The Epistle to Diognetus is an ancient Christian and poetic text. The author distinguishes the worship of the Jews and Gentiles with the way of the Christians by teaching and practice. History shows that Christians are to the world as the soul is to the body of a person. The soul loves the flesh, but the flesh hates the soul. Christians, then, too are despised by the world while at the same time they show great love and heartfelt yearning for the salvation of the world. The incarnation makes it possible to reunite the body and soul since Christ became the perfect man and God. History “seeks to persuade, not to compel us” as God has done by allowing historical patterns of typology and actual events of the antitypes to be set before every generation because God is all-loving. He doesn’t need to come in pomp, but He willed to come in humility to convince us that He is the true God and the Savior and the Lover of Mankind so that we can arrive at faith in the Word made Flesh. History and typology help us to see our lost home and our lost beauty that is only in the kingdom of the God. When we can experience that and come to this conclusion, we begin to enter baptism, chrismation, and the eucharist with our own“bright sadness.”
Metropolitan Hilarion introduces an important term to the discussion of the baptismal cycle and mysteries of the Church. The holy the fathers of the Church used a term not found, even despised, by the classical Greek philosophers. They referred to the type as the image or the first image (prototype) and the antitype as the reality or what represents the type. So, the fathers speak of Christ as the antitype of Adam, or the Eucharist as the antitype (the reality) of the Mannah from heaven. Both were miracles from God. Metropolitan Hilarion translates antitype as “sacramental representation.” That description doesn’t convey merely symbolism but the symbol in the source just as Christ became Man – the image united and brought back to the divine and spiritually infused life that was lost. To view the liturgical life of the Church and its rites as lacking efficacy on the spiritual condition of its members is to return to a Judaizing worldview, the Gentile path of science and philosophy, and the old fallen world of symbols – just idols without power. The mysteries point to the Old Testament types that specifically followed an image of inner spiritual renewal, not just symbolic acts, and rituals. Speaking of types and antitypes isn’t a comparison between real and not real. It belongs to a continuous reality and fuller, brighter meaning when we live in the mysteries. St. Cyril of Jerusalem taught that, “… and all things happen to you in images, since you are the images of Christ.” Typology and antitypes form the language of how to speak about communion and mystical indwelling and rejuvenation of the universe through the work of the All-powerful Creator. The communion of type and antitype – God and man – is what we can do in the mysteries of the Orthodox Church. The type is the beginning, and the antitype is the completion. So, the new creation must have a beginning and completion forever. St. Hippolytus of Rome taught that “the action is done on the body, the effect is spiritual.”One of the best illustrations of type and antitype is the relationship between St. John the Forerunner who baptized with water for repentance of sins and the baptism of Our Lord and Master whose baptism will be “in fire and in the Spirit” for the remission of sins and repentance, which begins the formulation of the historical order of the service of baptism and chrismation. These mysteries and typologies are fundamental in understanding how we enter the Church and remain living. It’s worth noting that many Jewish people accepted baptism by John, but many of the religious scribes did not repent and accept John’s baptism that was a type prefiguring both the Old Testament washing of sins and Christ’s baptism that would be given as a command to the apostles.
These mysteries help prepare us to live in the kingdom of God where we will see Christ as the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist. Catechesis was a learning process that preceded and continued after baptism in Christianity. The Epistle of Diognetus taught in Chapter XII that “For neither can life exist without knowledge, nor is knowledge secure without life.” Seeking instruction in the mysteries and repentance and virtue is an ongoing struggle, since we have “declared war” at our baptism to fight against a cynical Evil creature and his darkened followers. The war begins within our own members, and it continues to radiate in the web of interrelationships. A regular time for focusing on catechesis became customary during Great Lent, but anytime could have become an opportunity for learning. St. Cyril of Jerusalem taught that there is some instruction before baptism that is useful, but that the Holy Spirit enlightens us to understand the mysteries after baptism. Knowledge is important, but it must not have been criterion for entering the Church. What was expected of catechumens was to lead as best they could a moral life of struggle, as St. Hippolytus of Rome taught in the 3rd c. AD. The mysteries give us knowledge. St. Justin the Philosopher taught that, “So that we should not remain children of necessity and ignorance, but become sons of free choice and knowledge, and obtain remission of the sins we have already committed, there is named at the water, over him who has chosen to be born again and has repented of his sinful acts, the name of God the Father and Master of all.” This washing or baptism is called “illumination” and “initiation.” A longer catechesis is also mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions for baptism those who will be, “instructed …in the knowledge of the unbegotten God.” Instruction included the New Testament teaching on Christ’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. In the apostolic period, catechetical instruction didn’t end but increased after baptism. The important place of catechesis begs the question of why it isn’t considered a rank or mystery of the Church as well. Teachers are mentioned in the New Testament. No rite or laying on of hands seems to exist for this ministry in the Church. Catechetical discourse like Christ’s discourses seems also to be the natural way that Christians educate each other and grow together in spiritual knowledge and faith. Other forms of religious education include didacticism, most often seen in the preaching and biblical scholarship of the Protestant worldview or the Classical Greek period in Hesiod. Another kind is the dialectical method that belongs to the scholastic tradition of Medieval and modern Roman Catholicism and is linked also to the common Greek philosophical tradition of disputation. Orthodox Christianity doesn’t seem to rely on either didacticism like that of the sola scriptura and Protestant bible study or the dialectical method, which requires two opposing viewpoints to arrive at the truth — a legacy also of the Enlightenment in our times. The New Testament only uses Greek terms for “discourse” and “narrative,” not language that belongs to the realm of dialectic or didactic methods.
Naming is an important ritual that happens before baptism. Names are like the divine because God created the world through the Word, and we are also endowed with words, and we are given names to identify our personality that represent our “mystical symbol.” We do not use names out of vanity, magic, or superstition. Metropolitan Hilarion quotes the scriptures, “as his name is, so is he” in 1 Samuel 25:25. Naming meant changing allegiance, a closer relationship, being subject to God. We are name-receivers and God is the name-changer. Worldly aspirations that aren’t pleasing to God are described in the Old Testament as people who desire “to make a name for themselves,” who wish to find transcendence without God’s strength. In Orthodox tradition, there are saints who watch and are chosen on behalf of the whole family, and they celebrate his or her name day by a feast with offerings of bread and wine in the nave.
If there were an Orthodox approach to studying the humanities and philosophy of the West, it might be what Metropolitan Hilarion refers to as the recovering of our “humanness” in receiving the mysteries of the Church and carefully reading liturgical and hagiographic texts as well as the discourses our holy fathers have left to us. The effect of the mystical life is the renewal of our image and nature to loveliness and an aurora-like light. The Eucharist is the thanksgiving for such a transformation of our body and soul. The next chapter discusses the mystery of holy communion.