Sin carried into deeds is the soul's leprosy; bare desire is the white patch
Cyril: …cannot please God (Romans 8:8), how, or on what ground, could anyone still doubt that they will also die (Romans 8:13)? The one, then, who is defiled in soul and mind, and is full of the world’s wickedness, is dead, held fast in the works of deadness. And if anyone chose to call such a state a leprosy of the mind in the true sense, he would not miss the right word. Such a person, then, is unclean in the eyes of Christ. ‘For the priest,’ it says, ‘shall pronounce him unclean’ (Leviticus 13:3). For at the divine judgment seat, counted among those who dearly love sin, he will hear: ‘Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness; I do not know you’ (Matthew 7:23; Luke 13:27; Matthew 25:41). But to the white patch and the scar with a mark we should liken those who are still at the stage of mere desire and have not yet carried their thought into action. Or do you not agree that it is true that pleasures and thoughts spring up in us ahead of the deeds, and dawn, as it were, before them, calling us toward something the law condemns?
Palladius: I agree, for I recall the blessed David saying: ‘Before I was brought low, I did wrong’ (Psalm 119:67).
Cyril: You have spoken most rightly. Before the deeds are done, the mind has certainly already fallen into wrongdoing, having first been in labor with the pleasure. Yet while the sin still lies only in desires, the mind stands between the two and looks toward both. It is free to lean toward whichever it may choose; it has not yet suffered deadness, though it has come very near to the evil and is in labor with the passion. The Savior’s disciple has clearly told us something of this kind: ‘Let no one,’ he says, ‘when he is tempted, say, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is completed, brings forth death’ (James 1:13–15).
Palladius: True.
Cyril: So being wholly dead, as in leprosy (I mean the leprosy of the mind) and as in the condition of deadness that comes from sin, would perhaps come about not in desires alone but when they issue in deeds. As long as the evil is still in the mind’s birth pangs, there is not yet deadness and not yet death, for ‘not every sin leads to death,’ as the Savior’s disciple has said (1 John 5:16–17). There is still only a suspicion that it may suffer the things that can bring death. And we said that the white patch looks like leprosy, or comes near to it. ‘The priest shall look,’ it says, at the one held by the condition (I mean the white patch); and if it is seen not to be changing into leprosy, he shall not pronounce him unclean, but rather shall set him apart (Leviticus 13:4–5). For before God it is not beyond rebuke even to dwell in desires and come near to evil. But if the condition, it says, resists the change and has not turned toward the worse, ‘let him be clean’ (Leviticus 13:6). Best, then, and truly saving, is to refuse deadness, I mean the deadness that lies in deeds…
Greek
Θεῷ ἀρέσαι οὐ δύνανται, ὅτι δὲ καὶ τεθνήξονται πῶς ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν ἢ πόθεν ἀμφίλογον; Νεκρὸς οὖν ἄρα, καὶ τοῖς τῆς νεκρότητος ἔργοις ἐνισχημένος, ὁ ψυχήν τε καὶ νοῦν ἐκμεμολυσμένος, καὶ μὴν καὶ φαυλότητος ἀνάπλεως κοσμικῆς. Καὶ νοητὴν ἀληθῶς, εἴπερ ἂν ἕλοιτό τις τὴν τοιάνδε λέπραν εἰπεῖν, οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοι τοῦ πρέποντος. Ἀκάθαρτος οὖν ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῦ Χριστοῦ. «Καταμιανεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν,» φησὶν, «ὁ ἱερεύς.» Ἀκούσεται γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ θείου βήματος, τοῖς ἄγαν φιλαμαρτήμοσιν ἐναρίθμιος ὤν· «Πορεύετε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ἐργάται ἀνομίας, οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς.» Λεύκῃ γε μὴν καὶ οὐλῇ σημασίας παρεικαστέον τοὺς ἐν ψιλαῖς ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις κειμένους ἔτι, καὶ οὔπω πρὸς ἔργον ἥκοντας λογισμοῦ. Ἢ οὐχὶ δὴ φὴς ὑπάρχειν ἀληθὲς, ὡς προαναθρώσκουσιν ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ οἱονεὶ προανίσχουσι τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων αἱ ἡδοναὶ καὶ λογισμοὶ, καλοῦντες ἐπί τι τῶν διαβεβλημένων ἐκ νόμου;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φημί· μεμνήσομαι γὰρ τοῦ μακαρίου Δαβὶδ λέγοντος· «Πρὸ τοῦ με ταπεινωθῆναι, ἐγὼ ἐπλημμέλησα.»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὀρθότατα ἔφης· πρὸ γάρ τοι τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων, γίνεται δὴ πάντως ἐν πλημμελείαις ὁ νοῦς, προωδινήσας τὴν ἡδονὴν, πλὴν ἐν μόναις ἔτι ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς ἁμαρτίας κειμένης, ἕστηκεν ἐν μεταιχμίῳ, πρὸς ἄμφω βλέπων ὁ νοῦς· καὶ ἐλευθέραν ἔχων ἐφ' ὅπερ ἂν ἕλοιτο τὴν ῥοπὴν, καὶ πεπονθὼς οὔπω τὴν νέκρωσιν, ἀγχοῦ δὲ δὴ σφόδρα γεγονὼς τοῦ κακοῦ, καὶ ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἔχων τὸ πάθος. Τοιουτονί τι σαφῶς καὶ ὁ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῖν ὑπεφώνησε μαθητής. «Μηδεὶς γὰρ,» φησὶ, «πειραζόμενος λεγέτω, ὅτι Ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πειράζομαι. Ὁ γὰρ Θεὸς ἀπείραστός ἐστι κακῶν, πειράζει δὲ αὐτὸς οὐδένα. Ἕκαστος δὲ πειράζεται ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας ἐξελκόμενος καὶ δελεαζόμενος. Εἶτα ἡ ἐπιθυμία συλλαβοῦσα, τίκτει ἁμαρτίαν. Ἡ δὲ ἁμαρτία ἀποτελεσθεῖσα, ἀποκύει θάνατον.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν τὸ ἐκτεθνάναι τυχὸν, ὡς ἐν λέπρᾳ, φημὶ τῇ νοητῇ, καὶ ὡς ἐν πάθει τῷ κατὰ νέκρωσιν τὴν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας, οὐκ ἐν μόναις ἂν γένοιτο ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, ἀλλ' ἐν ταῖς ἐκβάσεσι τῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων, καὶ ἕως μὲν ἔστιν ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἔτι τοῦ νοῦ τὸ κακὸν, οὔπω νέκρωσις, οὔπω θάνατος, οὐ γὰρ πᾶσα ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον, ὡς ὁ τοῦ Σωτῆρος εἴρηκε μαθητὴς, ἀλλ' ἐν ὑποψίαις ἔτι τοῦ παθεῖν τὰ νεκροῦν εἰδότα. Ἐν δοκήσει δέ πως ἢ ἀγχοῦ τῆς λέπρας, τὴν λεύκην ἐλέγομεν. Ὄψεται, φησὶν, ὁ ἱερεὺς, τὸν τῷ πάθει κάτοχον, φημὶ δὴ τῇ λεύκῃ, καὶ εἰ μὲν ὁρῷτο μὴ μεταβάλλουσα πρὸς λέπραν, οὐ καταμιανεῖ αὐτὸν, ἀφοριεῖ δὲ μᾶλλον· οὐ γὰρ ἀνεπίπληκτον παρὰ Θεῷ, κἂν γοῦν ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ἀγχοῦ γενέσθαι τοῦ κακοῦ. Εἰ δὲ παραιτοῖτο, φησὶ, τὸ πάθος τὴν μεταβολὴν, οὐκ εἰς τὸ χεῖρον ἐκνενευκὸς, καθαρὸς ἔστω, φησίν. Ἄριστον δὴ οὖν καὶ σωτήριον ἀληθῶς τὸ, παραιτεῖσθαι τὴν νέκρωσιν, τὴν ὡς ἐν ἔργοις φημὶ,