Why total leprosy is clean: dead to sin and alive to God
Cyril: …defilement: he is clean (Leviticus 13:13). But if any trace of living flesh remains in him, ‘let the priest,’ it says, ‘record his uncleanness’; for the living flesh will make him unclean, and he is a leper (Leviticus 13:14–15). This case too will count the same as the charges of leprosy.
Palladius: I cannot understand what you mean. If partial leprosy makes people unclean, how could complete and total leprosy declare them clean?
Cyril: The matter, Palladius, turns on fine distinctions. But we shall by no means suppose that the precision of the law brings in an interpretation that fights against itself and, as it were, marches against us. To each case a reason has been fitted that is wise and necessary and beyond reproach. Come, let us state it, if you agree.
Palladius: By all means; you will be speaking most welcome words to one who thirsts for them.
Cyril: In two ways, I think, we shall achieve the life that is most lawful in the sight of God, who loves virtue. Either, living for him, we refuse the deadness that comes from passions and sin, and this is not to suffer leprosy; for a partial deadness befalling a living body is what makes leprosy. Or, in the other way, through a good deadness, and by no longer consenting to live in a worldly way, we shall bind on, like a crown, the vote of approval awarded to all that is best. For the inspired Paul writes thus to some: ‘So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11). Living in Christ, then, by striving to accomplish what pleases him, we shall hate being put to death, plainly, by passions and sins; and having died to sin, as it is written (Romans 6:2), we shall thrust away living in it, because we think rightly.
Palladius: Explain this to me still more clearly, for I do not understand it very well.
Cyril: Do we not say, Palladius, that Christ endured death for us for this reason: so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them, that is, for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15)?
Palladius: We do; it is agreed.
Cyril: So we live for Christ when we order our lives by the Gospel and loathe the deadness that comes from sin, that is, the death that comes from the passions. Indeed the inspired Peter writes of Christ: ‘He bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness’ (1 Peter 2:24). For I think that those who care to live a shining life must go far from everything that can bring death, and must succeed in ridding themselves of defilements.
Palladius: You speak well.
Cyril: So he would least of all suffer, as in leprosy, the…
Greek
μολυσμὸν ἐγκλημάτων, καθαρός ἐστι. Χρωτὸς δὲ δὴ ζῶντος εἰ μὲν εἴη τι λείψανον ἐν αὐτῷ, Καταγραφέτω, φησὶν, ὁ ἱερεὺς αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν· μιανεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν ὁ χρὼς ὁ ζῶν, καὶ λεπρός ἐστιν· ἰσομοιρήσει καὶ τόδε τοῖς εἰς λέπραν αἰτιάμασιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Οὐκ ἂν ἔχοιμι νοεῖν ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστιν, ὃ φής. Εἰ γὰρ ἡ ἐκ μέρους λέπρα καταμιανεῖ τινας, πῶς ἀποφήνειε καθαροὺς ἡ εἰσάπαν καὶ ὁλοτελής;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἰσχνομυθία μὲν οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τὸ χρῆμά ἐστιν, οἰησόμεθα δὲ οὔτι που μαχομένην ὥσπερ καὶ ἀντεξάγουσαν ἡμῖν τὴν θεωρίαν, εἰσφέρειν τοῦ νόμου τὸ ἀκριβές. Ἐφήρμοσται δέ τις ἑκάστῳ λόγος σοφός τε καὶ ἀναγκαῖος, καὶ ἀδιαβλήτως ἔχων· καὶ φέρε λέγωμεν, εἰ δοκεῖ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν· ἐρεῖς γὰρ ὡς ἥδιστα δεδιψηκότι μοι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Κατὰ διττὸν, οἶμαι, τρόπον τὸν εὐνομώτατον παρά γε τῷ φιλαρέτῳ Θεῷ κατορθώσομεν βίον. Ἢ γὰρ, ζῶντες αὐτῷ τὴν ἐκ παθῶν τε καὶ ἁμαρτίας παραιτούμεθα νέκρωσιν, καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ μὴ παθεῖν τὴν λέπραν· ζῶντι γὰρ σώματι νεκρότης ἐπισυμβαίνουσα μερικὴ, τὴν λέπραν ἀποτελεῖ· ἤγουν καθ' ἕτερον τρόπον διὰ νεκρώσεως ἀγαθῆς, καὶ τοῦ μηκέτι ζῇν ἀνέχεσθαι κοσμικῶς, καθάπερ τινὰ στέφανον, τὴν ἐφ' ἅπασι τοῖς ἀρίστοις ἀναδησόμεθα ψῆφον. Γράφει γὰρ ὧδέ τισιν ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος· «Οὕτω καὶ ὑμεῖς λογίζεσθε ἑαυτοὺς εἶναι νεκροὺς μὲν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ζῶντας δὲ τῷ Θεῷ, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.» Οὐκοῦν ζῶντες μὲν ἐν Χριστῷ, διά γε τοῦ κατορθοῦν ἐπείγεσθαι τὸ αὐτῷ δοκοῦν, τὸ κατανεκροῦσθαι μισήσομεν, δῆλον δὲ, ὅτι πρὸς πάθη καὶ ἁμαρτίας· ἀποθανόντες δὲ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, τὸ ζῇν ἐν αὐτῇ διωσόμεθα, φρονοῦντες ὀρθῶς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φράζε δή μοι ταυτὶ καὶ ἔτι σαφῶς· συνίημι γὰρ οὐ λίαν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐ γὰρ, ὦ Παλλάδιε, ταύτῃτοί φαμεν, τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν θάνατον ἀνατλῆναι Χριστὸν, ἵνα οἱ ζῶντες, μηκέτι ἑαυτοῖς ζῶσιν, ἀλλὰ τῷ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἀποθανόντι καὶ ἐγερθέντι, τουτέστι Χριστῷ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Φαμὲν ὁμολογουμένως.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ζῶμεν οὖν ἄρα Χριστῷ, πολιτευόμενοι μὲν εὐαγγελικῶς, καταμυσαττόμενοι δὲ τὴν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας νέκρωσιν, ἤτοι τὸν ἐκ παθῶν θάνατον. Καὶ γοῦν ὁ θεσπέσιος Πέτρος ἐπιστέλλει περὶ Χριστοῦ· «Ὃς τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν ἀνήνεγκεν ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου, ἵνα ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἀπογενόμενοι, τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ ζήσωμεν.» Οἶμαι γὰρ δεῖν, τοὺς οἷς ἂν εἴη λόγος τοῦ διαβιῶναι λαμπρῶς, παντὸς τοῦ κατανεκροῦν εἰδότος ἰέναι μακρὰν, καὶ κατορθοῦν εὖ μάλα τὸ ἀπαλλάττεσθαι μολυσμῶν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ λέγεις.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν, πάθοι ἂν ἥκιστά γε τὸ ὡς ἐν λέπρᾳ