The answer
St. Augustine responds saying, “By our birth from water and the Holy Spirit, we are purified from all sin, whether they are from Adam in whom all sinned, or by our actions, or our words, for we are washed from them by Baptism. In Baptism, we receive the forgiveness of all of our sins-the ancestral and the present-and we become members in the Body of Christ, which is the Church.”52
If man sins after Baptism, he is in need of repentance, and the door of repentance is open. If man is born once, he repents several times. This is why the Church has prescribed that the Mystery of Baptism be done once, but the Mystery of Repentance can be done at any time.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Notes
52 Translator’s note: Cf. The Enchiridion 64, “For, setting aside the grace of baptism, which is given as antidote to original sin, so that what our birth imposes upon us, our new birth relieves us from (this grace, however, takes away all actual sins also that have been committed in thought, word, and deed): setting aside, then, this great act of favour, whence commences man’s restoration, and in which all our guilt, both original and actual, is washed away” (Philip Schaff, ed. NPNF, Ser. 1, Vol. 3. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1995.).
Pope Tawadros II, My Faith: A Series of Dialogues on the Creed (Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, 2014), 144–145.
The pages in the book (144–145)
