This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he was to prepare us an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives the moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul. - St. Irenaeus, *Against Heresies* (Christian Prayer, pp. 2008, 09)
No comments:
Post a Comment