To the newly baptized on the Eucharist

Treasures of Our Faith with Deacon Richard Vehige

On Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, our church invites us to reflect on a passage from the second book of Chronicles (20:1–9, 13–24), entitled “The wondrous story relating the help God offered to Jehoshaphat”. Our treasure, which follows, is from the treaties On the Mysteries by Saint Ambrose, Bishop.

Second Chronicles covers the time from Solomon's ascension to the throne (971 BC) until the southern kingdom of Judah was finally carried into exile in Babylon in 586 BC. The focus of the book is on Judah.

Second Chronicles describes how God gives splendor to his kings in order for the nations to recognize his greatness. This is evident in the conversations between King Solomon and two foreign rulers: Hiram king of Tyre (2 Chronicles 3–4), and the Queen of Sheba (Chapter 9).

The main message is God’s reputation and Israel’s faithfulness. God’s covenant with David preserved the nation and enabled Solomon to build the temple. God is committed to preserving the line of David's descendants even through spiritual unfaithfulness.

Saint Ambrose was a fourth century, theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan, Italy. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, firstly promoting Roman Christianity against Arianism and paganism. Saint Ambrose is a Doctor of the Church. He is celebrated for his scholarship, service to the unfortunate, oratory skills, leadership of the people, and defense of the Church.

A volume with two of Ambrose’s most influential writings: On the Mysteries, which are addresses given by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, to the newly-baptized in Easter week on the nature of the ceremonies and the doctrinal significance of baptism based upon the Old and New Testaments; and Treatise on the Sacraments, which are six sermons, also given during Easter week.

Saint Ambrose explains in the commencement of this treatise that his object was to set forth, for the benefit of those about to be baptized, the rites and meaning of that Sacrament, as well as of Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, the Lord’s prayer, and prayer. For all these matters were treated with the greatest reserve in the Early Church, for fear of profanation by the heathen, and it was the custom, as in the case of the well-known Catechetical Lectures of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, to explain them to the catechumens during the latter part of Lent.

Treatises of this kind possess therefore a special interest, as in them we find clearly stated the full teaching of the Church at the time when those addresses which have come down to our times were drawn up.