Cyril of Alexandria: Christ’s Vivifying Flesh – the Eucharist as Life-Giving Blessing Thursday, May 30 2013

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life in you (John 6:53).

Let them then, who of their folly have not yet admitted the faith in Christ, hear, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. 

For wholly destitute of all share and taste of that life which is in sanctification and bliss, do they abide who do not through the mystical Blessing [i.e. the Eucharist] receive Jesus.

For He is Life by nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of a living Father: no less quickening is His holy Body also, being in a manner gathered and ineffably united with the all-quickening Word.

Wherefore His Body is accounted His, and is conceived of as one with Him. For, since the Incarnation, it is inseparable.

The Word which came from God the Father, and the temple from the Virgin, are not indeed the same in nature (for the Body is not consubstantial with the Word from God), yet are they One by that coming-together and ineffable concurrence.

And since the Flesh of the Saviour hath become life-giving (as being united to that which is by nature Life, the Word from God), when we taste It, then have we life in ourselves, we too united to It, as It to the indwelling Word.

For this cause also, when He raised the dead, the Saviour is found to have operated, not by word only, or God-befitting commands, but He laid a stress on employing His Holy Flesh as a sort of co-operator unto this, that He might shew that It had the power to give life, and was already made one with Him.

For it was in truth His Own Body, and not another’s. And verily when He was raising the little daughter of the chief of the Synagogue saying, Maid, arise, He laid hold of her hand, as it is written, giving life, as God, by His all-powerful command, and again, giving life through the touch of His holy Flesh, He shews that there was one kindred operation through both.

Yea and when He went into the city called Nain, and one was being carried out dead, the only son of his mother, again He touched the bier, saying, Young man, to thee I say, Arise. 

And not only to His Word gives He power to give life to the dead, but that He might shew that His own Body was life-giving (as I have said already), He touches the dead, thereby also infusing life into those already decayed.

And if by the touch alone of His holy Flesh, He gives life to that which is decayed, how shall we not profit yet more richly by the life-giving Blessing when we also taste It? For It will surely transform into Its own good, i. e., immortality, those who partake of It.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on St John’s Gospel, book 4, c.12 [on John 6:53].

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Cyril of Alexandria: Partakers in the Divine Nature through Communion with the Holy Spirit Thursday, May 9 2013

The Son…brought Himself as a Victim and holy Sacrifice to God the Father, reconciling the world unto Himself, and bringing into kinship with Him that which had fallen away, that is, the race of man.

[...] Indeed, our reconciliation to God could not have been accomplished through Christ who saves us except by communion in the Spirit and sanctification.

For that which knits us together, and, as it were, unites us with God, is the Holy Spirit.

If we receive the Spirit, we are proved sharers and partakers in the divine nature, and we admit the Father Himself into our hearts, through the Son and in the Son.

Further, the wise John writes for us concerning Him: Hereby know we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 

And what does Paul also say? And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 

For if we had chanced to remain without partaking of the Spirit, we could never at all have known that God was in us.

And, if we had not been enriched with the Spirit that puts us into the rank of sons, we should never have been at all the sons of God.

How, then, should we…have been shown to be partakers in divine nature unless God had been in us, and unless we been joined to Him through having been called to communion with the Spirit?

But now are we both partakers and sharers in the divine substance that transcends the universe, and are become temples of God.

For the Only-begotten sanctified Himself for our sins. That is, offered Himself up, and brought Himself as a holy sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour to God the Father.

He did this in order that, while He as God came between and hedged off and built a wall of partition between human nature and sin.

This was so that nothing might hinder our being able to have access to God, and to have close fellowship with Him through communion – that is, with the Holy Spirit moulding us anew to righteousness and sanctification and the original likeness of man.

For if sin sunders and dissevers man from God, surely righteousness will be a bond of union, and will somehow set us by the side of God Himself, with nothing to part us.

We have been justified through faith in Christ, Who was delivered up for our trespasses, according to the Scripture, and was raised for our justification. 

For in Him, as in the first-fruits of the race, the nature of man was wholly reformed into newness of life, and ascending, as it were, to its own first beginning, was moulded anew into sanctification.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on St John’s Gospel, book 11, c.10 [on John 17:18-19].

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Cyril of Alexandria: “I Am in My Father, and You in Me, and I in You” Wednesday, May 1 2013

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John 14:20).

After the creature [man]…had attained unto the propriety of its perfect nature by means of both soul and body…, then like a stamp of His own Nature the Creator impressed on it the Holy Spirit – the Breath of Life.

Thus the creature became moulded unto the archetypal Beauty, and completed after the image of Him that created it, enabled unto every form of excellence, by virtue of the Spirit given to dwell in it.

Having free will, and entrusted with the reins of its own purposes – for this also is an element in the image, forasmuch as God has power over His own purposes – the creature turned and has fallen.

God the Father both determined and took in hand to gather together once more in Christ the nature of man unto its ancient estate, and, willing it, He accomplished it.

[...] It was not otherwise possible for man, forasmuch as he was of a nature that was perishing, to escape death, save by recovering that ancient grace, and partaking once more in God.

For God holds all things together in being and preserves them in life through the Son in the Spirit.

Therefore He has become partaker of blood and flesh. He has become man, being by nature Life, and begotten of the Life that is by nature, of God the Father.

He is the Father’s Only-begotten Word, Who became man in order that, uniting Himself with the flesh that by the law of its own nature was perishing, He might bring it back unto His own Life and make it through Himself partaker of God the Father.

For He is Mediator between God and men, according as it is written, knit unto God the Father naturally as God and of Him, and again unto men as man; and withal having in Himself the Father and being Himself in the Father.

For He is the impress and effulgence of His Person, and not distinct from the Essence, whereof He is impress and wherefrom He proceeds as effulgence.

[...] And He wears our nature, remoulding it unto His own Life. And He is also Himself in us; for we have all been made partakers of Him, and have Him in ourselves through the Spirit.

Thus we have Both, being made partakers of the Divine Nature, and are entitled sons, in this way having in us also the Father Himself through the Son.

And Paul will testify hereof where he says: Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on St John’s Gospel, book 9 [on John 14:20].

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Cyril of Alexandria: Christ Granted to Flesh a Way of Entrance into Heaven Saturday, Apr 27 2013

In My Father s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2).

He says that He will depart…for the sake of securing the way to the mansions above, to prepare a passage of safety for you, and to smooth the path that was impassable in old time.

For heaven was then utterly inaccessible to mortal man, and no flesh as yet had ever trodden that pure and all-holy realm of the angels.

But Christ was the first Who consecrated for us the means of access to Himself, and granted to flesh a way of entrance into heaven.

[...] Our Lord Jesus the Christ consecrated for us a new and living way, as Paul says; not having entered into a holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. 

For it is not that He may present Himself before the presence of God the Father that Christ has ascended up on high: for He ever was and is and will be continually in the Father, in the sight of Him Who begat Him, for He it is in Whom the Father ever takes delight.

But now He Who of old was the Word with no part or lot in human nature, has ascended in human form that He may appear in heaven in a strange and unwonted manner.

And this He has done on our account and for our sakes, in order that He, though found as a man, may still in His absolute power as Son, while yet in human form, obey the command: Sit Thou on My right hand, and so may transfer the glory of adoption through Himself to all the race.

For in that He has appeared in human form He is still one of us as He sits at the right hand of God the Father, even though He is far above all creation; and He is also Consubstantial with His Father, in that He has come forth from Him as truly God of God and Light of Light.

He has presented Himself therefore as Man to the Father on our behalf, that so He may restore us, who had been removed from the Father’s presence by the ancient transgression, again as it were to behold the Father’s face.

He sits there in His position as Son, that so also we through Him may be called sons and children of God.

For this reason also Paul…teaches us to regard the events that happened in the life of Christ alone as common to the whole race; saying that God raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ. 

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on St John’s Gospel, book 9 [on John 14:2].

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Cyril of Alexandria: The Partaking of the Blessed Eucharist is a Confession of the Resurrection of Christ Sunday, Apr 7 2013

And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see My Hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into My Side: and be not faithless, but believing (John 20:26-27).

Such was the extreme accuracy that the compiler of this book [St John] took pains to observe, that he is not content with simply saying that Christ manifested Himself to the holy disciples, but explains that it was after eight days, and that they were gathered together.

[...] For He visits, and in some sort dwells with, those assembled together for His sake, especially on the eighth day, that is, the Lord’s day….

On the one occasion He appeared unto the other disciples; on the other, He manifested Himself to them, when Thomas was also present.

It is written in the preceding passage: When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, He stood in the midst. 

Note, that it was on the first day of the week, that is, the Lord’s day, when the disciples were gathered together, that He was seen of them, and that likewise also He appeared unto them on the eighth day following.

And we must not, because he says eight days after, suppose that he means the ninth day, but that when he says this he includes the eighth day itself, on which He appeared, in the number given.

With good reason, then, are we accustomed to have sacred meetings in churches on the eighth day.

And, to adopt the language of allegory, as the idea necessarily demands, we indeed close the doors, but yet Christ visits us and appears unto us all, both invisibly and also visibly; invisibly as God, but also visibly in the Body.

He suffers us to touch His holy Flesh, and gives us thereof. For through the grace of God we are admitted to partake of the blessed Eucharist, receiving Christ into our hands, to the intent that we may firmly believe that He did in truth raise up the Temple of His Body.

For that the partaking of the blessed Eucharist is a confession of the Resurrection of Christ is clearly proved by His own Words, which He spake when He Himself performed the type of the mystery.

For He brake bread, as it is written, and gave it to them, saying: This is My Body, which is given for you unto remission of sins: this do in remembrance of Me. 

Participation, then, in the Divine mysteries, in addition to filling us with Divine blessedness, is a true confession and memorial of Christ’s dying and rising again for us and for our sake.

Let us, therefore, after touching Christ’s Body, shrink back from unbelief in Him as utter ruin, and rather be found well grounded in the full assurance of faith.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on St John’s Gospel, book 12 [on John 20:26-27].

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Cyril of Alexandria: Christ Offered Himself for Us, and of His Own Free Will Submitted to Death, Confounding the Destroyer Friday, Mar 8 2013

When Christ saw the human race being destroyed by death he became our advocate with the Father.

He offered himself for us and of his own free will submitted to death, confounding the destroyer by saying the sin was his.

This does not mean that he himself had committed it, but that as the Scriptures say: He bore our sins and suffered for our sake, and he was taken for a criminal. 

He was innocent, but for our sake he became accursed. 

David said the shepherd ought to suffer rather than the sheep, and Christ like a good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.

In obedience to God’s command blessed David set up an altar in the place where he had seen the angel of destruction stop, and he offered God holocausts and peace offerings.

By this place, which was a threshing floor, you must understand the Church, for it is there that death was halted and overcome, there that the destroyer stayed his once terrible and devastating hand.

For the Church is the dwelling place of him who is life by his very nature – that is, of Christ.

By way of simile or comparison we call the Church a threshing floor, because there are gathered, like sheaves of wheat, those cut off from the life of this world by the word of holy reapers, that is, of the apostles and evangelists.

Then, when all useless and unnecessary thoughts and actions, which may be thought of as chaff, have been removed, they are to be carried up like winnowed grain into the courts above in the heavenly Jerusalem, into what we may call the granary of the Lord.

Christ asked his holy apostles…: The harvest is plentiful, but the la borers are few. You must therefore beg the Lord of the harvest to send people out to reap it.

Now as I understand it, the harvest Christ spoke of is a spiritual one, namely, the great multitude of those who would one day believe in him.

The holy reapers are those who have in their minds and on their tongues the word of God, which is living and active, and cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword, piercing to the meeting place of soul and spirit, to the innermost recesses of our being.

Christ purchased the spiritual threshing floor which is the Church for fifty shekels: in other words, he paid for it dearly.

He gave himself for the Church, he set up an altar within it, and since he was both the priest and the sacrifice, he offered himself as though he were the beast that treads out the grain, and he became a holocaust and a peace offering.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, Bk. 8 (PG 68:269-292); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the 3rd Week in Lent  @ Dom Donald’s Blog.

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Cyril of Alexandria: The Publican and the Pharisee (2) – The Publican Friday, Mar 1 2013

But what of the publican? He stood, it says, “afar off,” not even venturing, so to speak, to raise up his eyes on high.

You see him abstaining from all boldness of speech, as having no right thereto, and smitten by the reproaches of conscience: for he was afraid of being even seen by God, as one who had been careless of His laws, and had led an unchaste and dissolute life.

You see also that by his external manner, he accuses his own depravity. For the foolish Pharisee stood there bold and broad, lifting up his eyes without scruple, bearing witness of himself, and boastful.

But the other feels shame at his conduct: he is afraid of his Judge, he smites upon his breast, he confesses his offences, he shows his malady as to the Physician, he prays that he may have mercy.

And what is the result? Let us hear what the Judge says, “This man, He says, went down to his house justified rather than the other.”

Let us therefore “pray without ceasing,” according to the expression of the blessed Paul: but let us be careful to do so aright.

The love of self is displeasing to God, and He rejects empty haughtiness and a proud look, puffed up often on account of that which is by no means excellent.

And even if a man be good and sober, let him not on this account suffer himself to fall away into shameful pride: but rather let him remember Christ, Who says to the holy apostles, “When you have done all those things, those namely which have been commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.’’

For we owe unto God over all, as from the yoke of necessity, the service of slaves, and ready obedience in all things.

Yes, though you lead an excellent and elect life, don’t exact wages from the Lord; but rather ask of Him a gift. As being good, He will promise it you: as a loving Father, He will aid you.

Restrain not yourself then from saying, “God be merciful to me the sinner.” Remember Him Who says by the voice of Isaiah, “Declare you your sins first, that you may be justified.”

Remember too that He rebukes those who will not do so, and says, “Behold, I have a judgment against you, because you say  ‘I have not sinned’.”

Examine the words of the saints: for one says, “The righteous is the accuser of himself in the beginning of his words.”

And another again, “I said, I will confess against myself my transgression unto the Lord: and you forgave the iniquity of my heart.”

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Homilies on the Gospel of St. Luke, 120 @ Pravoslavie.

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Cyril of Alexandria: The Publican and the Pharisee (1) – The Pharisee Friday, Mar 1 2013

Our virtue therefore must not be contaminated with fault, but must be single-minded and blameless, and free from all that can bring reproach.

For what profit is there in fasting twice in the week, if your so doing serve only as a pretext for ignorance and vanity, and make you supercilious and haughty, and selfish?

You tithe your possessions, and make a boast thereof: but you in another way provoke God’s anger, by condemning men generally on this account, and accusing others; and you are yourself puffed up, though not crowned by the divine decree for righteousness, but heap, on the contrary, praises upon yourself.

“For I am not, he says, as the rest of mankind.” Moderate yourself, O Pharisee: “put a door to your tongue, and a lock.” You speak to God Who knows all things. Await the decree of the Judge.

None of those skilled in the practice of wrestling ever crowns himself: nor does any man receive the crown of himself, but awaits the summons of the arbiter.

Lower your pride: for arrogance is both accursed and hated by God. Although therefore you fast with puffed up mind, your so doing will not avail you: your labour will be unrewarded; for you have mingled dung with your perfume.

Even according to the law of Moses a sacrifice that had a blemish was not capable of being offered to God: for it was said unto him, “Of sheep, and ox, that is offered for sacrifice, there must be no blemish therein.”

Since therefore your fasting is accompanied by pride, you must expect to hear God saying, “This is not the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord.”

You offer tithes: but you wrong in another way Him Who is honoured by you, in that you condemn men generally.

This is an act foreign to the mind that fears God: for Christ even said, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.”

And one also of His disciples said, “There is one Lawgiver, and Judge: why then do you judge your neighbour?”

No man because he is in health ridicules one who is sick for being laid up and bedridden: rather he is afraid, lest perchance he become himself the victim of similar sufferings.

Nor does any man in battle, because another has fallen, praise himself for having escaped from misfortune.

For the infirmity of others is not a fit subject for praise for those who are in health: nay, even if anyone be found of more than usually vigorous health, even then scarcely does he gain glory thereby. Such then was the state of the self-loving Pharisee.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Homilies on the Gospel of St. Luke, 120 @ Pravoslavie.

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Cyril of Alexandria: Moses and the Law have been Superseded, and Christ has Become Our Guide Saturday, Feb 23 2013

In many ways there is in the Old Testament a real foreshadowing of the mystery of Christ and a certain prefiguration of his saving passion, which has freed us from all that had power to harm us and to plunge us into evils from which there was no escape.

One example was the remission of debts at the end of every seventh year, pointing toward the time of universal remission of sins.

Another was the law that no one should give or receive more than forty strokes of the scourge, signifying the eagerly awaited time when God’s only Son would become incarnate and we should be healed by his wounds.

When the leaders of Israel insulted him and Pilate ordered him to be scourged, he was made weak on account of our sins, but we were delivered from punishment.

In the past sinners were frequently scourged, but Christ suffered punishment for our sake. Just as he died for the whole human race, so he was scourged for all, since he by himself was a worthy ransom for all of us.

By allowing no more than forty strokes of the scourge, the Law foreshadowed the time when Christ’s coming would bring remission of sins and the end of all punishment, for beneath symbols there lies the beauty of truth.

We must know also that after the Israelites had offended him, God swore an oath that he would not lead them into the promised land and they spent forty years wandering in the wilderness.

At the end of that time, however, he relented and their descendants were able to cross the Jordan to enter the promised land. God’s anger lasted for forty years and no longer.

The fact that a person received up to forty strokes of the scourge is thus a clear symbol of the remission of sins after the lapse of forty years.

This remission brings us to the spiritual crossing of the Jordan and to the stone knives that signify spiritual circumcision.

It places us under the command of Jesus, for Moses and the Law have been superseded, and Christ has become our guide.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): The Adoration and Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth, Bk. 8 (PG 68:573-576); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of the 1st Week in Lent, Year 1.

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Cyril of Alexandria: The Miracle of the Wedding at Cana Manifests the Glory of Jesus Saturday, Jan 19 2013

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him (John 2:11).

The glory of our Saviour shone forth as the sun’s rays, and more than this, the disciples are confirmed in faith by the miracle.

[...] The Word of God came down then from Heaven, as He Himself says, in order that having as a Bridegroom, made human nature His own, He might persuade it to bring forth the spiritual offspring of Wisdom.

And hence reasonably is the human nature called the bride, the Saviour the Bridegroom; since holy Scripture carries up language from human things to a meaning that is above us.

The marriage is consummated on the third day, that is, in the last times of the present world: for the number three gives us beginning, middle, end.

For thus is the whole of time measured. And in harmony with this do we see that which is said by one of the prophets:

He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His Sight….

For He smote us for the transgression of Adam, saying, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 

That which was smitten by corruption and death He bound up on the third day: that is, not in the first, or in the middle, but in the last ages, when for us made Man, He rendered all our nature whole, raising it from the dead in Himself.

Wherefore He is also called the firstfruits of them that slept. Therefore in saying it was the third day, whereon the marriage was being consummated, he signifies the last time.

[...] The Saviour comes to the marriage not of His own accord; for He was being bidden by many voices of the saints.

But wine failed the feasters; for the law perfected nothing, the Mosaic writing sufficed not for perfect enjoyment, but neither did the measure of implanted sobriety reach forth so as to be able to save us.

It was therefore true to say of us too, They have no wine. 

But the bounteous God doth not overlook our nature worn out with want of good things. He set forth wine better than the first, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. 

And the law hath no perfection in good things, but the divine instructions of Gospel teaching bring in fullest blessing.

The ruler of the feast marvels at the wine: for everyone, I suppose, of those ordained to the divine priesthood, and entrusted with the house of our Saviour Christ, is astonished at His doctrine which is above the Law.

Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444): Commentary on John, 2, 1.

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