The experience of the early Christians

The early Christians knew by their own experience that at their Baptism Jesus himself had come into their souls.  “…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”, said St Paul (NRSV, Galatians 2:20).  So the Christians in Corinth knew exactly what he meant when he wrote to them, “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” (NRSV, 2 Corinthians 13:5).

In time of persecution

And they did know it, but never more than in time of persecution.  Thus, in the year 177 AD, there was a fierce persecution at Lyons in France.  The Christians were hunted out of their homes and tortured in the amphitheatre or arena for the entertainment of pagan spectators.  One of the martyrs was a deacon named Sanctus from Vienne, who was terribly tortured, but, as the actual account written at the time tells us, “with such confidence did he array himself against them (the ungodly), that he did not even tell his own name or race or city, nor whether he were a slave of free, but to all their interrogations he returned answer in the Latin tongue, ‘I am a Christian’ (Christianus sum).  This he owned for name, for city, for race, for everything besides, nor did the heathen hear from him any other word”.  And the account goes on, “In him Christ suffered and achieved great glory, bringing the adversary to naught, and showing that there is nothing fearful where the Father’s love is nor painful where is Christ’s glory”. (1)

Thus were the life and power of Christ displayed in the baptised all over the Roman Empire, until in the end the Empire had to admit that, for all its armed might and force, it was beaten by Our Lord.  It was said that as Julian, the last of the pagan emperors, died, he cried out, “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean”.  The Roman Empire was built on the foundation of human power and cruelty and force, and that foundation was broken by Jesus himself, acting through ordinary Christian people, through slaves, doctors, farmers, soldiers, mothers and fathers, boys and girls, who by their Baptism had become part of him and he part of them.  So it has been truly said that “the foundation of the Roman Empire was loosened by the waters of Baptism”. (2)