A Sermon: Sunday after Theophany/Baptism of the Holy Spirit

          Beloved of God, in the liturgical cycle of the Church we have reached the Sunday after the feast of Theophany.  I believe we are aware that this feast can also be called the baptism of our Lord; and some commentators have thought of it as the initiation of the sacrament of Baptism. As usual, we have a particular Gospel and Epistle reading for this day.  In the Gospel our Lord calls all to follow Him with His words: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Elsewhere in the Gospel we hear Him say: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  (Luke 12:32). And again, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21).  This is a reality that is made manifest through the sacrament of Baptism and it becomes a completed living reality through our repentance. Let me explain.

          In the writings of Sts. Ignatius and Kallistos in the Philokalia they speak of this.  The title of one chapter is as follows: “In holy Baptism we receive divine grace as a free gift.  We obscure this gift with  the passions, but then we cleanse it again by keeping the commandments.”  And they continue to write: “In the divine womb—that is, the sacred font—we receive divine grace as a free and entirely perfect gift, through the affairs of this present life, we have wrongfully covered over this supernatural splendor with the murk of the passions.  Yet through repentance and the fulfillment of deifying commandments we can uncover its surpassing radiance once more and repossess it, beholding its manifestation with the utmost clarity.” (The Philokalia, The Complete Text, Volume Five, p. 21)

          This quote brings to mind a conversation I once had with the monk, Father Lukas of the Monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain.  He was considered the theologian of Philotheou and had been a university professor before becoming a monk.  I asked him about the meaning of the phrase found in the writings of St. Symeon the New Theologian, “baptism of the Holy Spirit” since this phrase was being used by Charismatics and Pentecostals who claimed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  These people believed that they had the same experience as St. Symeon.  But, before continuing with Fr. Lukas, I want to go on a little tangent and quote someone else, Archbishop Basil Krivochenie.  He was the Moscow Patriarchate bishop in Brussels, Belgium; but prior to this he spent about twenty-two years at the Monastery of St. Panteleimon on the Holy Mountain.  He was an expert on St. Symeon the New Theologian and wrote a book on the saint called, In the Light of Christ.  In 1976, he gave a few talks at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.  He commented that for the Charismatics, baptism of the Holy Spirit was the beginning, but for St. Symeon the New Theologian it was the end.  In his book he points out that, in the writings of St. Symeon, greater emphasis is placed upon repentance and a “baptism of tears,” while the phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is very rarely used. 

          Now let me get back to Father Lukas.  He spoke along these lines: The concept baptism in the Holy Spirit used by St. Symeon is not different from the first [the sacrament of Baptism] but rather a manifestation of the first.  We were baptized as infants and we are not aware of what we may have experienced at that time.  As we grew older grace diminished and we became more and more immersed in the world, and so we are in a state where we are no longer conscious of this grace of Baptism within us.  Converts who are baptized at a mature age may have a very shorted-lived experience of grace when baptized because they receive this grace into a vessel which is not pure.  They are not purified from the passions and sin, so then, the action of grace is covered over.  Let me make an illustration: If you shine a light through a glass that is dirty it will be dull.  But the more you clean that glass, so much more does that light shine through it.  So it is with us: The more we are purified from sin and passions through repentance, so much more does the grace of God given in Baptism become active within us.  If we are completely purified then we attain that baptism of the Holy Spirit which is greater that the first baptism.  It is not different than the first but the manifestation of the first.    

          So then, as the Lord said, let us “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—it is “with us”.  To acquire this we need ongoing repentance.  In some people repentance acts temporarily according to the sins they have committed. There is confession, the resolve to change, remorse, and maybe some act of penance. However, in others, repentance acts systematically, remaining upon one, leading him from one degree of purification to another. Then, continuing on, one can be led from one degree of enlightenment to another.  Finally, one can reach the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” spoken of by St, Symeon the New Theologian.  These are the stages of grace of which St. Joseph the Hesychast writes.  He wrote the following to a correspondent: The spiritual life is divided into three stages, and grace acts in a person accordingly.  The first stage is called purification, during which the person is cleansed.  What you have now is called the grace of purification.  This form of grace leads one to repentance.  All eagerness that you have for spiritual things is from grace alone.  Nothing is your own.  It secretly acts upon everything.  So when you exert yourself, this grace remains with you for a certain period of time.  If a person progresses in noetic prayer, he receives another form of grace which is entirely different. 

          “The second grace is called the grace of illumination.  During this stage one receives the light of knowledge and is raised to the vision of God.  This does not mean seeing lights, fantasies, images, but it means clarity of nous, clearness of thoughts, and depth of cognition.  For this to occur, the person praying must have much stillness and an unerring guide. 

          “The third stage—when grace overshadows—is the grace of perfection, truly a great gift.” (Monastic Wisdom, The Letters of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, pp. 44-5) This last is the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” that St. Symeon the New Theologian writes of and it is very rare.

          Does this leave us without hope? It should not.  We are not all going to become great saints.  But if we repent according to our strength and become humble, we will become partakers along all the saints of the kingdom to come. Humility has been called “the throne of divine grace” (Saint Ephraim of Katounakia The Disciple Full of Grace, Elder Joseph of Vatopedi p. 93) and it opens to us the kingdom—the kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. So be it.