|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
|
44 Pages
Page 28
A. I myself too know that these things would not befit the Word which is sprung forth of God the Father, if the mode of the Economy be put aside [45] and if we do not admit that He have been made flesh according to the Scriptures: but since we rest firmly on this, and the doubting one whit abont it involves a charge of impiety, come let us view closely, as far as we may, the depth of the economy.
The Word therefore from forth of God the Father appeared in likeness of us, to aid in countless ways our human condition and to shew full well the path that leads us to everything that is admirable. It was then necessary that we should learn, when temptation attacks them who are in peril for the love of God, what sort of people they ought to be who have chosen to live a life and conversation noble and excellent; whether they should be seen by their Saviour remiss and falling back into negligence and out of due season revelling and spreading themselves out for delight: or intent unto prayer and bathed in tears and thirsting for aid from Him and for manliness, if He should be pleased that we should also suffer. It needed besides what we should know to our profit, whither the goal of obedience ends and through what prizes it goes, what and how great the reward of endurance. Christ therefore became a pattern of such things, and hereto the divine Peter confirms us saying, For what renown if sinning and buffeted ye endure? but if well-doing ye endure, this is thank from God, because Christ too died for us, leaving us [46] an ensample that ye should follow His steps. Hence the Word of God no longer bare and imparticipate in the measures of the emptying but in the days of His flesh has been made a pattern to us; in that then without any blame He could use the measures of the human nature and prolong His prayer and shed the tear [47] and seem now both to need a Saviour and to learn obedience, albeit Son. For the Spirit-clad was as it were astonished at the Mystery, that being by Nature and truly Son and Eminent in the glories of the Godhead He let Himself down unto low estate, so as to undergo the meanness of our human poverty. Yet was the pattern (as I said) comely and helpful, so as one might learn hence, and that full easily, that we ought not to hasten another road, when the season calls us to manliness. And indeed Christ said at one time, And fear not them that slay the body but cannot slay the soul, but rather fear Him Who can destroy both soul and body in Hell, at another again, If any man will come after Me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. The duty of following Him, what else is it than that we must be all-manly against temptations, and with that, ask the aid that is from above not negligently nor remissly but using rather intensest prayers and letting fall from our eyes the tear of godly fear?
B. You say well.
A. If moreover He say, My God My God why forsookest Thou Me, how will they understand it?
B. They would deem, as I suppose, that these are the words of the man who is assumed.
A. Of one who has broken down and who considers the onslaught of the trial as not to be borne, as intolerable, or how?
45. [k] So too had S. Cyril written in his Dialogues to Hermias, " If one write of Him, Who in the days of His flesh offered supplications and entreaties to Him That can save Him from death &c, descend a little and take account of the measure of the human nature. For the Impress of the Father would not have died; but since the supplication has been made in the days of His flesh, the fear will be that of the flesh and the dread of death of the human nature in itself (ἰδικῶς). Hence even though He be said to receive the Name which is above every Name, do not drive away the SON from the bounds of Godhead in that He is Word and hath beamed forth from God the Father; for He was by Nature and truly God even before the times of the emptying." Dial. 5 p. 571 e.
46. [l] Here the manuscript has you: I have translated us with Euthymius and the Syriac translation.
47. [n] See the magnificent passage in S. Cyril's Defence against Theodoret's objection to his tenth chapter (quoted also by Dr. Bright in his article on S. Cyril in the Dictionary of Christian Biography): "He wept as man that He might stay thy tear, He feared, economically committing to His flesh to suffer what belonged to it, that He might make us of fairest courage, He refused the Cup that the Cross might reveal the impiety of the Jews, He is said to be weak in His human nature that He might end thy weakness, He prolonged prayers and supplications in order that He might render the Father's Ear open to thy prayers, in order that thou mightest learn not to slumber in temptations but rather to be all-intense unto prayers (Def. xii capp. adv. Theod. p. 234 a b)." And in his earlier work, the Thesaurus, " By His own death the Saviour annulled death. As then death had not been annulled, except He had died, so in regard to each passion of the flesh. For except He had feared, our nature had not become free from fearing; except He had sorrowed, it had never been rid of sorrowing: except He had been troubled and dismayed, it would never have been in case external to these. And in each several thing that befals humanly, applying the same reasoning, you will find that the passions of the flesh had motions in Christ, not in order that they should prevail as in us, but in order that when moved, they should be annulled by the might of the Word which indwelt the flesh, the nature being transformed to the better." Thes. cap. 24. p. 233 d e. " Seest thou that what thou deemest to be Christ's weaknesses is thy might? . . . Those tears wash us, that weeping cleanses us." S. Ambrose de fide, ii. 95. t. ii. 489.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/christ-one.asp?pg=28
