Слово на Крещение Господне. Святого Амвросия, епископа Медиоланского

And Jesus, having been baptized, went up from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and in the sight of the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with him (Matthew 3:16–17). The Gospel story tells that our Lord came to the Jordan (Matthew 3:13) in order to receive baptism there and sanctify Himself in that river with the mysteries of heaven. We should not be surprised that our Lord and Teacher performed His mystery on Himself, for didn’t He say: “Whoever does and teaches, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19)?! So, as a good Teacher, He was pleased to first do what He commanded others to do, so that He could not so much confirm His teaching in words as prove it in deed - and how to arouse us by deed to the end that was to come, so also to lighten our spirit with His participation. And this glorious action took place on this day. For what not at another time - what can be understood with one’s own mind. Justice demanded that this celebration be celebrated soon after the birthday of the Lord, although in different years. Moreover, the current celebration itself can be called a birth: for then He was born in the flesh, and now He is born through the sacraments; then came from the Virgin, now renewed by mystery. So, this is what the Heavenly Lord did to our satisfaction, so that those who learned about His birth from the Virgin through the announcement of the angels would believe, according to the testimony of heaven, that He is the Son of God, and so that people would be sure that the Divinity of the Father Himself recognized the Son of God as the One Whom the Virgin gave birth to. But there, when He was born as a man, His Mother Mary nursed Him with her breasts; here, when He was born mysteriously, God the Father greets Him with His voice, for He said: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17). Thus, the Mother serves Her Son with the tenderness of Her embrace, and the Father pleases Him with Divine testimony; The Mother introduces Him to the wise men, and the Father declares Him with a voice of veneration. He is accepted into the arms of the Mother when he is born, and the Father also gives Him the warmth of His bosom: for He eternally rests in the bosom of the Father, as the Evangelist John says: God is not seen anywhere, except the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18). It should be noted that the Lord fits comfortably into the bosom of the righteous, which is why He chose John’s breasts to recline on them. But such a bosom, on which Christ reclines, is not in the embrace of the body, and is not adorned with the splendor of robes, but shines with the adornment of heavenly virtues - which is why in John the bosom of Christ was his faith, in the Virgin Mary - Her purity. The Lord Jesus Christ finds a womb for Himself where there is a receptacle and collection of virtues: He bows His head where the Divine commandments dwell. That is why He said to sinners and infidels: foxes have wounds, and birds of heaven have nests: but the Son of man has nowhere to bow his head (Luke 9:58). And since the Lord Jesus came to the Jordan today and washed His most pure Body with water, then perhaps one of you will ask me: “Why should He who is the most holiness and purity be washed?” The answer to this is not difficult. Christ is baptized not in order to be washed with water, but in order to sanctify the water Himself and by His immersion in the streams to cleanse it. And since through the sanctification of Christ a greater sanctification of the elements is done, then when Christ is washed, the water for our baptism is purified, and its very source is washed, so that the grace of baptism does not become scarce for subsequent generations. So, Christ precedes baptism, so that the whole race of faithful Christians may follow Him; and through this very thing the mystery of the Old Testament is clarified. In like manner, the pillar of fire preceded the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea (Ex. 13:21), so that they would pass through it without fear, and this pillar went ahead of them, so that it could illuminate them at night. This circumstance, according to the Apostle Paul, was a prototype of the sacrament of baptism (1 Cor. 10:4). Truly, it was in some way a baptism that the cloud covered the people, but the water did not hold back. But all this was acted by one and the same Lord, Who acts even now, Who, just as He then led the children of Israel across the sea with a pillar of fire, so now comes before Christians with the pillar of His body: this pillar, which preceded those who came then, now illuminates the hearts of the faithful. Then He made the path passable in the streams of water; now in baptism He strengthens the feet of the faithful; whoever, like the Israelites, without fear, will undergo such baptism, will not fear the persecutor Pharaoh. Amen 94. See “Selected instructive words of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, translated into the Slavic-Russian language in 1806 in the Moscow Stavropegial Donskoy Monastery.” Kyiv. 1853, 75–80 countries. You might be interested in: