The Son sets free; saints ask for what befits saints
Cyril: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’ (John 8:34–36). See, then, that inheriting would befit the free, and not rather those under the yoke of slavery; for it is sons who remain in the house, he says, and not slaves.
Palladius: That is very finely put.
Cyril: When the law adds, ‘The leader shall not take any of the inheritance of his people to give an inheritance to his sons’ (Ezekiel 46:18), it hints at something like this: that Christ, since he himself is our leader, would never assign to any of the sanctified a lot that does not befit them. For is there not, as it were, one portion and one lot for those who have not dedicated their life wholly to God, and another, a choice one, for those who have been chosen and have come through to their share in the splendor that is in Christ?
Palladius: How could it be otherwise?
Cyril: So it is unseemly for saints to seek to receive from Christ the things that suit those who live in the world and follow a way of life that is not wholly sanctified. Rather, one must seek nothing carnal, but everything divine and spiritual. In just this way the Savior himself instructed the holy apostles to frame the words of their supplication, shaping their request very well to what befits saints. ‘Pray then like this,’ he says: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ (Matthew 6:9–13). To those, then, who ask improperly for what the leader does not give, we shall say, ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly’ (James 4:3). And that he speaks the truth who says to God, ‘You will repay each one according to his works’ (Psalm 62:12), the law again hints to us when it says, ‘For this reason the leader shall not take any of the inheritance of his people to give his sons an inheritance, so that,’ it says, ‘my people may not be scattered, each from his inheritance’ (Ezekiel 46:18). For a lot of his own has been prepared, as it were, for each, and the portion from God answers to what each has achieved. Or perhaps he is saying that it is wholly out of place for the sanctified to turn aside and desire what those who set their minds on the things of the world might have, and these things are temporary and carnal and pass by like shadows.
Palladius: So it is.
Cyril: Particular lots, then, and indeed cities set apart from the rest (Numbers 35:2–8), are the honors God gives to the holy ministers; but he appoints, as common, as it were, to all, the one renowned Jerusalem. For he spoke thus…
Greek
«Ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν ἁμαρτίαν, δοῦλός ἐστι τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ὁ δὲ δοῦλος οὐ μένει ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. Ὁ υἱὸς μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. Ἐὰν οὖν ὁ Υἱὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃ, ἐλεύθεροι ὄντως ἔσεσθε.» Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν ὅτι τὸ χρῆναι κληρονομεῖν. ἐλευθέροις ἂν πρέποι, καὶ οὐχὶ δὴ μᾶλλον τοῖς ὑπὸ ζυγὰ δουλείας· υἱοὶ γὰρ οἱ μένοντες ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ, καὶ οὐχὶ δοῦλοι, φησίν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀστειότατα ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Προσεπάγων δὲ ὁ νόμος τὸ, «Οὐ μὴ λάβῃ ὁ ἀφηγούμενος ἐκ τῆς κληρονομίας τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ κατακληρονομῆσαι τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτοῦ,» παραδηλοῖ τι τοιοῦτον, ὡς οὐκ ἄν ποτε Χριστὸς, αὐτὸς γὰρ ἡμῶν ἡγούμενος, διανείμαι τισὶ τῶν ἡγιασμένων, τὸν οὐκ αὐτοῖς πρέποντα κλῆρον. Ἢ γὰρ, οὐχὶ μερὶς ὥσπερ τις ἑτέρα, καὶ κλῆρος ἕτερος, τοῖς οὐχ ὁλοκλήρως ἁνατεθεικόσι Θεῷ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ζωήν· ἕτερος δὲ καὶ ἐξαίρετος τοῖς ἐξειλεγμένοις καὶ εἰς λῆξιν διεληλακόσι τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ λαμπρότητος;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς γὰρ οὔ;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν ἀκαλλὲς ἁγίοις, τὸ παρὰ Χριστοῦ δέχεσθαι ζητεῖν ἃ τοῖς ἐν κόσμῳ πρέπει, καὶ πολιτείαν ἐπιτηδεύουσι τὴν οὐκ εἰσάπαν ἡγιασμένην. Ζητητέον δὲ μᾶλλον, σαρκικὸν μὲν οὐδὲν, θεῖα δὲ πάντα καὶ πνευματικά· οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σωτὴρ τοὺς ἁγίους ἀποστόλους ποιεῖσθαι προσέταττε τῆς ἱκετείας τοὺς λόγους, διαπλάττων εὖ μάλα πρὸς τὸ ἁγιοπρεπὲς τὴν αἴτησιν. «Οὕτως» γὰρ, φησὶν, «ὑμεῖς προσεύχεσθε· Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου· ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον, καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν, καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμὸν, ἀλλὰ ῥύσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.» Τοῖς οὖν αἰτοῦσιν οὐ καθηκόντως, ἃ μὴ δίδωσιν ὁ ἡγούμενος, λελέξεται πρὸς ἡμῶν· «Αἰτεῖτε καὶ οὐ λαμβάνετε, διότι κακῶς αἰτεῖτε.» Ὅτι δέ ἐστιν ἀληθὴς ὁ λέγων πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, ὅτι «Σὺ ἀποδώσεις ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ,» πάλιν ἡμῖν ὑπαινίττεται λέγων ὁ νόμος, ὅτι «Ταύτης ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας, οὐ μὴ λάβῃ ὁ ἀφηγούμενος, ἐκ τῆς κληρονομίας τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ κατακληρονομῆσαι τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ, ὅπως, φησὶ, μὴ διασκορπίζηται ὁ λαός μου ἕκαστος ἀπὸ τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ.» Ἡτοίμασται γὰρ ὥσπερ ἑκάστῳ κλῆρος ἴδιος, καὶ ἀναλόγως τοῖς κατωρθωμένοις ἡ μερὶς παρὰ Θεοῦ. Ἢ καὶ τάχα που, φησὶν, ὡς ἔστι τῶν ἄγαν ἐκτόπων μεθίστασθαι καὶ ἐπιθυμεῖν τοὺς ἡγιασμένους, ὧν ἂν ἔχοιεν οἱ φρονοῦντες τὰ ἐν κόσμῳ, πρόσκαιρα δὲ ταῦτα καὶ σαρκικὰ, καὶ ἐν ἴσῳ σκιαῖς παρελαύνοντα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Κλῆροι μὲν οὖν ἰδικοὶ, καὶ μέντοι καὶ πόλεις τῶν ἄλλων ἐξῃρημέναι τοῖς ἁγίοις ἱερουργοῖς, παρὰ Θεοῦ τὰ γέρα, κοινὴν δὲ ὥσπερ ἁπάντων ὁρίζει τὴν μίαν καὶ διαβόητον Ἱερουσαλήμ· ἔφη γὰρ οὕ