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“In the beginning”, at the time of the decisive testing of man, the I resounding failure of his choice made him fall below the level of his being and immersed him in the life of the senses and of matter. Man became carnally and sensually enveloped in darkness, but the economy of salvation lifted him above the level of his being even to that of a new creature. St. Paul's dialectic here takes its point of departure. “Even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”6.1 “Strip off the old man... and put on the new.”6.2
The spiritual life is oriented toward this metamorphosis, “to put on the new man”. What makes the man new is the fact that he is no longer alone. More profoundly and at the heart of his transmutation, he is the man who has “put on Christ”, he is a Christlike man.
The Fathers take almost literally the fact of putting on Christ and see in it a projection or, more exactly, a prolongation in man of the incarnation of the Word, perpetuated especially in the eucharist. That is why they teach us not to “imitate” but interiorize him. This inwardness is not a simple metaphor which would force the meaning; it has its roots deep in God himself. If the incarnation reflects a certain anthropomorphism of God (a mysterious primordial conformity), it reveals above all and assuredly the theomorphosis of man. From the biblical point of view, the incarnation brings to perfection our nature, which is made to the image of God, and it reveals the manifestly Christological structure of the spiritual life.
Man then traverses an immense distance to the interior of his being. St. Paul quotes a primitive hymn charged with almost explosive dynamism. “Awake, sleeper, and arise from among the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.”6.3 A variant reinforces its meaning: “You will touch Christ.” This passage from the state of death to the state of life, from hell to the kingdom, is precisely the itinerary of the spiritual life.
Moralizing spirituality reduces salvation to the forgiveness of disobedience. Now biblical ontology, vigorous and exacting, leads from a moral catharsis (purification) to an ontological catharsis. This represents a very real change in the whole human being--body, soul and mind. It is the strongest affirmation of patristic exegesis, stressing the Gospel's call to metanoia or conversion. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”6.4 It would be more exact to say: “Change yourself”, become a new creature, for it is a question of a repentance in the full meaning of the word--a complete turning about of the mind and of the whole human being.
The encounter with God could not be effected in the state of fallen nature; it presupposes a previous restoration of this nature in the sacrament of baptism. For baptism, according to the Fathers, is a true re-creation of the redeemed man. Repentance, metanoia in its complete meaning, goes to the roots of all mental faculties, volitional and affective, and even to the heart of the entire being, body and soul. St. Irenaeus, in his celebrated doctrine of the recapitulation of all nature in Christ, closely follows St. Paul. St. John's Gospel emphasizes it in speaking of the “second birth”. The two terms, metanoia and birth, express clearly that profound modification of the human being and mark its entrance into the spiritual world, whose principles are the opposite of those of the world. Between a baptized and an unbaptized person there is the abyss of the infinite difference of the two natures. To stress this absolutely new character, the Fathers chose by preference the miracle of the wedding feast of Cana. The symbolism of this image makes baptism and the eucharist converge. In fact, the baptismal water has the value of the blood of Christ, declares Nicolas Cabasilas: “It destroys a life and produces another... we leave our tunics of leather to put on a kingly mantle.”6.5
We can now understand how the spiritual life at once effects a break. It is not the same life as before with the addition of some religious service, reading and pious attitudes. It is essentially a break, a combat, a violence that takes heaven by assault and seizes the kingdom. On the threshold of this life resounds the words of St. Paul: “Behold, they are made new.”6.6
The Gospel mentions the formidable power of the prince of this world. St. Paul, in calling him “god of this world”6.7 emphasizes the state of alienation of man by the diabolic powers, and it is this power of Satan which requires a complete break. We find it in the very expressive symbolism of baptism; the total immersion signifies real death to a guilty past, and emersion, the definitive victory, the resurrection to a new life. The “promise” of baptism, however, the great baptismal profession of faith in the Trinity, presupposes a radical intervention of purification and a personal act of the human being. Indeed, the Church takes very seriously the power of evil and its murderous ravages. This is why the ancient rites placed before baptism the lavacrum, the rite of exorcism and of solemn renouncing of the evil one.
The priest reproduces the divine act; he breathes on the face of the “dead” the breath of life, analogous to the breathing of life into man when he was created. Facing the West, the kingdom of the prince of this world, where the light of day disappears, the neophyte renounces his past that had been placed under the power of the enemy. Miming symbolically the struggle he must sustain all the length of his spiritual life, he turns toward the East, where day appears, and confesses his faith and receives grace.
This ritual contains in germ the essence of his new existence. Negatively, it is incessant combat; positively, it is the metamorphosis asked for in the final baptismal prayer with its Pauline accents: “O God, divest him of the old man, renew him and fill him with the power of your Holy Spirit, in the union of Christ.”
This is a very compact summary of the spiritual life; its progression never stops. “No one, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”6.8 Every halt is a regression. The total character of the consecration of every baptized and confirmed person, stressed in the rite of tonsure, places him in the extreme tension of every instant, in his yearning for the ultimate, the impossible. This rite of tonsure, an organic part of the sacrament of confirmation in the Oriental Church, is identical to that undergone when one enters a monastic order. The prayer of the ritual asks: “Bless your servant who has come to give you as his first offering the tonsure of the hair of his head.” Its symbolic meaning is very clear, it is the total offering of his life. In undergoing the rite of tonsure, every lay person finds himself a monk of “interior monasticism”, submissive to all the absolute exigencies of the Gospel. The fidelity of the neophyte is going to resist the trials of time and the assault of temptations, for Christ is going to fight in him and with him.