Thus, baptism is the entry, birth into the Body of Christ – the Church. Baptism is just the beginning of a long, painful process of becoming (becoming god by grace, a partaker of the Divine essence) and healing. The beginning, but by no means the goal, not the fruits! (In Sacred Scripture, there are many images that show that baptism on the one hand is a pivotal act in a person’s life, without which further spiritual growth is impossible, and on the other hand is just the beginning, an opportunity for a new life: “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God”, “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned”; grafting a scion, a vine to a branch of a healthy tree (we cut off from the wild and graft to a healthy tree); adding yeast to dough that must ferment; receiving talents (5, 2, 1 according to the ability, spiritual state of each) and doubling them by correct spiritual life. The Apostle Paul in one of his letters compares baptism to the passage of the Israeli people through the Red Sea, which had to be passed to enter the promised land, but not enough, because the way to the promised land lay through the desert, in which slaves, having passed through temptations, had to enter the spirit of sonship. Lord Jesus Christ after baptism, led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by Satan, thus showed everyone the way to the Kingdom of God and the temptations that every person baptized in the name of Jesus Christ must endure; mustard seed, which is thrown into the ground and from which a tree grows.., and many other images, parables that talk about the beginning, which implies further growth with its own laws and stages, obstacles, trials, etc. – V.A.).
What to do for those who are already in the Body (baptized), but dead or half-dead?! They are granted the great sacrament of Repentance (which involves two aspects: the positive – a continuous, endless process of becoming like God, deification, becoming in the Body, so that the will of God becomes the will of the baptized, this continuous movement towards God; and the negative, which has its milestones, starting and culminating points in confession – it’s a return from the trackless path (to which we voluntarily turned) to the Road that leads to the Father – V.A.). We said that nominal Christians (or rather – “pagans” by the name of Christians) – are in a worse position than unbaptized pagans (cf. 2 Pet. 2: 20-22). But as unbaptized pagans need to enter the Church (be baptized) to survive, so those in a worse position (“pagans” who are formally baptized), even more need to return to the Church (they are irreversibly detached from the past body, and have not taken root in the new; therefore, for them, to survive, there is one way – the Church). Therefore, the sacrament of repentance for those who have fallen away from the Church – is the restoration of baptism, a second baptism (with tears), a restoration of baptismal promises. Let’s return to our example of transplantation. When we do a transplant, we cut all the vessels that connected the organ with the old body, through which “life” was delivered (renunciation of Satan, all his works and his pride: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life) and connect to the New Body of the Church – this is the image of baptism. And confession (repentance in the negative aspect, as a return to the previous state, from which it is necessary to move further) – is the restoration of the organ’s connections with the body. The organ has stopped – it needs to be resuscitated, “started” in action.
The heart has stopped – we try to restart it with an electric shock. The stomach has ceased to digest food – we conduct comprehensive treatment, adjusting the digestive processes. But if an organ does not function for a long time – tissue necrosis begins, the body becomes intoxicated, and after some time – irreversible processes and death occur. For example, if a person does not breathe for more than ten minutes, an irreversible process begins in the body, which ends in death. And we are not only “oxygen” – we manage not to take in all “nutrients” for years. That is, we do not partake in the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, through which we receive “oxygen”, “nutrients” and everything necessary. And what is most terrifying – we feel normal, happy. What does this indicate? We are dead, or in the process of dying, at a stage where pain is no longer felt.
The Holy Fathers rightly established a rule, which was an external indicator of belonging to the Church – whoever did not partake in the Eucharist for three consecutive Sundays automatically excommunicated themselves from the Church, that is, the Church recognized the beginning of an “irreversible” (unless repented) process of dying.
Let us not forget that the “transplanted organ” – a free individual – can refuse to live the life of the Church Body, block access to its Blood, and cease communicating with other “organs” of the Body – that is, to excommunicate itself from the Eucharist, the Life of the Church. The Body always provides the necessary in excess (“that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly”), but whether I accept it depends on me, – “an organ” with free will, which at baptism does not necessarily align with the will of the Body – God Jesus Christ. Thus, when we fall, “sin unto death”, we isolate ourselves from all members of the Body, blocking all “valves”, “channels” through which the