Cucumbers

200 words: Immersed into change

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From a philosopher, theologian and rhetorician, known as the Trinitarian Theologian:

Christ is bathed in light. Let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptised. Let us also go down with him and rise with him (St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-390)).

Furthermore, Jesus commissions us:

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And teach them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matthew 28).

There is an ancient recipe for ‘baptising cucumbers in vinegar’ in order to produce pickles.

The word baptise means ‘to immerse.’

Immediately, we sense why the early Christians adopted a simple Greek verb to describe the mystery:

Just as cucumbers need a good deal of immersing to bring about pickles, so too human beings need a good deal of immersing in the teaching of Jesus, and then in water, to bring about disciples of Jesus Christ.

We are living at a time of societal chaos, but also of renewed interest in faith.

St. Gregory Nazianzen is one among so many in the tradition of the Church who made the Gospel accessible.

Can we do the same?

AMEN.