Dead to sin, alive to God; leprosy in healed sores and burns
Cyril: …condition: the one who has chosen to live for Christ and follows the commands of the Gospel, while thrusting away the deadness that comes from sin.
Palladius: I am convinced.
Cyril: This, then, is one way in which we can please God; and there is another that may in turn be rightly carried out, as follows. For we must put to death our members that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness (Colossians 3:5), and so seem in some way already to have died to sin, and that completely, no longer living in it. The divine Paul will assure us of this when he says: ‘What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? By no means! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?’ (Romans 6:1–2). So then, just as in the case of one who has chosen to live for Christ the law made being partly dead liable to its penalties, so too in the case of one who has died to sin, to live in it would again be a defilement, and one not free of the charge the law brings. For this reason it says that if leprosy should cover the whole body, a kind of deadness spreading over every member, it would signify the one who has died to sin; and there is no longer defilement in the body (Leviticus 13:12–13). For he is clean, it says, who has died to sin wholly and utterly, who has given it no place, and has not, as it were, let it lodge within him. ‘But if,’ it says, ‘living flesh should again be seen in him, the living flesh will defile him’ (Leviticus 13:14–15). For to live for sin at all, even in part, makes the sick man abominable. ‘For a little leaven,’ it says, ‘leavens the whole lump’ (1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:9), and the saying is true. But if, it says, the living flesh should be restored and change back to leprosy, let the charges be dropped: he is clean (Leviticus 13:16–17). For he has been freed even from still living partly for sin, since his mind has moved over to the deadness that is praised and has made a truly excellent change. So then, to sum up what I have said: if we live for God, let nothing be dead in us; if we have died to sin, let nothing of sin be alive in us. For this is the bright road for us of a way of life fit for saints, one with nothing in it open to reproach.
Palladius: Well said.
Cyril: The law marks off such conditions still more finely. ‘And if there should be,’ it says, ‘a suspicion and appearance of leprosy, perhaps in a wound that has scarred over, or in a part of the body that was once burned, let the priest again use the same close scrutiny and examination. And if the white spot that seemed to break out has not changed into leprosy, let him be clean,’ it says; ‘but if there should be a clear change of the white spot into leprosy, he will be unclean and abominable’ (Leviticus 13:18–28). By these things too the law hints to us that if the sicknesses in our souls (and they are countless), once healed by gentle treatment and at times brought, as it were, to scar over, should somehow be raked open by our carelessness, the one who will examine them is…
Greek
πάθος, ὁ Χριστῷ μὲν ζῇν ᾑρημένος, καὶ τοῖς εὐαγγελικοῖς θεσπίσμασι κατακολουθῶν, διωθούμενος δὲ τὴν ἐξ ἁμαρτίας νέκρωσιν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πείθομαι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ εἷς μὲν οὑτοσὶ τρόπος, εὐαρεστεῖν ἡμᾶς δύνασθαι τῷ Θεῷ, ἕτερός γε μὴν ἐπιτελοῖτ' ἂν ὀρθῶς ὡδίπη πάλιν. Χρὴ γὰρ ἡμᾶς νεκροῦντας τὰ μέλη τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, πορνείαν, ἀκαθαρσίαν, πάθος, ἐπιθυμίαν κακὴν, καὶ τὴν πλεονεξίαν, δοκεῖν πως ἤδη καὶ ἐκτεθνάναι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, καὶ τοῦτο εἰσάπαν, οὐκέτι ζῶντας ἐν αὐτῇ. Καὶ πληροφορήσει λέγων ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος· «Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; ἐπιμενοῦμεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσῃ; Μὴ γένοιτο, οἵτινες ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, πῶς ἔτι ζήσομεν ἐν αὐτῇ;» Ὥσπερ οὖν ἔν γε τῷ ζῇν ἑλέσθαι Χριστῷ, τὸ νεκροῦσθαι μερικῶς ὑπετίθει ταῖς δίκαις ὁ νόμος, οὕτω καὶ ἐν τῷ τεθνάναι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, τὸ ζῇν ἐν αὐτῇ, μολυσμὸς ἂν εἴη πάλιν, καὶ τῆς ἐκ νόμου γραφῆς οὐκ ἀπηλλαγμένος. Ταύτῃτοί φησιν, ὡς εἰ γένοιτο λέπρα καθόλου τοῦ σώματος, καὶ οἱονεὶ νέκρωσις κατὰ παντὸς ἰοῦσα μέλους, κατασημήνειεν ἂν, τὸν ἀποθανόντα τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ· καὶ μολυσμὸς οὐκέτι τῷ σώματι. Καθαρὸς γάρ ἐστι, φησὶν, ὅλος διόλου τεθνεὼς τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, καὶ τόπον οὐδένα παραχωρήσας αὐτῇ, καὶ οἱονεί πως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ ἐναυλίζεσθαι δούς· «Εἰ δὲ δὴ,» φησὶ, «χρὼς ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶν ὁρῷτο πάλιν, μιανεῖ αὐτὸν ὁ χρὼς ὁ ζῶν.» Τὸ γάρ τοι ζῇν ὅλως τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ κἂν γοῦν ἐκ μέρους, βδελυρὸν ἀποφαίνει τὸν ἠῤῥωστηκότα· «Μικρὰ γὰρ, φησὶ, ζύμη ὅλον τὸ φύραμα ζυμοῖ·» καὶ ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος. Εἰ δὲ ἀποκατασταίη, φησὶν, ὁ χρὼς ὁ ζῶν, καὶ μεταχοροίη πρὸς λέπραν, λελύσθω τὰ ἐγκλήματα, καθαρός ἐστιν. Ἀπήλλακται γὰρ καὶ τοῦ μερικῶς ἔτι ζῇν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, πρὸς νέκρωσιν τὴν ἐπαινουμένην μετοιχομένου τοῦ νοῦ, καὶ παγκάλην ἀληθῶς ἔχοντος τὴν μετάστασιν. Οὐκοῦν, ἀνακεφαλαιώσομαι γὰρ ἅπερ ἔφην, εἰ ζῶμεν Θεῷ, μηδὲν ἔστω νεκρὸν ἐν ἡμῖν, εἰ ἀπεθάνομεν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, μηδὲν αὐτῆς ἔστω ζῶν ἐν ἡμῖν. Οἶμος γὰρ ἥδε λαμπρὰ πολιτείας ἡμῖν ἁγιοπρεποῦς, καὶ οὐδὲν ἐχούσης ὃ διαβεβλήσεται.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἰσχνότερον δὲ διαιρῶν ὁ νόμος τὰ τοιάδε τῶν παθῶν· «Κἂν εἰ γένοιτο,» φησὶν, «ὑποψία καὶ δόκησις, τοῦ λελεπρῶσθαι τυχὸν, ἢ ἐναπουλωθέντι τραύματι, ἤγουν ἐν μορίῳ σώματος κατακεκαυμένῳ ποτὲ, ταῖς αὐταῖς ἀκριβείαις τε καὶ ἐπισκέψεσι κεχρήσθω πάλιν ὁ ἱερεύς. Κἂν εἰ τὸ δοκοῦν ἐξανθῆσαι λευκὸν, μὴ μετατεθείη πρὸς λέπραν, καθαρὸς ἔστω,» φησίν· «εἰ δὲ δὴ γένοιτο σαφὴς μετάστασις τῆς λευκῆς εἰς λέπραν, ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται καὶ βδελυρός.» Ὑπαινίττεται δέ πως καὶ διὰ τούτων ἡμῖν ὁ νόμος, ὅτι τὰ ἐν ψυχαῖς ἀῤῥωστήματα, μυρία δὲ ὅσα ταυτὶ, τεθεραπευμένα ταῖς ἐπιεικείαις, καὶ κατὰ καιροὺς οἱονεὶ πρὸς ἀπούλωσιν ἀνενηνεγμένα, ταῖς πρὸς ἡμῶν ῥᾳθυμίαις εἰ ἀνασκαλεύοιτό πως, ἐποπτεύσει μὲν ὁ