If after baptism one does not keep the confession of faith and the promises he made, he deserts Christ and joins the devil. Instead of God's child, he becomes a child of the devil, a perjurer, a traitor, a denier of his promises, and the grace of the Holy Spirit departs from him. But even that sinful, ungrateful, unthankful and treacherous man, that follower of Judas, as long as he repents sincerely and truly, like the prodigal son, like the harlot, like the tax collector and the thief, the All-good God receives back with open arms, dresses with the first robe, and counts among His genuine children, as the Fathers teach. St. Gregory the Theologian states:
"A drop of tears is equivalent to the bath of Baptism, and a painful cry in repentance brings back the grace of the Holy Spirit which had departed for a while." Similarly, Saint John Chrysostom, amazed at the extent of God's goodness and love for man, exclaims,
"O, what a magnitude of love for man! O, what an excess of goodness! God proclaims the sinner righteous once he confesses his sins and resolves to follow Him steadfastly."
+Papa-Dimitri Gagastathis, from
Papa-Dimitri Gagastathis, The man of God, Words of spiritual fathers about papa-Dimitri
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