Halting deeds, the bent back, and sin done openly
Cyril: …the one who cannot carry his deeds through to the full, and whose walk, that is, his activity, is not entirely beyond reproach: I mean in conduct and in a life lived fully by the law. These again would be those who do the work of the Lord carelessly, against whom the voice of the prophet has pronounced woe (Jeremiah 48:10), or those who pursue what is just, but not justly, as it is written (Deuteronomy 16:20). Notice that even a moderate injury to the leg is put on the same level as spiritual and complete lameness, and is counted as the same thing. For not doing good rightly will be placed on the same footing as being unable to do any good at all. One may fairly see in lameness the ‘not at all,’ and in the crushed limb the ‘not soundly.’
Palladius: So it seems.
Cyril: Again, he lists the hunchback, the man with blotches, and the man with bleary eyes among the most unfit (Leviticus 21:20). We say the hunchback is the one who is, as it were, bent over: he looks downward in mind, leans toward the passions of the flesh, and fixes his eye on earthly things (clearly, the eye of the mind), and has at last come to such a frame of mind that he hates to be set upright, I mean, for the duty of setting the mind on things above (Colossians 3:2). Under this would fall the charges against the Jews, of whom it is written: ‘Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bend their back for ever’ (Psalm 69:23; Romans 11:10). The man with blotches is one who has what is called a blotch on his very forehead. This is a kind of sickness that darkens the surface of the skin. It takes from those who suffer it even the chance of staying hidden, since it breaks out on the very brows and spreads over the whole face. Such a man, then, is blotched in body; but in a spiritual sense he points to the man who is unseemly openly and without concealment, who has, as it were, no clean face, but whose ugliness of life is plain to all, so that perhaps he does not even know what one of the wise rightly said: ‘The wise will hide their own shames.’
Palladius: What do you mean?
Cyril: Are there not, Palladius, countless passions in us?
Palladius: Yes. What of it?
Cyril: This, my good friend: each of us is sick with his own sickness, but often, overcome by shame before his brothers, he takes great pains and care both to seem healthy and to keep his faults out of sight.
Palladius: Well said.
Cyril: But suppose someone has come to such shamelessness that he thinks nothing of choosing to sin openly and of throwing away entirely the honors that belong to a decent life. Would not anyone think that such a man has gone far from the sacred and holy race?
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: The law, then, calls such a man blotched, since he neither knows how to hide nor will bear to hide the sickness and passion that has come upon him. And the man with bleary
Greek
τὸν οὐχ ὁλοκλήρως εἰς ἔργα χωρεῖν δυνάμενον, οὔτε μὴν ἀδιάβλητον ἔχοντα παντελῶς τὴν βάδισιν, ἤτοι τὴν ἐνέργειαν, τὴν ὡς ἐν πολιτείᾳ, φημὶ, καὶ ζωῇ τῇ ἐννομωτάτῃ. Εἶεν δ' ἂν καὶ οὗτοι πάλιν, ἢ οἱ ποιοῦντες τὸ ἔργον Κυρίου ἀμελῶς, οἷς ἐπενήνεκται τὸ οὐαὶ διὰ προφήτου φωνῆς, ἤγουν οἱ τὸ δίκαιον οὐ δικαίως διώκοντες, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. Ἐπιτήρει δὲ ὅτι τῇ νοητῇ καὶ ὁλοτελεῖ χωλότητι, καὶ ἡ μετρία τοῦ σκέλους πήρωσις ἐν ἴσῳ τέ ἐστι, καὶ ὡς ταὐτὸν λελόγισται. Τῷ γὰρ μηδ' ὅλως τι δρᾷν ἰσχύσαι τῶν ἀγαθῶν, τὸ μὴ δρᾷν ὀρθῶς ἐν ἴσῳ κείσεται λόγῳ. Φαίνοιτο δ' ἂν εἰκότως ἐν μὲν τῇ χωλότητι, τὸ μηδ' ὅλως· ἐν δὲ τῷ συντρίμματι, τὸ μὴ ὑγιῶς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἔοικε.
{ΚΥΡ.} Κυρτὸν δὲ, καὶ ἔφηλον, καὶ πτιλὸν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καταγράφει πάλιν ὡς ἐν τοῖς ἀδοκιμωτάτοις. Καὶ κυρτὸν μὲν εἶναί φαμεν, τὸν οἱονεὶ κεκυφότα, καὶ κάτω βλέποντα νῷ, καὶ πρὸς τὰ σαρκὸς νενευκότα πάθη, καὶ τοῖς ἐπιγείοις τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἐπερείδοντα, δῆλον δὲ ὅτι τὸν νοητὸν, καὶ εἰς τοῦτο γνώμης ἰόντα λοιπὸν, ὡς τὸ ἀπορθοῦσθαι μισεῖν, πρός γέ φημι τὸ χρῆναι τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖν. Εἶεν δ' ἂν ἐν τούτοις τὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐγκλήματα, περὶ ὧν γέγραπται· «Σκοτισθήτωσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτῶν τοῦ μὴ βλέπειν, καὶ τὸν νῶτον αὐτῶν διὰ παντὸς σύγκαμψον.» Ἔφηλον δὲ, τὸν τὴν ἐφηλίδα τὴν καλουμένην ἐπ' αὐτοῖς ἔχοντα μετώποις. Ἀῤῥώστημα δὲ τουτὶ καταμελαίνειν εἶδος τὴν ἐπ' ἄκρου δέρματος ὄψιν. Παραιρεῖται δὲ τοῖς οἷς ἂν γένοιτο παθεῖν, τὸ κἂν γοῦν ἰσχύσαι λαθεῖν, αὐταῖς ἐπανθοῦν ὀφρύσιν, ὅλοις τε προσώποις ἐπηρτημένον. Ἔφηλος δὴ οὖν ὁ τοιόσδε σωματικῶς, νοητῶς γε μὴν ὑποφαίνει τὸν ἀσχήμονα, γυμνῶς τε καὶ ἀκρύπτως, καὶ οἱονεὶ πρόσωπον οὐκ ἔχοντα καθαρὸν, ἀλλ' ἐκφανὲς ἅπασι τὸ ἀκαλλὲς εἰς ζωὴν, ὡς μὴ εἰδέναι που τάχα, μηδὲ τὸ ὑπό του τῶν σοφῶν ὀρθῶς εἰρημένον, «Σοφοὶ κρύψουσι τὰς ἑαυτῶν αἰσχύνας.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς ἔφης;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ, ὦ Παλλάδιε, μυρία ὅσα γε τὰ ἐν ἡμῖν ἐστι πάθη;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ναί· τί οὖν τοῦτό γε;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὅτι, ὦ γενναῖε, φημὶ, νοσεῖ μὲν ἕκαστος, ἃ νοσεῖ, αἰδοῖ δὲ πολλάκις τῇ πρὸς ἀδελφοὺς ἡττώμενος, ἐν σπουδῇ καὶ λόγῳ ποιεῖται πολλῷ καὶ τὸ ἐῤῥῶσθαι δοκεῖν, καὶ τὸ λανθάνειν ἐν κακοῖς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εἰ δὲ δή τις εἴη πρὸς τοῦτο ἥκων ἀναισχυντίας, ὡς ἡγεῖσθαι παρ' οὐδὲν, τὸ καὶ ἐκφανδὸν ἑλέσθαι πλημμελεῖν, καὶ τῶν εἰς κοσμιότητα γερῶν ἀφειδῆσαι παντελῶς, οὐκ ἄν τῳ δόξειεν ὁ τοιόσδε λοιπὸν, τοῦ ἱεροῦ καὶ ἁγίου γένους οἴχεσθαι μακράν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἔφηλον τοίνυν ὁ νόμος ἀποκαλεῖ τὸν τοιοῦτον, ὡς οὐδὲ κρύπτειν εἰδότα καὶ ἀνεχόμενον τὸ συμβὰν ἀῤῥώστημα καὶ πάθος αὐτῷ. Πτιλὸν δὲ τοὺς