great Syrian
General of the Armies does finally go to the Jordan and baptize himself a full seven times - not
five or six, but seven (vs. 14). Then, and only then, his leprosy was healed.
Why did the Prophet not direct Naaman to bathe in the waters of Damascus when he returned
home? It was to teach us that Baptism is an act of the Church, in which the Church celebrates her
passage through death to life, her holy Pascha in the Lord. The normal practice of the Church is
Baptism in the church, in her precincts, with her waters. Even when lay persons Baptize under
extreme conditions, the act still is the Mystery of incorporation into the Church.
O Christ our God, may all Thy Baptized servants be worthy partakers of Thy death and
resurrection and preserve their Baptismal garment undefiled unto the dread day of Thy coming.
