7 March 2024
You were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried
from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes. And each of you was
asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, and you made that saving confession, and descended three times
into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three
days burial of Christ. For as our Saviour passed three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water,
represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the
night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is in the day,
remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, you saw nothing, but
in ascending again you were as in the day. And at the self-same moment you were
both dying and being born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave
and your mother. And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he
said, in that case, There is a time to bear and a time to die; but to you, in
the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and
the same time effected both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with
your death.
Cyril of Jerusalem
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