St. Theophan the Recluse: Baptism as a Dividing Wall

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20.03.2023, 01:20

Monday, March 20 (7), 2023
No Liturgy ─ no New Testament reading appointed

St. Paul says that the Jews who crossed the Red Sea were baptized in it [1Cor. 10:2]; this baptism served as a dividing line between them and the land of Egypt. St. Peter adds to this: “In a similar way, even baptism doth also now save us” [1Peter 3:21]. Our baptism saves us, standing as a dividing wall between the dark satanic domain of the sinful world and the brightness of the Christian life.

A baptized Christian cuts himself off from all earthly hopes and reliances and lives his life in this age as if in a desert, with no worldly attachments. His heart is not on earth: it belongs completely to the future age. Earthly concerns are of only passing interest for him, so that “they who have wives are as though they had none… and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it” [1Cor. 7:29-31].

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