Oldal 42 [42]
STEFAN FREUND
Sed postquam undae genitalis auxilio superioris aeui labe detersa in expiatum
pectus ac purum desuper se lumen infudit, postquam caelitus spiritu hausto in
nouum me hominem natiuitas secunda reparauit, mirum in modum protinus
confirmare se dubia, patere clausa, lucere tenebrosa, facultatem dare quod prius
difficile uidebatur, geri posse quod inpossibile putabatur, ut esset agnoscere
terrenum fuisse, quod prius carnaliter natum delictis obnoxium uiueret, dei esse
coepisse, quod iam spiritus sanctus animaret. (Donat. 4)
In sublime, nearly poetic words, Cyprian narrates and illustrates his
baptism.” The question “How is such a conversion possible?”, however,
remains unanswered. The text just says, “what seemed impossible was able to
be accomplished.” The author later gives only one explanation: It is all a gift
of God’s divine grace:
Our power is of God, I say, all of it is of God. From Him we have life; from Him we
have prosperity; by the vigour received and conceived of Him, while still in this
world, we have foreknowledge of what is to be.
Dei est, inquam, dei omne, quod possumus. Inde uiuimus, inde pollemus, inde
sumpto et concepto uigore hic adhuc positi futurorum indicia praenoscimus.
(Donat. 5)
Subsequently, Cyprian presents even more consequences of this baptismal
grace. It will grow more and more and strengthen the baptized and empower
them in their fight against evil (chapter 5). All this, however, is based on
personal experience only. If you are baptized, you will feel it. The following
passage, i.e. the analysis of the world in chapters 6 to 12, provides a different
approach, as we have seen above. The basic line of argumentation, as Ralf
Noormann has shown, ”' goes quite well with pagan and particularly with
Stoic philosophy. Wealth and power are fragile and, therefore, cannot be
the highest good. Finally, however, neither experience-based subjective
spirituality nor philosophy-based objective analysis of the world can explain
how such a conversion is possible or, in other words, how divine grace works.
Although Cyprian in his mystagogy suggests two different approaches,
the baptismal mystery remains untouched and, thus, mysterious.
20 The whole expression unda genitalis is unique, genitalis (Ihesaurus linguae Latina V1,2
1812,79-80) and unda for water are poetic; for other examples of poetic colouring in
baptismal descriptions see Robert H.W. Wolf, Mysterium Wasser. Eine Religionsgeschichte
zum Wasser in Antike und Christentum, Gottingen, V&R unipress, 2004, 29-31.
See Noormann, Paränese, 61-65; see Simone Deléani, Christum sequi. Étude d’un thème
dans l’œuvre de saint Cyprien, Paris, Études Augustiniennes, 1979, 128.
21
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