|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
|
This Part: 115 Pages
Page 59
19:41-44. And as He drew near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, Would that you had known on this day, even you, the things of your peace: but now they are hid from your eyes: that the days shall come upon you, when your enemies shall raise a rampart against you, and encircle you, and keep you in on every side; and shall dash you to the ground, and your children within you, and shall not leave in you stone upon stone, because you knew not the time of your visitation.
THE blessed prophet Jeremiah loudly condemned the ignorance, at once, and pride of the Jews, rebuking them in these words; "How say you that we are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? In vain is the lying cord of the scribes. The wise men are ashamed: they trembled, and were taken: what wisdom have they, in that they have rejected the Word of the Lord!" For being neither wise, nor acquainted with the sacred Scriptures, though the scribes and Pharisees falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of being learned in the law, they rejected the Word of God. For when the Only Begotten had become man, they did not receive Him, nor yield their neck obediently to the summons which He addressed to them by the Gospel. Because therefore by their wicked conduct they rejected the Word of God, they were themselves rejected, being condemned by God's just decree. For He said, by the voice of Jeremiah, "Call them rejected silver: because the Lord has rejected them." And again, "Shave your head, and cast it away, and take lamentation upon your lips, because the Lord has rejected and thrust away the generation that has done these things." And what these things are, the God of all has Himself declared to us, saying, "Hear, O earth: behold! I am bringing upon this people evils; the fruit of their turning away; because they regarded not My word, and have rejected My law." For neither did they keep the commandment that was given to them by Moses, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men:" and further, they also rejected the Word of God the Father, having refused to honour by faith Christ, when He called them thereunto. The fruits therefore of their turning away were plainly the calamities which happened to them: for they suffered all misery, as the retribution due for murdering the Lord.
But their falling into this affliction was not in accordance with the good will of God. For He would rather have had them attain to happiness by faith and obedience. But they were disobedient, and arrogant: yet even so, though this was their state of mind, Christ pitied them: for "He wills that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." For it even says, that "when He saw the city, He wept;" that we hereby might learn that He feels grief, if we may so speak of God, Who transcends all. But we could not have known that He pitied them, wicked as they were, had He not made manifest by some human action that sorrow which we could not see. For the tear which drops from the eye is a symbol of grief, or rather, a plain demonstration of it. So He wept also over Lazarus, that we again might understand that it grieved Him that the nature of man had fallen under the power of death. For "He created all things to incorruption; but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world:" not indeed because the envy of the devil is more powerful than the will of the Creator, but because it was necessary that there should follow, upon the transgression of the divine commandment, a penalty that would humble to corruption whosoever had despised the law of life.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/luke-commentary-3.asp?pg=59
