The law defiles nothing: animals as pictures of character; righteousness is twofold
Cyril: …four-footed animals and birds: ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ (Acts 10:13) When the disciple cried out, still fearing the observance of the law, and said, ‘By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean, nor has any profane meat entered my mouth’ (Acts 10:14; Acts 11:8), God spoke again: ‘What God has cleansed, you must not call common.’ (Acts 10:15) And the inspired Paul also writes that ‘food does not commend us to God.’ (1 Corinthians 8:8) It is quite clear, then, that the law by no means makes anything that exists profane, but knows that all things are pure to the pure (Titus 1:15). Rather, by taking the natural traits of each animal very aptly as pictures of the qualities of human character, it does no small good. And you could learn from the following, too, that what I say is true and beyond doubt. For he is seen to command that things condemned by everyone must be abhorred: I mean the camel and the rock badger, the night raven and the cormorant, the gecko and the shrew, and things still more shameful than these (Leviticus 11:4–5; Leviticus 11:17; Leviticus 11:30). Would not the lawgiver’s aim be plain, then, at least in these cases, my good friend?
Palladius: Certainly.
Cyril: So we must aptly carry over to the quality of character the traits that are naturally present in certain irrational animals, each animal, so to speak, depicting in itself the ways of a certain kind of person and indicating what traits he has. For are we not ourselves accustomed, in a way, to call those who are very hot-blooded and very strong, and who surpass others in boldness, boars or lions or something else of that kind; and to call those who are gentle and quiet, and whose minds are humble, sheep and doves, and sometimes to crown them with the name ‘calm’, giving to each person’s ways the fitting description drawn from things more easily seen?
Palladius: True.
Cyril: Let us go on, then, to the aim of the law, and inquire carefully into what it is that it enjoins.
Palladius: Let us go on.
Cyril: The glories of righteousness, and in a word of all goodness, spring perhaps from each person’s own choice; yet they are achieved, I think, in two ways, and in a sense they have a twofold outworking.
Palladius: What do you mean?
Cyril: Either we do some good to ourselves: cutting away monstrous and blameworthy pleasures, putting to death our members that are on earth (Colossians 3:5), settling the mind in gentleness of spirit, practicing poverty, and keeping our thinking as pure and untroubled as we can; or else we fulfill our good endeavors toward our brothers: showing no malice to those who choose to grieve us and who have heartlessly offended us, helping the weary, comforting those who grieve, turning those who have strayed through ignorance back to what is right, leading them by the hand toward what is better…
Greek
τετράποδα καὶ πτηνά· «Ἀναστὰς Πέτρε, θύσον καὶ φάγε.» Ἀνακεκραγότος δὲ τοῦ μαθητοῦ καὶ τὴν νομικὴν ἐπιτήρησιν δεδιότος ἔτι, καὶ, «Μηδαμῶς, Κύριε,» λέγοντος, «ὅτι οὐδέ ποτε ἔφαγον πᾶν κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον, οὐδὲ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ στόμα μου πᾶν κρέας βέβηλον,» πάλιν ἐφώνει Θεός· «Ἃ ὁ Θεὸς ἐκαθάρισε, σὺ μὴ κοίνου.» Γράφει δὲ καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος, ὅτι «Βρῶμα ἡμᾶς οὐ παρίστησι τῷ Θεῷ.» Ἔστι δὴ οὖν οὐκ ἀσυμφανὲς, ὅτι βεβηλοῖ μέν τι τῶν ὄντων ἥκιστα μὲν ὁ νόμος, πάντα δὲ οἶδε καθαρὰ τοῖς καθαροῖς· ἀλλ' εἰς ἠθῶν ποιότητας ἀνθρωπίνων τὸ ἑκάστου ζώου φυσικὸν εὖ μάλα παραλαβὼν, ὀνίνησιν οὐ μετρίως. Μάθοις δ' ἂν ὅ φημι δὴ, κἀκ τῶνδε πάλιν, ἀληθὲς ὅτι καὶ ἀναμφίβολον. Τὰ γάρ τοι πᾶσι κατεγνωσμένα, καταμυσάττεσθαι δεῖν ὁρᾶται προστεταχὼς, κάμηλον δὴ λέγων, καὶ τὸν χοιρογρύλλιον, νυκτικόρακα, καὶ τὸν καταῤῥάκτην, καὶ ἀσκαλαβώτην, καὶ μυγαλὴν, καὶ τὰ ἔτι τούτων αἰσχίονα. Ἆρ' οὖν οὐκ ἐναργὴς ὡς ἔν γε τούτοις ὁ τοῦ νομοθέτου σκοπὸς εἴη ἂν, ὦ 'γαθέ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν εἰς ἠθῶν ποιότητα μετακομιστέον εὖ μάλα τὰ φυσικῶς ἐνόντα τισὶ τῶν ἀλόγων ζώων, ἑκάστου, φέρε εἰπεῖν, καταγράφοντος ὥσπερ ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν τοῦ δεῖνος τρόπον, καὶ ἐν οἷς ἂν εἴη κατασημαίνοντος. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ καὶ ἡμεῖς αὐτοὶ κατειθίσμεθά πως, τοὺς μὲν ἄγαν θερμοὺς καὶ εὐσθενεστάτους, καὶ θράσει τῶν ἄλλων ὑπερφέροντας, σῦς, ἢ λέοντας, ἤ τι τῶν τοιούτων ἕτερον ἀποκαλεῖν; τοὺς δὲ πράους καὶ ἠρεμαίους, καὶ ὑφειμένην ἔχοντας τὴν διάνοιαν, πρόβατα, καὶ περιστερὰς, καὶ τῷ τῇ γαλήνης ὀνόματι στεφανοῦν ἔσθ' ὅτε, τοῖς ἑκάστου τρόποις τὴν πρέπουσαν δήλωσιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐμφανεστέρων ἐπάγοντες;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἴωμεν δὴ οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν τοῦ νόμου σκοπὸν, καὶ ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστιν ὃ παρεγγυᾷ, πολυπραγμονῶμεν εὖ μάλα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἴωμεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τὰ τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐχήματα, καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἁπάσης ἐπιεικείας, πρόεισι μὲν ἀπὸ γνώμης τῆς ἑκάστου τυχὸν, κατορθοῦταί γε μὴν κατὰ διττὸν, οἶμαι, τρόπον, καὶ διφυᾶ μέν πως ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς τὴν ἔκφασιν ἔχει.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πῶς δὲ φής;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ γὰρ εἰς ἑαυτοὺς δρῶμέν τι τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἡδονὰς ἀποκείροντες τὰς ἐκτόπους καὶ μεμωμημένας, νεκροῦντες τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καθιστάντες τὸν νοῦν εἰς πραότητα τὴν ἐν πνεύματι, πτωχείαν ἐπιτηδεύοντες, καθαρὰν καὶ ἀθόλωτον, καθόσον οἷόν τε, τὴν διάνοιαν ἔχοντες, ἤγουν τὰ εἰς ἀδελφοὺς ἀγαθὰ πληροῦντες σπουδάσματα, τοῖς ἑλομένοις λυπεῖν καὶ ἀφιλοστόργως προσκεκρουκόσιν, ἀκακίαν δωρούμενοι, τοῖς κάμνουσιν ἐπαμύνοντες, παρακαλοῦντες λελυπημένους, πεπλανημένους ἐξ ἀμαθίας εἰς τὸ εὐθὲς μετατρέποντες, χειραγωγοῦντες ἐπὶ τὸ ἄμεινον,