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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 31 Pages
Page 10
But out of overmuch reverence, he blushes (it appears) at the measures of emptiness and endures not to see the Son Co-Eternal with God the Father, Him who is in the Form and Equality in everything with Him Who begat Him, come down unto lowliness: he finds fault with the economy and haply leaves not unblamed the Divine Counsel and Plan. For he pretends to investigate the force of the things said by Christ, and as it were taking in the depth of the ideas; then bringing round (as he thinks) my [12] words to a seeming absurdity and ignorance; "Let us see, he says, who it is that mis-interprets. As the Living Father sent Me, for I live (according to him) God the "Word, because of the Father, and he that eateth Me he too shall live: which do we eat, the Godhead or the flesh?" Perceivest thou not therefore at length how thy mind is gone? for the Word of God saying that He is sent, says, he also that eateth Me, he too shall live. But WE eat, not consuming the Godhead (away with the folly) but the Very Flesh of the Word Which has been made Lifergiving, because it has been made His Who liveth because of the Father. And we do not say that by a participation from without and adventitious is the Word quickened by the Father, but rather we maintain that He is Life by Nature, for He has been begotten out of the Father who is Life. For as the sun's brightness which is sent forth, though it be said (for example) to be bright because of the sender, or of that out of which it comes, yet not of participation hath it the being bright, but as of natural nobility it weareth the Excellence of him who sent it or flashed it forth: in the same way and manner, I deem, even though the Son say that He lives because of the Father, will He bear witness to Himself His own Noble Birth from forth the Father, and not with the rest of the creation promiscuously, confess that He has Life imparted and from without.
And as the Body of the Word Himself is Life-giving, He having made it His own by a true union passing understanding and language; so WE too who partake of His holy Flesh and Blood, are quickened in all respects and wholly, the Word dwelling in us Divinely through the Holy Ghost, humanly again through His Holy Flesh and Precious Blood. The most holy Paul will confirm the truth of what I said, writing thus to those in Corinth who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, I speak as to wise men, judge YE what I say, the Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ? the Bread which we break is it not the communion of the Body of Christ? for one bread one body are we who are many, for we all are partakers of One Bread. For having partaken of the Holy Ghost, we are made one both with Christ Himself the Saviour of all and with one another: we are of the same body in this way, that we being many are one bread one body, for we all are partakers of the One Bread. For the Body of Christ which is in us binds us together into unity and is in no way divided. But that through the Body of Christ wo have been brought together into unity with Him and with one another, the blessed Paul will confirm, writing, For this cause I Paul the Prisoner of Jesus Christ in behalf of you Gentiles, if ye heard of the economy of the grace of God which was given me to you-ward, how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men as now it is revealed unto His holy Apostles and prophets in the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body and co-participant in the promise in Christ.
12. [s] S. Cyril in his great Letter to the monks which Nestorius had seen (see above p. 20 note 1) and was apparently contradicting had said, " And the Divine-uttering Paul will assure us, saying, But when the fulness of time came God sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law, in order to redeem them that were under the law, in order that WE might recover the adoption. Who then is He who is sent, made (as he said) under the law and of a woman, save He Who is above laws as God? but since He has been called man, made under the Law too, in order to be in all things likened to His brethren?" Ep. 1 to the monks, p. 13 b. And in his 16th Paschal homily, "For as the Divine-uttering Paul writes, God sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law. For we do not say that the Word of God came down into a man born through woman, in just the same way as He was in the Prophets; but rather we shall crown with right approval John's voice clearly and truly saying, And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. And we shall conceive that the Word has been made flesh, participating in flesh and blood; and this in like way with those who are in blood and flesh, ourselves." p. 227 d e. Nestorius' objection to the idea of Sent anyhow referring to God the Word appears in his objections on pp. 48, 51, 52, 84 as well as in the present section. To it we owe S. Cyril's magnificent teaching here of the Blessings given us in and by the Holy Eucharist: for to the verse specially in controversy, S. John vi. 57, Nestorius adds the preceding ver. 56, with a view to the argument he draws from the word flesh, and S. Cyril in replying gives the full teaching of the Catholic Church on the subject both of the Eucharist, and of the sending. S. Cyril meets Nestorius' teaching not only here but (on the Holy Eucharist) in his great Letter (,3 Epistles p. 65 and chapter 11, p. 69) and the Explanation of chapter 11, p. 156 c d. But in his defence of his chapter 11 against the attack of the Eastern Bishops, S. Cyril cites in full this passage of Nestorius and (after alluding to the present treatise in the words that He has already made a long treatise in answer to Nestorius) proceeds, "What it is he wants to understand, in saying that it is not God the Word Incarnate and made Man that has been sent, but putting severally and apart (as he says) 'the visible,' I cannot say, yea rather his sophism is now evident, for he undoes the plan of the union in order that Christ's Body may be found to be a common body, no longer in truth the 'proper Body of Him who is mighty to quicken all things.'
"For petty confessedly to God the Word are all human things, but since He deigned for our sakes to endure the emptiness that is the salvation of the world, even though He be said to have been sent to preach remission to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, He is glorified rather as enduring the abasement of the Economy with flesh, and no one of those who are wont to think aright will (I suppose) find fault because He lowered Himself for our sakes in our condition.
"Does he not therefore by affirming that 'the visible,' to whom alone he hath allotted the fact of being sent, is some other son and christ than the Word out of God, exhibit our mystery as cannibalism, in unholy wise bringing round the mind of believers to feeble notions and essaying to subject to human reasonings what are apprehended by unquestioning faith alone? for not because the Nature of the Godhead is not eaten, will one therefore say that the holy Body of Christ is common: but it is needful to know (as we said before) that it is the Proper Body of the Word which quickeneth all things, and since it is the Body of Life it is also life-giving, for through It does the SON infuse life into our mortal bodies and undoes the mastery of death: and the HOLY SPIRIT of Christ quickeneth us in equal wise; for it is the Spirit that quickeneth, according to the Saviour's own voice." Def. cap. 11 adv. orient. p. 193 b c d e. So again in S. Cyril's Letter to the Emperor de recta fide (which Nestorius is very likely to have seen though probably not sent so soon as this) S. Cyril cites the text and says, "Yet how is it not true to say that the flesh hath come not out of heaven, but was out of the Virgin according to the Scriptures? yet is not the Word eaten, but He is seen in thousand ways gathering both into One [uniting] the properties of the natures by an economic coming together (σύμβασιν)" p. 35 d e. When S. Cyril republished this treatise in a revised form, he concluded this extract, " gathering both into One and as it were immingling (ἀνακιρνὰς) the properties of the natures." p. 708 a. In his treatise to the Empresses (Eudocia the Emperor's wife and his sister Pulcheria who had been Empress in her Brother's minority), written at the same time as the treatise to the Emperor, S.Cyril says, "As the Living Father sent Me both I live because of the Father and he that eateth Me he too shall live because of Me. I would gladly ask them who distinguish into two christs, the One, Who I pray is He Who has been sent by God the Father and Who both lives because of Him and is on that account Life-giving? If therefore it is the Word who is out of Him, bare and by Himself, how is He eaten by us in order that we may live because of Him (for unembodied is the Godhead by Nature)? but if they say that he that hath been sent is man alone and by himself, how is he life-giving because he lives because of the Father? albeit how are not all we that are on earth among the living, God the Father quickening us, if it is true that in Him we live and move and are? Since therefore we all of us live because of the Father, how (I pray) is the body of one man alone life-giving on this account and those of the rest have not rather the same operation, seeing that we all (as I said) both are and live because of the Father? what then do we say to this? The Word of God appearing in human form has been called Sent (apostle) (for He was sent to preach remission to captives and recovery of sight to the blind), but He lives because of the Father for He was begotten out of the Living Father: for it must needs, it must needs that the SON born of God the Father Living and Life be full surely Life by Nature. But since He made His own the body which was taken out of the holy Virgin, He rendered it Life-giving and with reason, for it is the Body of the Life which quickeneth all things. Hence we may not sever into two sons the One Son and Christ and Lord; since He is the Same, Life as out of the Father, Life and Living; Lifegiving through His own Body too, as GOD made as we and Incarnate." de recta fide to the Empresses § 40 p. 177 abed. In the Thesaurus S. Cyril speaks of sending in reference to either the Eternal Generation or the temporal Birth for our sakes (compare S. Aug. on S. John hom. 21 fin. pp. 338 sq. O.T. with homm. 36 40, pp. 507, 545 O.T.) " The SON says that He has been sent by the Father, either [either is supplied from MSS.] after the mode of obedience and Incarnation (for He emptied Himself taking servant's form and became obedient unto death), or as out of the sun the light that is born and emitted from forth it, or out of the fire its heat, indivisibly and inseparably permeating to its participator." Thes. cap. 32 p. 325. In his comm. on S.John, S. Cyril takes sent as belonging to the Incarnation, p. 424 O.T. The very Rev. John Burgon B.D. Dean of Chichester, very kindly sent me from his laboriously constructed Indices of the New Testament citations of the Greek Fathers, a list of the citations in S. Cyril's extant writings of S. John vi. 57. It is probable that Nestorius' allusion to S. Cyril's interpretation of sent, belongs not to any comment on this verse but to the meaning as given in his great Letter to the Monks; which letter Nestorius elsewhere contradicts.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/against-nestorius-2.asp?pg=10
