Pharaoh's gifts; God rescues Sarah
Cyril went on: Just as the rulers of the Egyptians, when blessed Abraham was losing the woman who lived with him, fawning as it were with honors and with offerings of gifts, wished to carry him far from grieving too much. For it is written that 'And they used Abraham well because of her' — clearly Sarah — 'and there came to be for him sheep and calves and donkeys and servants and maidservants and mules and camels.' For Satan, defrauding us in the things that matter most, and as it were stripping us of free offspring and good fruit, and carrying the well-born mind under his own insolences and wantonnesses out of greed, binds it down with the delight of earthly things. And he has at times driven his madness to this, as to let the trial down even upon Christ himself. 'For leading him up,' it says, 'he showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited world in a moment of time, and the devil said to him: I will give you this authority, all of it, and their glory, because they have been handed over to me, and I give them to whomever I wish. You then, if you worship before me, it will all be yours.'
Palladius said: It stands rightly. Yet tell me, since I ask: what would be the profit for those who have suffered, or the help?
Cyril: God, noble friend, and the grace from him, which does not allow the weakened mind to be under the devil's feet to the end, but shields and takes out the one who can help himself in nothing. And you may see, if you wish, this also having happened in the case of the forefather Abraham. For when the righteous man had given up, and was able to do nothing at all, God came in the middle, and set the woman free from the Egyptians' wantonness. 'For the Lord tested Pharaoh with great and evil testings, and his house, concerning Sarah, Abraham's wife.' And so he barely let go the one who lived with the righteous man, free of insolence. God alone, then, would take the mind that has been caught out of the devil's hand, and would turn it back into the good order that was at the beginning.
Palladius: So then, pushed down by want of the goods from above, we sometimes go down toward the shameful and abominable.
Cyril: So I say.
Palladius: But it is surely in every way fitting for the God who loves the good, not to let us fall into any of such things.
Cyril: This is most of all fitting for God, and willed, my good man; for he would be least good, and not much a lover of virtue, if he did not have this aim toward us. But we ourselves are causes of the suffering to ourselves, whetting the Master of all into angers; for so he lets a man go toward a weak and cowardly mind. Or do you not hear him crying through one of the holy prophets: 'Behold, I give weakness upon this people, and they shall be weak in it, fathers and sons; neighbor and his neighbor shall perish'? And the most wise Paul also writes about some: 'And as they did not approve to have God in knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things that are not fitting.' And more clearly the divine Isaiah sets it down.
Greek
καὶ δώρων προσαγωγαῖς, τοῦ λυπεῖσθαι λίαν ἀποκομίζειν ἤθελον. Γέγραπται γὰρ, ὅτι «Καὶ τῷ Ἀβραὰμ εὖ ἐχρήσαντο δι' αὐτὴν,» δῆλον δὲ, ὅτι τὴν Σάῤῥαν, «καὶ ἐγένοντο αὐτῷ, πρόβατά τε καὶ μόσχοι, καὶ ὄνοι, καὶ παῖδες, καὶ παιδίσκαι, καὶ ἡμίονοι, καὶ κάμηλοι.» Πλεονεκτῶν γὰρ ἡμᾶς εἰς τὰ καιριώτατα, καὶ οἱονεὶ γονῆς τε καὶ εὐκαρπίας ἀποστερῶν ἐλευθέρας ὁ Σατανᾶς, καὶ ταῖς ἰδίαις ὕβρεσι καὶ ἀσελγείαις τὸν εὐγενῆ νοῦν ὑποφέρων ἐκ πλεονεξίας, τῇ τῶν ἐπιγείων τέρψει καταδεσμεῖ. Διελήλακε δὲ μανίας εἰς τοῦτό ποτε, ὡς καὶ αὐτῷ τὴν πεῖραν καθεῖναι τῷ Χριστῷ. «Ἀναγαγὼν γὰρ αὐτὸν,» φησὶν, «ἔδειξεν αὐτῷ πάσας τὰς βασιλείας τῆς οἰκουμένης, ἐν στιγμῇ χρόνου, καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ διάβολος· Σοὶ δώσω τὴν ἐξουσίαν ταύτην ἅπασαν, καὶ τὴν δόξαν αὐτῶν, ὅτι ἐμοὶ παραδέδονται, καὶ ᾧ ἐὰν θέλω, δίδωμι αὐτά. Σὺ οὖν ἐὰν προσκυνήσῃς ἐνώπιόν μου, ἔσται σοι πάντα.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἔχει μὲν ὀρθῶς. Πλὴν ἐρομένῳ, φράσον. Τίς ἂν γένοιτο τοῖς παθοῦσιν ἢ ὄνησις ἤγουν ἡ ἐπικούρησις;
{ΚΥΡ.} Θεὸς, ὦ γενναῖε, καὶ ἡ παρ' αὐτοῦ χάρις, οὐ μέχρι παντὸς ἐφιεῖσα τὸν ἠσθενηκότα νοῦν ὑπὸ πόδας εἶναι διαβολικοὺς, ἀλλὰ ὑπερασπίζουσά τε καὶ ἐξαιρουμένη, τὸν οὐδὲν ἐπαμύνειν ἑαυτῷ δυνάμενον. Ἴδοις δ' ἂν, εἰ βούλοιο, τουτὶ γεγονὸς καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ προπάτορος Ἀβραάμ. Ἀπειρηκότος γὰρ τοῦ δικαίου, καὶ δρᾷν οἵου τε παντελῶς οὐδὲν, μέσος ἐχώρει Θεὸς, καὶ τῆς Αἰγυπτίων ἀσελγείας τὸ γύναιον ἠλευθέρου. «Ἤτασε γὰρ Κύριος τὸν Φαραὼ ἐτασμοῖς μεγάλοις καὶ πονηροῖς, καὶ τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ περὶ Σάῤῥας τῆς γυναικὸς Ἀβραάμ.» Ἠφίει δὲ οὕτω μόλις ὕβρεως ἐλευθέραν τὴν τῷ δικαίῳ συνῳκισμένην. Θεὸς οὖν ἄρα καὶ μόνος ἐξέλοιτο ἂν ἐκ τῆς τοῦ διαβόλου χειρὸς τὸν ἐναλόντα νοῦν, καὶ εἰς εὐκοσμίαν αὐτὸν ἀναστρέψει τὴν ἐν ἀρχαῖς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἐνδείᾳ δὴ οὖν τῇ τῶν ἄνωθεν ἀγαθῶν κατωθούμενοι κάτιμεν ἐσθ' ὅτε πρὸς τὰ αἰσχρὰ καὶ βδελυρά.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὕτω φημί.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀλλ' ἔστι που πάντως τῷ φιλαγάθῳ πρέπον Θεῷ, τὸ μηδενὶ τῶν τοιούτων ἐᾷν περιπίπτειν ἡμᾶς.
{ΚΥΡ.} Πρέπον μὲν ὅτι μάλιστα τουτὶ Θεῷ, καὶ θελητόν γε, ὦ τᾶν· εἴη γὰρ ἂν ἥκιστα μὲν ἀγαθὸς, φιλάρετος δὲ οὐ λίαν, εἰ μὴ τοῦτον ἔχοι πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὸν σκοπόν. Παραίτιοι δὲ τοῦ παθεῖν ἑαυτοῖς ἡμεῖς, παραθήγοντες εἰς ὀργὰς τὸν τῶν ὅλων Δεσπότην· ἐνίησι γὰρ οὕτω πρὸς ἀσθενῆ τε καὶ ἄνανδρον νοῦν. Ἢ οὐχὶ βοῶντος ἀκούεις δι' ἑνὸς τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν· «Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ δίδωμι ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον ἀσθένειαν, καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ πατέρες καὶ υἱοί· γείτων καὶ ὁ πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἀπολοῦνται;» Γράφει δὲ περί τινων καὶ ὁ σοφώτατος Παῦλος· «Καὶ καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, παρέδωκεν αὐτοῦς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν, ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα.» Τρανώτερον δὲ τουτὶ καὶ ὁ