Chapter VII.
An example of triple questioning and immersion emerged in Peter's threefold response. Therefore, since the entire Trinity forgives sins, it is said that there is one name in which we must be saved; and by what means do we participate in Christ's baptism and anointing into eternal life?
You were asked: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? You said: I believe, and you were immersed, that is, you were buried. You were asked again: Do you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His cross? You said: I believe, and you were immersed; therefore, you were also buried with Christ: for whoever is buried with Christ, rises with Christ. You were asked for the third time: Do you also believe in the Holy Spirit? You said: I believe, and were immersed for the third time, so that the triple confession might absolve the multiple lapse of an earlier age.
Finally, as an example for you, the holy apostle Peter, after appearing weak in the weakness of human condition during the passion of the Lord, who had previously denied, later to efface and dissolve that fall, is questioned for the third time by Christ if he loved Him; then he says: You know, Lord, that I love You (John 21:15 et seq.). He said it a third time, so that he might be absolved for the third time.
Therefore the Father forgives sin, just as the Son forgives sin, and so does the Holy Spirit. However, we are commanded to be baptized in one name, that is, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Do not be surprised that he said one name where there is one substance, one divinity, one majesty. This is the name of which it is said: In which it is necessary for everyone to be saved (Acts 4:12). In this name you all have been saved, you have been restored to the grace of life.
Therefore the Apostle cries out, as you have heard in the current reading: For whoever is baptized, is baptized in the death of Jesus (Rom. 6:3 ff). What is meant by 'in death'? That just as Christ died, so you too may taste death: just as Christ died to sin and lives to God; so may you die to the former enticements of sins through the sacrament of baptism, and rise again through the grace of Christ. It is death, indeed, but not in the truth of bodily death, rather in its likeness. For when you immerse yourself, you take on the likeness of death and burial: you receive the sacrament of that cross which Christ hung on, and His body was pierced with nails. So when you are crucified, you adhere to Christ, you adhere to the nail of our Lord Jesus Christ; lest the devil can drag you away. May the nail of Christ hold you, which recalls the weakness of human condition.
Therefore, you were baptized (On the Consecration, dist. 4, ch. Baptized), you came to the priest: what did he say to you? God, he said, the almighty Father who regenerated you through water and the Holy Spirit, and who forgave you your sins, will anoint you himself with eternal life. See where you have been anointed: with eternal life, he said. Do not prefer this life to that life. For example, if an enemy arises, if he wants to take away your faith, if he threatens death in order to make someone transgress, see what you choose: do not choose that in which you have not been anointed, but choose that in which you have been anointed; so that you may prefer eternal life to temporal life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book Three