|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE |
LIBRARIES |
BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | BOOKSTORE | FREEWARE |
|
|
Translated by R. Payne Smith
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
|
This Part: 128 Pages
Page 31
But how then, they object, was He baptized, and received also the Spirit? To which we reply, that He had no need of holy baptism, being wholly pure and spotless, and holy of the holy. Nor had He need of the Holy Ghost: for the Spirit That proceedeth from God the Father is of Him, and equal to Him in substance. We must now therefore at length hear what is the explanation of the economy. God in his love to man provided for us a way of salvation and of life. For believing in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and making this confession before many witnesses, we wash away all the filth of sin, and are enriched by the communication of the Holy Spirit, and made partakers of the divine nature, and gain the grace of adoption. It was necessary therefore that the Word of the Father, when He humbled Himself unto emptiness, and deigned to assume our likeness, should become for our sakes the pattern and way of every good work. For it follows, that He Who in every thing is first, must in this also set the example. In order therefore that we may learn both the power itself of holy baptism, and how much we gain by approaching so great a grace, He commences the work Himself; and, having been baptized, prays that you, my beloved, may learn that never-ceasing prayer is a thing most fitting for those who have once been counted worthy of holy baptism.
And the Evangelist says that the heavens were opened, as having long been closed. For Christ said, "Forthwith shall ye see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." For both the flock above and that below being now made one, and one chief Shepherd appointed for all, the heavens were opened, and man upon earth brought near to the holy angels. And the Spirit also again came down as at a second commencement of our race: and upon Christ first, Who received it not so much for His own sake as for ours: for by Him and in Him are we enriched with all things. Most suitably therefore to the economy of grace does He endure with us the things of man's estate: for where otherwise shall we see Him emptied, Whose in His divine nature is the fulness? How became He poor as we are, if He were not conformed to our poverty? How did He empty Himself, if He refused to endure the measure of human littleness?
Having taken therefore Christ as our pattern, let us draw near to the grace of holy baptism, that so we may gain boldness to pray constantly, and lift up holy hands to God the Father, that He may open the heavens also unto us, and send down upon us too the Holy Ghost, to receive us as sons. For He spake unto Christ at the time of holy baptism, as though having by Him and in Him accepted man upon earth to the sonship, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." For He Who is the Son by nature and in truth, and the Only-begotten, when He became like unto us, is specially declared to be the Son of God, not as receiving this for Himself:----for He was and is, as I said, very Son:----but that He might ratify the glory unto us. For He has been made our firstfruits, and firstborn, and second Adam: for which reason it is said, that "in Him all things have become new:" for having put oil the oldness that was in Adam, we have gained the newness that is in Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be glory and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. [50]
50.[c] As frequently is the case, the short extracts in Mai at the end are not found in the Syriac, probably either from being taken from S. Cyril's other works, or erroneously ascribed to him. The first (from B.) contradicts the doctrine maintained throughout this Commentary, viz. that our Lord submitted to baptism as the pattern and type of humanity, and refers His baptism to His human nature. But Christ's human nature needed no baptism, as having no stain of sin. The second (from E. and F.) is a refutation of Paul of Samosata, drawn from the Evangelist's words, that "Jesus was be-ginning to be about thirty years old," and shewing that though He had a beginning as man, as God He had no beginning. And the last is a reproof addressed to those who justified the delay of holy baptism by our Lord's example, and which being referred to S. Cyril by four MSS. (A. E. F. H.), as well as for its own sake, I append entire; 'Thus great and beyond expectation is the harm that is done by deferring the grace that is by baptism for a long and unseasonable time: chiefly because no one can look forward with certainty to the accomplishment of his plans, and also because, though his purpose arrive at its fulfilment, he is sanctified indeed, but receives only the forgiveness of his past transgressions, while his talent he brings back to his Lord bare, having had no time to gain by trading any thing to add thereunto.'
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/luke-commentary.asp?pg=31
