17 Wearing white garments for seven consecutive days, up to the second Sunday of Easter (as Baptism was given only during the Easter Vigil liturgy), powerfully highlighted the eschatological aspect of Christian faith and life. In this way, the 4th-century Syriac theologian, Theodore of Mopsuestia, addressed the newly baptized, saying: “As you emerge from the water, you don a radiant garment: it symbolizes the future world — bright and shining, into which you have been ushered. However, once you achieve resurrection and are clothed in immortality and incorruptibility, you will no longer require this garment. You need it now, though, because you have not yet received these gifts in actuality but only as signs and symbols, a preview of the happiness to come.”17 St. John Chrysostom, in explaining the mystery of the first week following Baptism to the neophytes, describes it as a symbol of the entire Christian life, stating: “This spiritual wedding is drawing to an end. Be watchful, therefore! Just as in a physical marriage, all wedding festivities last seven days; so too have we celebrated our spiritual marriage for the same duration at the mystical table full of gifts. What am I saying? — for seven 17 Teodor z Mopsuestii, Homilia XIV, cit. per A. Grzywa, Symbolika szaty w starożytnych obrzędach..., op. cit., p. 285.
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