Cyril
of Jerusalem
Lecture 13, Part D
“Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? ... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter….” — Isaiah 53:1,7
Summary: St Cyril finishes with a flurry of other powerful, mostly Apostolic, witness. He emphasizes the importance of making the sign of the Cross for every place, situation, and time; upon ourselves, others, and other things; yet, he never indicates a right or wrong way to make the sign of the Cross; he never restricts its use to the officers of the Church, or other specific individuals: hence, the sign of the Cross is, most of all, for all the laity… we can see no other possible conclusion.
Preview: 31. “What power, O robber, led you to the light? Who taught you to worship that despised Man, your
companion on the Cross? O Light Eternal,
which gives light to them that are in darkness!” “This day shall you be with Me in Paradise.” The robber enters Paradise before Abraham, Moses,
the Prophets, Adam. 32. “For the mystery has been fulfilled; the things
that are written have been accomplished; sins are forgiven. For Christ
having come an High-Priest of the good things to come, by the greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet by
the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, entered in once for all into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption; for if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies to the
purifying of the flesh, how much more the blood of Christ?”[i] 33. “These
things the Savior endured, and made peace
through the Blood of His Cross, for things in heaven, and things in earth.[ii] For we were enemies of God through sin, and God
had appointed the sinner to die. There must needs therefore have happened one of
two things; either that God, in His truth, should destroy all men, or that in His
loving-kindness He should cancel the sentence.
But behold the wisdom of God; He preserved both the truth of His sentence,
and the exercise of His loving-kindness.
Christ took our sins in His body on
the tree, that we by His death might die to sin, and live unto righteousness.”[iii] 34. “The
Sun was darkened, because of the Sun of Righteousness.[iv] Rocks were rent, because of the spiritual Rock. Tombs were opened, and the dead arose, because
of Him who was free among the dead; He sent forth His prisoners out of the pit wherein
is no water.”[v] 35. “And
[Prophets] say, Look into the solid rock which
you have hewn.[vi] Look
in and behold. You have in the Gospels
In a sepulcher hewn in stone, which was
hewn out of a rock. And what happens
next? What kind of door has the sepulcher? Again another Prophet says, They cut off My life in a dungeon, and cast a
stone upon Me. I, who am the Chief corner-stone, the elect,
the precious[vii],
lie for a little time within a stone….” 36. “Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our
fingers on our brow, and on everything; over the bread we eat, and the cups we drink;
in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we
rise up; when we are in the way, and when we are still.”[viii] 37. “And
if you ever fall into disputation and have not the grounds of proof, yet let Faith
remain firm in you; or rather, become thou well learned, and then silence the Jews
out of the prophets, and the Greeks out of their own fables”: for, “if Christ be not risen, we are yet in our sins.”[ix] 38. “Take
therefore first, as an indestructible foundation, the Cross, and build upon it the
other articles of the faith. Deny not the
Crucified; for, if you deny Him, you have many [witnesses] to arraign you:” everyone
from Judas to Simon the Cyrenian. 39. Everything from the stars to Thomas will cry out
against you. 40. Everyone from the Twelve Apostles to the Egyptians
“persuade you of the power of the Crucified.”
41. “This shall appear again with
Jesus from heaven; for the trophy shall precede the king: that seeing Him
whom they pierced….”[x]
[i]
Hebrews 9:11-14
[ii]
Colossians 1:20
[iii]
1 Peter 2:24
[v]
Psalms 88:5-7; Zechariah 9:11
[vii]
Lamentations 3:53; 1 Peter 2:6
[viii]
St. Cyril goes to great pains in urging us to make the sign of the Cross on
ourselves “and on everything” else. Yet
he never once specifies how to do it: left to right, right to left, or
otherwise; he never once restricts the blessing of others with the sign of the
Cross, to Deacons and above.
[ix]
1 Corinthians 15:17
[x]
Zechariah 12:10
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