Thoughts on the Feast of Theophany. The Hidden Action of the Grace Received in the Sacrament of Baptism

I want to share with you the thoughts that came to me for you on the occasion of the Theophany of the Lord. I had intended merely to put a question to you: how do you think about your baptism? Is it a mere rite, or does it give you something? But then it seemed to me that it would be far better for me to resolve this myself. And so I resolve it.

Baptism gives us what nothing else on earth, apart from it, can give us. It unites and mingles divine grace with our nature, so that a person comes out of the baptismal font as some manufactured article comes out of the workshop—for instance, a small bell in which silver has been added to the copper. An identical copper bell without silver looks the same on the outside as this one with silver, but their composition is different, their sound is different, and the honor and price given them are different. So too does the baptized person differ from the unbaptized. What constitutes this difference is the fact that with the baptized person the grace of the Holy Spirit is united, since the one baptized in water is simultaneously baptized in the Holy Spirit. In outward appearance he is also just the same kind of person as the unbaptized, but in actual fact—in his composition—they are very different.

So, in Holy Baptism a new element—supernatural—is added to our natural composition and remains in us hidden and acting secretly. We receive baptism in infancy, and although we do not know what is happening to us, grace nonetheless unites with us and begins to act in us even then apart from our consciousness, by God’s goodness alone, through the faith of the godparents and parents. Coming of age, we cannot well distinguish in ourselves what in us is from nature and what is from grace, which, having dwelt in us from the very moment of baptism, has not remained idle but has been acting in its characteristic manner. But in the early times, when those of mature age were brought to faith and baptized, the action of grace manifested itself in them immediately—perceptible to them and visible to others. Particularly striking were the changes in character and life—when, for example, the irascible became meek, the proud humble, the miserly generous, the dissolute chaste, and so forth. Something similar, surely, was accomplished in us as well in the baptismal font. Having come of age and seeing the good sides of ourselves, we often take vain pride in them, or others do so for us, attributing them to our own selves, whereas all the good that is in us must be referred to the grace of God, which both transforms everything natural in us and gives much directly from itself.

Grace acts in us from childhood in a hidden way. It is renewed in us by receiving Holy Communion of the Body and Blood; and the environment in which we grow, if it is believing and devout, gives room for its action in us through Christian upbringing. And under these conditions we emerge from childhood and adolescence as something altogether different from those who are not baptized. I think it will be pleasant for you to take up the thought and the faith that you have been endowed with grace. And do not deny it, but rather give thanks. Grace acts secretly, but not infrequently it breaks through into the open as well, in holy impulses and deeds. If you rub yourself more often by walking in Christian patterns of life, you will more often experience the action of grace as well. Fire is in wood, but it is hidden. Begin to rub wood against wood—smoke will come, and then the fire will appear. In amber and sealing wax there is electricity, but so it is invisible. Rub it—and it will immediately reveal itself through the attraction of small particles and even through a little spark. And there is the telegraph, silent—but as soon as the machine begins to produce friction, electricity is instantly awakened, and you see how swiftly it acts.

So you see, O grace-endowed daughter of God, what is at issue! One must rub oneself by walking in Christian patterns of life—and the grace of God will continually manifest its life-giving power in you. There are electric suns. Why? Because a great deal of electricity has been excited through certain apparatus and is kept in that excited state. I wish you too to become a self-luminous sun under the action of the grace given to you and dwelling in you. And so here again we have come back to the same point: that one must not spare oneself—but now cut, now rub. Otherwise nothing will come of either of us in the spiritual sense, even if we are very beautiful in outward appearance.