Why bodily illness barred a person, and what the leper signifies
Cyril: …those who have fallen into such misfortunes ought to be pitied. For one might very reasonably wonder why it made the leper an outcast and sent him away, and with him the one held fast by the affliction of a discharge, and again the one unclean through the dead.
Palladius: I could not work it out; perhaps you would explain it yourself.
Cyril: Well, I think that God, as he prefigured for us the divine and spiritual worship, did not take much account of material and bodily matters. For what lies outside the law is punished, and whatever plainly oversteps what is fitting, this I would say falls under judgment and penalty; but a bodily illness could in no way offend against the laws. It will rightly, then, lie far beyond the reach of any charge, and there could be no ground at all for anyone to accuse it. Or is it not plain to everyone that no one is ill by choice, and that everyone, I think, counts good health the thing most to be prayed for?
Palladius: True.
Cyril: So even if the literal history of the passage has something unlovely about it, no harm is done, provided the spiritual meaning is worked out well, in keeping with what the lawgiver intended. Now leprosy is a deadening of the flesh, and an affliction that eats away more than most. That is why the inspired Moses, when Miriam had become leprous, was filled with fear and deep distress, and pleaded, saying: ‘O God, I beg you, heal her’ (Numbers 12:13). For he said: ‘Let her not become like a stillborn child coming out of its mother’s womb, and it will eat away half of her flesh’ (Numbers 12:12). As for the man with a discharge, why should I say what kind of affliction it is? No one is unaware of it. Now as for some being unclean through the dead, this means something like the following. To touch one who has departed and to come near a dead body the law counted, for the people of old, as a kind of defilement (Numbers 19:11), showing that deadness is hateful to God, who has power to give life to all things. It also took the matter in another way, as a rough type of the deadness of mind and soul. And the mind that loves sin, and is used to having no share in the noble deeds that lead to life, is dead and cold. But if someone happened to die, it was altogether necessary that his relatives by blood and family should gather and perform the customary rites over him; yet these too were unclean according to the law, though not for good and for all time, for there was a way for them to be cleansed (Numbers 19:12). There you have a sufficient explanation of the literal history.
Palladius: Quite so.
Cyril: Come, then, let us transpose it into spiritual contemplation and say this: the leper signifies for us the one who is spotted all over with the varied passions of youth. These are the works of the flesh, which the most wise Paul himself listed for us, saying: ‘Sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, enmities, strife, fits of rage, jealousies’ (Galatians 5:19–20). The second figure, however,…
Greek
κατοικτείρεσθαι δέον τοὺς ταῖς τοιαύταις ἐναλόντας συμφοραῖς· ἀνθ' ὅτου γὰρ δὴ διαπορήσειεν ἄν τις καὶ μάλα εἰκότως, ἔξοικόν τε καὶ ἀπόπεμπτον ἐποιεῖτο τὸν λεπρὸν, καὶ μέντοι πρὸς τούτοις τὸν γονοῤῥοίας πάθει κατισχημένον, καὶ αὖ τὸν ἀκάθαρτον ἐπὶ ψυχῇ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐκ ἂν ἔχοιμι νοεῖν, φράσαις δ' ἂν ἴσως αὐτός.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οἶμαι δὴ οὖν ὅτι τῶν ἐν πάχει καὶ σωματικῶν πραγμάτων οὐ σφόδρα πολὺς παρὰ Θεῷ λόγος ἦν, τὴν θείαν ἡμῖν καὶ πνευματικὴν προανατυποῦντι λατρείαν. Κολάζεται μὲν γὰρ τὰ ἔξω νόμου, καὶ ὅσα τοῦ πρέποντος ἐκβεβηκότα φαίνεται, ταυτὶ φαίην ἂν ὑπὸ κρίσιν εἶναι καὶ δίκην, ἀῤῥώστημα δὲ τὸ σωματικὸν, κατ' οὐδένα τρόπον προσκρούσειεν ἂν τοῖς νόμοις. Κείσεται δὴ οὖν εἰκότως καὶ ἀπωτάτω γραφῆς, καὶ τὸ ἐγκαλεῖσθαι πρός τινος, οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι ποθέν· ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ παντί τῳ σαφὲς, ὅτι νοσεῖ μὲν ἑκὼν οὐδεὶς, εὐκταιότατον δὲ πᾶς τις οὖν, οἶμαι, ποιεῖται τὸ εὐρωστεῖν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν κἂν εἰ ἔχοι τι τὸ ἀκαλλὲς τῆς ἱστορίας ὁ λόγος, τὸ λυποῦν οὐδέν ἐστιν, ἂν διεξάγοιτο καλῶς τὰ πνευματικὰ πρός γε τὸ τῷ νομοθέτῃ δοκοῦν. Λέπρα τοίνυν ἐστὶ, σαρκὸς νέκρωσις, καὶ βορὸν ὅτι μάλιστα τὸ πάθος. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Μωσῆς λελεπρωμένης αὐτῷ τῆς Μαρίας, περιδεὴς γεγονὼς, ἄθυμός τε λίαν, ἐλιπάρει, λέγων· «Ὁ Θεὸς, δέομαί σου, ἴασαι αὐτὴν,» ἔφη γάρ· «Μὴ γένηται ὡσεὶ ἔκτρωμα ἐκπορευόμενον ἐκ μήτρας μητρὸς, καὶ καταφάγεται τὸ ἥμισυ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτῆς.» Γονοῤῥυᾶ δὲ τί ἂν λέγοιμι, ποταπὸν τὸ πάθος; ἠγνόηκε γὰρ οὐδείς. Τό γε μὴν ἀκαθάρτους εἶναί τινας ἐπὶ ψυχῇ, τοιόνδε τι δηλοῖ, τὸ κατοιχομένου θίγειν καὶ ἀγχοῦ γενέσθαι νεκροῦ σώματος, εἰς μολυσμοῦ τρόπον τοῖς ἀρχαιοτέροις ὁ νόμος κατελογίζετο, ἀπηχθημένην Θεῷ τῷ πάντα ζωογονεῖν ἰσχύοντι, τὴν νεκρότητα δεικνύς. Καὶ μὴν καὶ ἑτέρως, εἰς νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς νέκρωσιν καθάπερ ἐν τύπῳ παχεῖ, τὸ χρῆμα δεχόμενος. Νεκρὸς δὲ νοῦς καὶ ἀπεψυγμένος, ὁ φιλαμαρτήμων, καὶ τῶν εἰς ζωὴν ἀνδραγαθημάτων ἀμοιρεῖν εἰθισμένος. Ἀλλ' εἰ τεθνάναι συνέβη τινὰς, πᾶσά πως ἀνάγκη, τοὺς ἐξ αἵματός τε καὶ κατὰ γένος οἰκείους συνιέναι τε καὶ δρᾷν ἐπ' αὐτῷ τὰ νενομισμένα· πλὴν ἀκάθαρτοι καὶ οὗτοι κατὰ τὸν νόμον, οὐκ εἰσάπαν δὲ καὶ μέχρι παντὸς, ἀλλ' ἦν τις αὐτοῖς ἀποκαθάρσεως τρόπος. Ἔχεις ἀποχρῶσαν τῆς ἱστορίας δήλωσιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Φέρε δὴ οὖν εἰς πνευματικὴν θεωρίαν μεταστοιχειοῦντες αὐτὴν, ἐκεῖνο λέγωμεν, ὅτι σημαίνει μὲν ἡμῖν ὁ λεπρὸς, τὸν τοῖς εἰς νεότητα πάθεσι ποικίλοις κατεστιγμένον. Ταῦτα δέ ἐστι τὰ ἔργα τῆς σαρκὸς, ἃ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν ὁ σοφώτατος Παῦλος κατηριθμεῖτο λέγων· «Πορνεία, ἀκαθαρσία, εἰδωλολατρεία, ἔχθραι, ἔρις, θυμοὶ, ζῆλοι.» Ἕτερός γε μὴν,