St Cyril of Alexandria Commentary on Luke (Second Part)

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SERMON LIX. FIT TO BE READ WHEN ANY ONE RECEIVES THE TONSURE [1].

9:61-62. And another also said, I will follow Thee, Lord; but first let me bid farewell to the members of my house. But Jesus said to him, No man who putteth his hand to the plough, and looketh back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

OF zeal in virtuous pursuits we say, that it is worthy of all praise. But those who have attained to this state of mind must be strong in purpose, and not feebly disposed towards the mark that is set before them. Rather they must plainly possess an unwavering and inflexible mind: for so, starting impetuously as from the barriers of the race-course, they will reach the goal, and gain the victory, and twine around their hair the conqueror's crown. And to this heartiness of purpose the Saviour of all encouraged us, as being a quality worth the gaining, where He says, "Who of you wishing to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth whether he have sufficient to finish it; lest, saith He, having laid the foundation, and not being able to finish it, the passers by say, This man began to build, and was not able to finish." One who so acts becomes an object merely of ridicule: for upon every honourable and virtuous undertaking a fitting conclusion ought to follow. And to teach this truth the law of Moses commanded those who were building a house to erect upon it also a battlement. For he who is not perfect in good, is not free from blame. Just then as discredit was of course attached to a house that had no battlements, so the passage just read to us from the Gospel teaches us a similar lesson.

"For one drew near saying, I will follow thee, Lord; but first let me go and bid farewell to those in my house." The promise then that he makes is worthy of emulation, and full of all praise: but the fact of his wishing to bid farewell to those at home shews him, so to speak, divided, and that he had not as yet entered upon the course with unshackled mind. For look how, like some colt eager for the race, there holds him back as with a bridle, the stream of worldly things, and his wish in part still to take interest in this world's occupations. For no one hinders him from hastening, if he will, to the wished for mark, according to the free inclinations of his mind. But the very wish to consult first with his relatives, and to make those his counsellors who were not likely to entertain sentiments similar to his own, nor to share at all in his resolution, sufficiently proves him infirm and halting, and not as yet fully inclined to act upon his desire of following Christ.

But He, as it were by gentle reproofs, corrected him, and taught him to practise a more determined zeal, saying, "No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." For just as the husbandman, who has begun to break up his land by the plough, if he grow weary, and leave his labour half done, sees not his field thick set with ears, nor his threshing-floor full of sheaves, and suffers of course the loss which is the natural result of idleness; the absence, I mean, of produce, and the consequent penury, and incurs also the ridicule of those that see him: so he who wishes to cleave unto Christ, but does not bid farewell to the things of the world, and abandon all love of the flesh, and even deny his earthly relatives; for by so doing he attains to a resolute courage in all praiseworthy pursuits; is not fit for the kingdom of God. One who cannot attain to this resolution, because his mind is fettered with indolence, is not acceptable unto Christ, nor fit for His company, and necessarily is refused permission to be with Him.

1.[d] The marginal note, which literally means, "Fit to be read when any one is shaven," refers to the rite of admission into the monastic order, and is of course of the date, not of the original work, but of its translation into Syriac, or even its transcription, that is, of the seventh or eighth century. In the Syriac historian, John of Ephesus, the phrase is of frequent occurrence, and always in the sense of becoming a monk. Thus in p. 47, we read that Photius, son of Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, 'for some reason or other, left the army, and shaved his hair, and put on the monastic habit: but being unable to submit to monastic rule, he went to Justin II., still clad in the monkish stole, and was by him made governor of Samaria:' where for twelve years he gave free licence to his ungoverned temper and avarice: as an instance of which, the historian mentions, that he hung the bishop of Ascalon up by one arm, ordering him not to be loosed for three days, unless upon payment of three talents of gold. Again, in p. 55 he mentions, that at the time when the great eunuch Narses received orders to proceed on his last expedition to Italy, he was occupied in building a monastery in Bithynia, intending 'to retire thither, and shave his hair,' i. e. become a monk. Even ladies had to submit to this rite: for in p. 88 he tells us, that in the severe persecution carried on in Justin's latter years by the patriarch, John of Sirmium, against the Monophysites, two noble ladies, Antipatra, whose daughter was married to the consul John, and Juliana, the emperor's own sister-in-law, having refused to receive the holy communion from a bishop who accepted the council of Chalcedon, were sent to a nunnery, with strict orders 'that their hair should be shorn, and that they should wear the black habit of the nuns, and be compelled to perform the most menial labours:' which these ladies found so painful, that they submitted, and were allowed to return to their families. Similar testimonies have already been collected from Greek and Latin authors, as, e. g. Socrates, 1. 3. c. 1. says of the apostate Julian, iv χρῷ κειράμενος τὸν τῶν μοναχῶν ὑπεκρίνετο βίον. To shave the head was peculiar to the monks; for of the clergy nothing more was required than that modesty of dress and apparel which became the gravity of their office; so Conc. Carth. iv. c. 44. "Clericus nec comam nutriat, nec barbam radat," letting the hair grow long, and shaving the beard, being equally marks of luxury and effeminacy. So Morinus Com. de Sac. Eccles. Ordin. P. iii. 266, grants that the clergy for many centuries did not shave the head; and Jerome bears witness to the same effect in his Commentary on Ezech. xliv. 20.

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