St Cyril of Alexandria Commentary on John (Third Part)

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Page 48

But (haply some one will say) it will be no such thing as this, but the hour and season will give to each what suits him.

Therefore the season will now reign over us, we will put about the hours the dignity of Providence, having no more thought of God, we will ask by prayer, of Him nought, but of the time or the season. And what follows? we shall worship the creature more than the Creator, and blasphemously give the glory of the Creator to things made by Him. The disgrace hence accruing and the magnitude of the blasphemy, we shall see with no great trouble to have abomination more open than that of women who are courtesans. But what comes into our minds, we will say for profit's sake. Superfluously, it appears, do the laws both of God and man mark out to lovers of wickedness the punishments suitable for them, and add honours to those whose special aim it is to desire to live more rightly. For if nothing at all lies within our own wills, but all is subject to the necessity from the hours, which lead us without escape or power of refusal to both [good and evil], how can we still rightly allow that praise is meet for the good, and allot the contrary to those who are not so, as their just meed? Why (tell me) do the laws compel us to depart from vice, and press forward after what is better, if others hold the reins of our resolves, and easily bring us to whatsoever they please? For they say and will have it so, that human affairs are under the authority of the hours, taking no thought of the absurdity thence resulting. For will they not declare, even against their will, that he, .whose is the supremacy over all things that are upon the earth, will be more wretched than the very brutes, and will live in pitiable state, and he who ought to excel by reason of his nature, will be brought down to the second, yea, even to the last place? For if the beasts by their self-ruling impulses, turn, no one hindering them, to what they please, and admit what they know to be wholesome, and shun what will hurt them, and WE are in bondage to time, that bitter master, and have the authority of the hours, a tyranny not to be escaped, suspended over us like a staff, shall not our condition be far worse than theirs is?

But he will blush, as is probable, who would fain be for (yea rather utter lies against) the hours and times, which were never created for any such purposes, and rejecting the absurdity of such opinions, will come forward saying: "We do not, sir, declare that the hour nor yet the time or season has authority over the affairs of men, but we say that there are evil hours, and seasons too, which sometimes like raging winds, spring upon us miserable."

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