Christ judges a relapse; leprosy of the head and beard
Cyril: …Christ, our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14), and he will give a very just verdict. For if the disease has gone no further, it says, than thoughts alone, the one who suffers it is by no means free of rebuke, for he will be set apart (Leviticus 13:21); yet he is not cast out entirely, nor is he wholly dead. But if the passion should shoot through the thoughts and through desire itself, having already undergone in some way a complete change for the worse, it will make the one who has fallen sick again liable to the penalties for defilement (Leviticus 13:22). So we must guard above all against waking passions that have already been lulled to sleep, against reopening the wounds of the mind, and against running back to where we were at the beginning. Otherwise we too shall hear a saint crying aloud: ‘What the true proverb says has happened to them: The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing, to wallowing in the mire’ (2 Peter 2:22).
Palladius: You seem to me to speak rightly and very reasonably.
Cyril: This is what the law tells us about leprosy and about leprosy in scars and wounds. But it goes further and says: ‘And if a man or a woman has a mark of leprosy on the head or in the beard, the priest shall look at the head’ (Leviticus 13:29–30). ‘And if there is,’ it says, ‘a hollow in it, where the skin is wasting and sinking in, and also a change of the hair to whiteness, such a person is a leper and will be unclean,’ it says, ‘beyond dispute’ (Leviticus 13:30). ‘But if none of these signs appears, let the one who has the white patch shave his head or his beard,’ it says. ‘And when his hair has been stripped away in this way, let him come to the priest and be examined then. For if the mark, that is, the white spot, has not spread wide but stays, as it were, in its place, or has grown smaller, let him be clean again. For the condition is not leprosy, but rather a suspicion and an appearance of it’ (Leviticus 13:31–37).
Palladius: What, then, would be the meaning of these things too?
Cyril: Defilement in us is twofold, Palladius: of the flesh and of the spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1). The flesh is stained by its own outrageous and unholy passions; the soul and the mind are stained above all by straying from right doctrine to worse things and by the corruption of sound faith, and besides these by tricks and deceits, false oaths, gossip, conceit, quarrels, jealousies (2 Corinthians 12:20), and whatever lies near these and is akin to them and stands equally accused of wickedness. So in these things the law seems perhaps to be calling to mind the passions of the soul, and to wish to point out the sicknesses that usually arise in the mind. For the head is a type of the mind, and the beard a type of wise understanding, since the beard too is a sign of maturity. So the High Priest of all, that is, Christ, watches over our affairs and examines them closely; he will look into the mind itself and test the inward and hidden heart. And if there should be any corruption and alteration, either from right belief to what is not right, or into baseness of character and the malice that is most…
Greek
Χριστὸς, ὁ μέγας ἡμῶν ἀρχιερεὺς, ὀρθὸν δὲ δὴ λίαν ἐξοίσει τὸ κρίμα. Εἰ γὰρ δὴ μέχρι μόνων προήκει, φησὶ, λογισμῶν ἡ νόσος, ἀνεπιτίμητος μὲν ὁ παθὼν οὐδαμῶς, ἀφορισθήσεται γὰρ, πλὴν οὐκ ἀπόβλητος παντελῶς, οὔτε μὴν εἰσάπαν νενεκρωμένος. Εἰ δὲ δὴ λογισμῶν καὶ ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῆς διᾴττοι τὸ πάθος, πεπονθὸς ἤδη πως τὴν εἰσάπαν εἴς γε τὰ χείρω μεταβολὴν, ταῖς ἐκ μολυσμῶν ὑποθήσει δίκαις τὸν αὖθις ἠῤῥωστηκότα. Παραφυλακτέον δὴ οὖν ὅτι μάλιστά γε τὰ ἤδη κατηυνασμένα μὴ ἀφυπνίζειν τῶν παθῶν, μήτε μὴν ἀνανεοῦν τὰ εἰς νοῦν τραύματα, καὶ παλινδρομεῖν εἰς τὰ ἐν ἀρχαῖς. Εἰ δὲ μὴ, καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀκούσομεν διακεκραγότος ἁγίου· «Γέγονεν αὐτοῖς τὸ τῆς ἀληθοῦς παροιμίας, Κύων ἐπιστρέψας ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον ἐξέραμα, καὶ ὗς λουσαμένη εἰς κύλισμα βορβόρου.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς μοι δοκεῖς καὶ σφόδρα εἰκότα λέγειν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Λέπρας μὲν οὖν πέρι καὶ τῆς ἐν οὐλαῖς τε καὶ τραύμασι, ταυτὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ὁ νόμος. Προσεπάγει δὲ δὴ καί φησι· «Καὶ ἀνδρὶ ἢ γυναικὶ ἐὰν γένηται ἐν αὐτοῖς ἁφὴ λέπρας ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ, ἢ ἐν τῷ πώγωνι, καὶ ὄψεται ὁ ἱερεὺς τὴν κεφαλήν. Καὶ εἰ μέν τις εἴη κοιλότης,» φησὶν, «ἐν αὐτῇ, τοῦ δέρματος τηκομένου καὶ ὑφιζάνοντος, καὶ μὴν καὶ τριχὸς εἰς λευκότητα μεταβολὴ, λεπρὸς ὁ τοιόσδε καὶ ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται,» φησὶν, «ὁμολογουμένως. Εἰ δὲ δὴ τῶν τοιούτων γένοιτο μηδὲν, ξυράσθω τὴν κεφαλὴν ἤτοι τὸν πώγωνα,» φησὶν, «ὁ τὴν λεύκην ὑπομεμενηκώς. Ἐψιλωμένος δὲ οὕτω τὴν τρίχα, προσίτω τῷ ἱερεῖ, καὶ δοκιμαζέσθω τότε. Τῆς μὲν γὰρ σημασίας ἤτοι τῆς λευκῆς οὐ διαχεομένης εἰς τὸ εὐρὺ, μενούσης δὲ ὥσπερ κατὰ χώραν, ἤγουν εἰς τὸ μεῖον ὑπενηνεγμένης, καθαρὸς ἔστω πάλιν. Οὐ γάρ τοι λέπρα τὸ πάθος, ὑποψία δὲ μᾶλλον καὶ δόκησις.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τίς οὖν ἂν εἴη καὶ τούτων ὁ νοῦς;
{ΚΥΡ.} Διττὸς ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ μολυσμὸς, ὦ Παλλάδιε, σαρκός τε καὶ πνεύματος. Καὶ κατασπιλοῖ μὲν τὴν σάρκα τὰ ταύτης ἔκτοπά τε καὶ ἀνόσια πάθη, ψυχήν τε καὶ νοῦν· μάλιστα μὲν οὖν τῶν ἄλλων ἡ ἐξ ὀρθότητος τῆς δογματικῆς ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω παραφορὰ, καὶ τῆς ὑγιοῦς πίστεως ἡ παραφθορά· καὶ προσέτι δὲ δόλοι καὶ ἀπάται, ψευδορκίαι, ψιθυρισμοὶ, φυσιώσεις, ἔριδες, ζῆλοι, καὶ ὅσα τούτοις ἀγχοῦ τε καὶ ἀδελφὰ, καὶ ἰσομοιροῦσαν ἔχει τὴν ἐπὶ φαυλότητα καταβοήν. Ἔοικε τοίνυν ὁ νόμος ἡμῖν ἐν τούτοις ψυχικῶν τάχα που διαμεμνῆσθαι παθῶν, καὶ ὅσα συμβαίνειν ἔθος κατὰ νοῦν ἀῤῥωστήματα, ταῦτα βούλεσθαι δηλοῦν· ἡ κεφαλή τε γὰρ, νοῦ τύπος· καὶ μὴν καὶ πώγων, διανοίας ἔμφρονος. Τελειότητος γὰρ καὶ αὐτὸ σημεῖον. Ἐποπτεύει τοίνυν τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς καὶ περιεργάζεται λεπτῶς ὁ πάντων ἀρχιερεὺς, τουτέστι Χριστὸς, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἐμβλέψεται τὸν νοῦν, καὶ τὰ ἔσω τε, καὶ κεκρυμμένας δοκιμάσει φρένας· κἂν εἰ μέν τις γένοιτο καταφθορά τε καὶ μεταποίησις, ἢ ἀπό γε τοῦ πιστεύειν ὀρθῶς ἐπὶ τὸ μὴ οὕτως ἔχον, ἤγουν εἰς ἠθῶν φαυλότητα καὶ κακοβουλίαν τὴν αὐ