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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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44 Pages
Page 30
For consider that the Only-Begotten having been made man, gave forth such words as one of us and in behalf of our whole nature, as though He said [49], The first man hath transgressed, he slipped down into disobedience, he heeded not the command given him, by the wiles of the dragon he was carried off into wilfulness: therefore fall rightly has he been subjected unto decay and has become subject to doom, but Thou didst plant Me a second beginning to them on the earth, I am called, Second Adam. In Me Thou seest the race of man purged, achieving sinlessness, holy, all-pure. Give now the good things of Thy Clemency, undo the forsaking, rebuke decay and let wrath reach its period. I have conquered Satan himself too who of old prevailed, for he found in Me no whit of what was his.
Such then, as I think, is the meaning of the Saviour's words; for He was inviting the good favour of the Father not on Himself but on us rather. For as the [fruits] of wrath passed through as from the first root, I mean Adam, unto the whole nature of man (for death hath reigned from Adam unto Moses over them too which sinned not after the likeness of Adam's transgression): thus too will the [fruits] from our second first-fruits, Christ, pass through unto the whole human race. And the all-wise Paul will be our warrant, saying, For if by the transgression of one man the many died, much more by the righteousness of the One shall the many live, and again, For as in Adam all die so too in Christ shall all be quickened.
B. Unwise therefore and utterly incongruous to the holy Scriptures is it both to deem and to say that the man assumed used human expressions as forsaken by the Word which was connected with him.
A. Blasphemy, my friend, and a proof of the uttermost stupefaction, and that full clear, will this be, yet is it not incongruous to those who understand not to think aright. For since they sever and divide utterly both words and facts and have allotted the one to the Only-Begotten alone and by Himself, the other as it were to a son other than He and from a woman, therefore have they missed of the straight and most unerring way and of clearly knowing the mystery of Christ.
B. We must not then divide either words or facts, when the Gospel and Apostolic preachings are brought forward?
A. By no means, as far as pertains to two persons and hypostases severed from one another and diverging altogether apart and separately: for in that there is One Son, the Word made Man for our sakes, I would say that all are His, both words and facts, both the God-befitting and besides the human.
B. Hence even if He be said to be weary from the journey [50]. to be hungry and to share in sleep: will it be fit (tell me) to allot to God the Word things thus mean and abased?
A. The Word still bare and not yet Incarnate and ere He descended unto the emptying, it will by no means befit (for you deem aright), but to Him made man and emptied what hurt can this inflict on Him? for as we say that His flesh was made His own [51], so again His are the weaknesses of the flesh through the Economic appropriation of them and after the mode of the emptying, for He was made like in all things to His brethren, without sin alone. And marvel not that we say that He has made the weaknesses of the flesh His own along with the flesh: whence to Himself again hath He allotted the contumelies too from without, which were put upon Him by the frowardness of the Jews, saying through the voice of the Psalmist, They parted My garments among themselves and upon My vesture they cast the lot, and again, All that see Me sneered at Me, they spake with their lips, they wagged the head.
49. [r] "Wherefore of necessity when He was in a body suffering and weeping and toiling, these things which are proper to the flesh are ascribed to Him together with the body. If then He wept and was troubled, it was not the Word considered as the Word (ἧ Λόγος) Who wept and was troubled but it was proper to the flesh; and if too He besought that the cup might pass away, it was not the Godhead that was in terror but this affection too was proper to the manhood. And that the words, Why hast Thou forsaken Me, are His according to the foregoing explanations, though He suffered nothing (for the Word was impassible), is notwithstanding declared by the Evangelists; since the Lord became man and these things are done and said as from a man, that He might Himself lighten these very sufferings of the flesh and free it from them. Whence neither can the Lord be forsaken by the Father Who is ever in the Father, both before He spoke and when He uttered these words..... For behold when He says, Why hast Thou forsaken Me, the Father shewed that He was ever and even then in Him; for the earth knowing its Lord Who spoke, straightway trembled and the veil was rent, and the sun was hidden, and the rocks were torn asunder, and the graves, as I have said, did gape and the dead in them arose." S. Athan. against Arians iii. 56 pp. 478,479 O.T. "When then He is said to hunger and weep and weary, and to cry Eloi, Eloi, which are our human affections, He receives them from us and offers to the Father, interceding for us that in Him they may be annulled." S. Ath. against Arians, iv. 6 p. 520 O.T. See too note q.
50. [s] "We know, brethren, that One and the Same is He Who through the holy Virgin, Mary Mother of God, was born, Perfect God and Perfect Man, ensouled, rational. Therefore do we both say that the holy Virgin is Mother of God and that God the Word indwelt her, not in semblance but in operation; the Same when two-months old and three-months old, [do we confess] Son of God alike and Son of man. Yea and the words both of the human nature and those uttered in God-befitting authority which theDivine Scriptures recount to us of Him, we say are gathered into One Person. For we know that the Same is He Who sleeps on the pillow, the Same He Who with authority rebukes the sea and the winds: the Same Who was wearied with the journey, the Same Who walked on the sea as on solid ground by His own Power; the Same therefore God, the Same man undoubtedly." From a short sermon printed after the Scholia, t. v. i. pp. 801, 802 Aub. See too from S. Gregory Nyssa, " Human poverty doth not feed the thousands nor doth Almighty power run to the fig tree," in Dr. Newman's translation of S. Athanasius against Arians, p. 479 O.T. note b.
51. [t] See above pp. 8, 142, 194, 249, 251, 261, and 3 Ecumenical Epistles, pp. 57, 64 and note d.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/christ-one.asp?pg=30
