The Divine Lamp

The purpose of the Protocatechesis (hereafter Pc) was to commend the people for their desire for baptism and to exhort them to maintain this desire and bring it to fruition. At this point it might be well to go back and read section 1 of the Pc. At the very least, one should recall the last sentence of that section: “The honesty of purpose makes you called: for if your body be here but not your mind, it profits you nothing.” Section 2 builds upon this warning by focusing on the figure of Simon Magus.

Did not Simon Magus once approach the laver and have himself baptized without being enlightened? Though he plunged his body into water his heart was not enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Though his body went down and came up again his soul was neither buried with Christ nor raised up with him. I make reference and indict this man for his fall so that you may not fall. Things such as this happen to serve as an example to you, and were written down as an admonition for those who would draw near (i.e. to baptism). You must not tempt God’s grace so that no bitter root grow up and cause trouble. Let none of you come in saying, ‘let us see what the faithful are doing; let me go in and see, that I may leaarn what is being done.’ Do you expect to see and yet not be seen? Do you think that while you search out what is going on, God is not searching your heart?

NOTES

“Did not Simon Magus once approach the laver?” The story of Simon Magus can be read in Acts 8:9-24. He was a Samaritan who became a believer and was baptised but latter fell away. St Cyril seems to suggest (wrongly, I think) that neither his faith or his baptism were on the up and up. In spite of this, the saint’s warnings to his hearers remains valid.

“Though he plunged his body into the water he was not enlightened by the Holy Spirit.” Light often has a spiritual meaning in the NT Jn 1:9; 1 Cor 4:5; 2 Cor 4:4-6; Eph 1:18; 2 Tim 1:10; Heb 6:4 and 10:32. The two passages from Hebrews were instrumental in the application of the term enlightened to baptism.

“Though his body went down and came up again his soul was neither buried with Christ nor raised up with him.” See Romans 6:1-11.

“Things such as this happen to serve as an example to you, and were written down as an admonition for those who would draw near” (i.e. to baptism). The saint is here alluding to 1 Cor 10:1-14; especially verse 11. A somewhat similar idea occurs in Romans 15:1-3.

“No bitter root grow up and cause trouble.” A reference to Hebrews 12:14-17: “See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled; that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (RSV)

“let none of you come in saying…” The saint warns them not to be baptized out of mere curiosity concerning what the faithful are doing.