St. Theodore the Studite: We were buried then with him through baptism to death...
'We were buried then with him through baptism to death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
So, brothers, let us walk in newness of life, just as we promised when we took the habit. Let us conduct ourselves with righteousness and holiness, as befits saints with peace and harmony, with reverence and piety, with holiness and dispassion, not being led away in ignorance by our former deceits, but fleeing our former notions like fire and standing fast on the rock of our faith. This is newness. And what is "oldness"? Indulgence, by which Adam our forefather was caught and became an outcast from Paradise and underwent a life of much grief. Envy, by which Cain was inflamed and murdered his brother Abel because his gifts were preferred, and as a result he passed his whole life in fear and groaning. From these two sins ten thousand evils surfaced in the world.
So, brothers, let us walk in newness of life, just as we promised when we took the habit. Let us conduct ourselves with righteousness and holiness, as befits saints with peace and harmony, with reverence and piety, with holiness and dispassion, not being led away in ignorance by our former deceits, but fleeing our former notions like fire and standing fast on the rock of our faith. This is newness. And what is "oldness"? Indulgence, by which Adam our forefather was caught and became an outcast from Paradise and underwent a life of much grief. Envy, by which Cain was inflamed and murdered his brother Abel because his gifts were preferred, and as a result he passed his whole life in fear and groaning. From these two sins ten thousand evils surfaced in the world.
Because of these the Flood utterly wiped out all the high ground of the earth. Because of these Sodom and Gomorra were reduced to ashes by fire and brimstone as a warning to the impious. Do you see what sin has brought about and the desire of the eyes and pride in one's way of life. But nevertheless, as has been said before, we have been called by God's mercy, we have gained freedom, we have run to be adopted as sons. Let us then stand with the freedom with which Christ has freed us, and let us be guarded by the glory with which Christ has glorified us, spitting on everything that belongs to empty vanity, reckoning them all secondary for the sake Christ: dishonour as honour, affliction as joy, blows as pleasures, persecution as happiness, death as life, just as our holy fathers and brothers, whose names are in the book of life, whom we have remembered today, chose to do.
For if we too live like this, we shall appear here like beacons in the world, holding on to the word of life, while in the age to come we shall inherit the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.'
For if we too live like this, we shall appear here like beacons in the world, holding on to the word of life, while in the age to come we shall inherit the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages.'
St. Theodore the Studite
