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Translated by R. Payne Smith
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 18
SERMON III.[16]
[From Aubert.]
cc. 2:21-24.
VERY numerous indeed is the assembly, and earnest the hearer:----for we see the Church full:----but the teacher is but poor. He nevertheless Who giveth to man a mouth and tongue, will further supply us with good ideas.[17] For He somewhere says Himself, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Since therefore ye have all come together eagerly on the occasion of this joyous festival [18] of our Lord, let us with cheerful torches brightly celebrate the feast, and apply ourselves to the consideration of what was divinely fulfilled, as it were, this day, gathering for ourselves from every quarter whatsoever may confirm us in faith and piety.
But recently we saw the Immanuel lying as a babe in the manger, and wrapped in human fashion in swaddling bands, but extolled as God in hymns by the host of the holy angels. For they proclaimed to the shepherds His birth, God the Father having granted to the inhabitants of heaven as a special privilege to be the first to preach Him. And to-day too we have seen Him obedient to the laws of Moses, or rather we have seen Him Who as God is the Legislator, subject to His own decrees. And the reason of this the most wise Paul teaches us, saying, "When we were babes we were enslaved under the elements of the world; but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born [19] of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." Christ therefore ransomed from the curse of the law those who being subject to it, had been unable to keep its enactments. And in what way did He ransom them? By fulfilling it. And to put it in another way: in order that He might expiate the guilt of Adam's transgression, He showed Himself obedient and submissive in every respect to God the Father in our stead: for it is written, "That as through the disobedience of the One man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One, the many shall be made just." He yielded therefore His neck to the law in company with us, because the plan of salvation so required: for it became Him to fulfil all righteousness. [20][ ]For having assumed the form of a slave, as being now enrolled by reason of His human nature among those subject to the yoke, He once even paid the half shekel to the collectors of the tribute, although by nature free, and as the Son not liable to pay the tax. When therefore them seest Him keeping the law, be not offended, nor place the free-born among the slaves, but reflect rather upon the profoundness of the plan of salvation.
[21] Upon the arrival, therefore, of the eighth day, on which it was customary for the circumcision in the flesh to be performed according to the enactment of the law, He receives His Name, even Jesus, which by interpretation signifies, the Salvation of the people. For so had God the Father willed that His Son should be named, when born in the flesh of a woman. For then especially was He made the salvation of the people, and not of one only, but of many, or rather of every nation, and of the whole world. He received His name, therefore, on the same occasion on which He was circumcised.
16.[q] The original Greek of both the third and fourth Sermons has been preserved in the Imperial Library at Paris; and that of the fourth only at Trinity College, Cambridge. The former has been printed by Aubert in his collected edition of S. Cyril's Works, Vol. V. part ii. p. 385., where the two Sermons are incorporated into one.
17.[r] From this it appears that these homilies were delivered extemporaneously, which accounts for a certain amount of repetition in them, especially of favorite texts.
18.[s] The feast of circumcision.
19.[t] I have not noticed the many verbal discrepancies between him and Aubert, as the Catenists naturally had to make many slight alterations in forming their extracts into a connected discourse.
20.[u] This passage, as far as "the plan of salvation," Mai for the present omits, but afterwards gives it in so different a form, and with such additions, that I think it better to append a separate translation. "Again He paid the half shekel to the collectors of the tribute, although not bound to pay, as being in very truth the Son: but He paid as being made under the law. For He must verily act fully according to the dispensation which He had undertaken for our sakes. And we shall find Him, moreover, even in the payment of the half shekel marked out as a Saviour and Redeemer (?). For the half shekel was a coin stamped with the royal image: and it was paid according to the law for two persons. Behold therefore again Christ represented in the half shekel. For being the image of the Father, the impress of His substance, the coin that came from heaven, He offered Himself as the ransom for the two people, the Jews, I mean, and the Gentiles." This fanciful style of interpretation seldom appears in the Syriac, and is equally rejected in the present case by Aubert's MS.
21.[v] This passage exists among the Syriac fragments, and is important in so far establishing the accuracy of Aubert's text, as it agrees with it in omitting an interpolation of the Catenist, found in Mai.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/luke-commentary.asp?pg=18
