Читать книгу The Journey: How an obscure Byzantine Saint became our Santa Claus - David Price Williams - Страница 84

bad tempered and so casual in their supposed relationships with the world and with mankind that we had to wheedle and debase ourselves before their images to try to extract some small blessing or advantage. Christ represented the total opposite of that. As son of God he gave his life that we might live. He sacrificed himself that we may be freed from our sins. He lived his whole life as the picture he wanted us to aspire to, of how life should be lived, how we should behave to one another. He taught love and forgiveness, not hatred, suspicion and anger. This was how I wanted to live own my life, to give myself to Jesus and his message.

Sunday fortnight came around and with Eusebius’ help I was now ready for admission into the church of Christ. It was to be the day of my baptism. There were to be three of us given our rite of passage into Christianity that day - myself, a man my own age named Andreas who it seemed was once somehow attached to the Roman army in north Africa, and a pretty, local servant girl called Anna. We were each dressed in a simple white cotton shift and were presented before the bishop, Theodorus, in a baptistery at the back of the old synagogue. Each of us was asked in turn if we wanted to become Christians, to be a member of Christ’s flock, to which we said we did. Then one by one we entered a walk-in pool, until we were totally submerged.

Then Theodorus made the sign of the cross with oil on our foreheads and said, “May the God of peace sanctify you in

THE JOURNEY