Sickness of the mind; God sees all; small faults forgiven
Cyril: …hateful to him, he will drive them off again as defiled and pass the sentence that makes them wholly unclean. This, I say, is what it means to suffer leprosy on the head or on the beard. But if the mind is, as it were, at the beginning of its sickness, yet is not seen to have turned aside entirely into the sickness I spoke of, he is set apart and made subject to measured rebukes, but he will not be wholly unclean, nor estranged from God; when he has washed his garments he will be clean (Leviticus 13:34), that is, he will receive as his help the justification that is in Christ. And the shaving of the hair, which lays the wound bare before the priest, would signify that everything, as it were, is cleared out of the way, and that whatever he may wish to look upon lies bare and unhindered before the eyes of the Godhead. ‘For there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open to his eyes,’ as it is written (Hebrews 4:13).
Palladius: That is true. For he said somewhere through the voice of a saint: ‘I am a God who is near, and not a God far off. Shall anything be hidden from me?’ (Jeremiah 23:23–24).
Cyril: Look, Palladius, how much more finely still the law speaks. It passes over nothing needed for knowledge without bringing it under its own rules, and so it benefits those who listen. ‘For no one will understand his faults,’ as it is written (Psalm 19:12), ‘and we all stumble in many ways’ (James 3:2). For our nature suffers from weakness and from slipping easily into wrongdoing; and ‘No one is clean from filth,’ as Holy Scripture says, ‘not even if his life on earth were a single day’ (Job 14:4–5). This is why the divine David sings to us: ‘If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand? For with you is propitiation’ (Psalm 130:3–4). See, then, how the law kindly drops the charge against us for faults like these, and in its gentleness cleanses those who, through human slipping, have fallen into lapses that are bitter and all but involuntary. For it says this: ‘And if a man or a woman has in the skin of his flesh bright spots, shining and whitish, the priest shall look, and there in the skin of his flesh are bright spots, shining and whitish, it is a white rash; it breaks out in the skin of his flesh; he is clean’ (Leviticus 13:38–39). And yet, if one looks into the matter strictly, to have a white rash would be a disease of the flesh and close to leprosy. But it does not suffer deadness, nor is it past all hope. Our faults are something like this: they are admittedly sicknesses, but not to the point of death and the ruin of the soul. The Judge does not examine too strictly, because ‘he knows how we were formed’ (Psalm 103:14), and he was not unaware of the weakness of our nature. So he grants forgiveness out of his innate love for humankind. And this, I think, is what is meant by ‘A white rash is clean’ (Leviticus 13:39). But sometimes small faults befall the mind even of good people: for example, brief fits of irritation, moderate stirrings toward anger, impatience with our brothers, and at times a craving for empty…
Greek
τῷ μάλιστα κατεστυγημένην, ἀποσοβήσει δὴ πάλιν. ὡς μεμολυσμένους, καὶ τὴν εἰσάπαν καταμιαίνουσαν ἐποίσει ψῆφον. Τοῦτο εἶναί φημι, τὸ παθεῖν τὴν λέπραν εἰς κεφαλὴν, ἢ πώγωνα. Εἰ δὲ δὴ γένοιτο μὲν ὡς ἐν ἀρχαῖς τοῦ παθεῖν ὁ νοῦς, οὐ μὴν ἀπονενευκὼς ὁρῷτο παντελῶς, εἰς τὸ νοσεῖν ἅπερ ἔφην, ἀφορίζεται μὲν συμμέτροις ἐπιτιμήσεσιν ὑπενηνεγμένος, ἔσται δὲ οὐχὶ παντελῶς ἀκάθαρτος, οὔτε μὴν ἀλλότριος Θεοῦ, πλυνάμενος δὲ τὰ ἱμάτια, καθαρὸς ἔσται, τουτέστι, δέξεται πρὸς ἐπικουρίαν, τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ δικαίωσιν. Ἡ δέ γε τῶν τριχῶν ξύρησις, παρατιθεῖσα τῷ ἱερεῖ τὸ τραῦμα γυμνὸν, ὑποσημήνειεν ἂν τὸ οἱονεὶ πάντα ἐκ μέσου χωρεῖν, καὶ γυμνὴν καὶ ἀπαραπόδιστον τοῖς τῆς θεότητος ὀφθαλμοῖς, τὴν ᾧ ἂν βούλοιτο καθορᾷν παρακεῖσθαι θέαν. «Οὐ γάρ ἐστι κτίσις ἀφανὴς ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, πάντα δὲ γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἀληθές. Ἔφη γάρ που διὰ φωνῆς ἁγίου· «Θεὸς ἐγγίζων ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ οὐχὶ Θεὸς πόῤῥωθεν, μὴ ἀπ' ἐμοῦ κρυβήσεταί τι;»
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄθρει δὴ, ὦ Παλλάδιε, πολὺ δὴ μᾶλλον ἰσχνολογοῦντα τὸν νόμον· καὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων εἰς εἴδησιν μεθέντα μηδὲν, ὃ μὴ τοῖς ἰδίοις κανόσιν ὑποτιθεὶς, ὀνίνησι τοὺς ἀκροωμένους. «Παραπτώματα μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς συνήσει,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, «πολλὰ δὲ πταίομεν ἅπαντες.» Νοσεῖ γὰρ ἡ φύσις τὸ ἄναλκι, καὶ τὸ εὐόλισθον εἰς τὸ πλημμελές· καὶ, «Καθαρὸς οὐδεὶς ἀπὸ ῥύπου, καὶ,» καθὰ Γράμμα φησὶν ἱερὸν, «οὐδ' ἂν μία ἡμέρα ὁ βίος αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.» Ταύτῃτοι καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος ἡμῖν ἀναμέλπει Δαβίδ· «Ἐὰν ἀνομίας παρατηρήσῃς, Κύριε, Κύριε, τίς ὑποστήσεται; Ὅτι παρὰ σοὶ ὁ ἱλασμός ἐστιν.» Ὅρα τοίνυν τὸν νόμον ἀνέντα χρηστῶς τῶν τοιούτων παραπτωμάτων ἡμῖν τὴν γραφὴν, καὶ ἐξ ἡμερότητος καθαρίζοντα τοὺς ἐξ ὀλισθήματος ἀνθρωπίνου πικροῖς μονονουχὶ καὶ ἀνεθελήτοις ὑπενηνεγμένους πταίσμασιν. Ἔφη γὰρ ὧδε· «Καὶ ἀνδρὶ ἢ γυναικὶ ἐὰν γένηται ἐν δέρματι σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ αὐγάσματα αὐγάζοντα λευκανθίζοντα, καὶ ὄψεται ὁ ἱερεὺς, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐν δέρματι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ αὐγάσματα αὐγάζοντα λευκανθίζοντα, ἀλφός ἐστιν, ἐξανθήσει ἐν τῷ δέρματι τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, καθαρός ἐστι.» Καίτοι τῆς ἀκριβείας ἐρευνωμένης, πάθος ἂν εἴη σαρκὸς, καὶ λέπρας ἀγχοῦ, τὸ παθεῖν ἀλφόν. Ἀλλ' οὐ νοσεῖ τὴν νέκρωσιν, οὔτε μὴν τὸ ἄγαν ἀπεγνωσμένον. Τοιαῦτα δέ πώς ἐστι καὶ τὰ ἐν ἡμῖν παραπτώματα, πάθη μὲν οὖν ὁμολογουμένως, πλὴν, οὐκ εἰς θάνατον καὶ ψυχῆς καταφθοράν. Ἀκριβολογεῖται δὲ οὐ λίαν ὁ κριτὴς, ὅτι «Αὐτὸς ἔγνω τὸ πλάσμα ἡμῶν,» καὶ τὸ τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως οὐκ ἠγνόησεν ἀσθενές. Κατανεύει δὴ οὖν τὴν ἄφεσιν ἐξ ἐμφύτου φιλανθρωπίας. Καὶ τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ, Ἀλφὸς καθαρός ἐστιν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς νοῦν ἔσθ' ὅτε συμβαίνει καὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς τὰ σμικρὰ τῶν αἰτιαμάτων, οἷον φέρε εἰπεῖν, παροξυσμοὶ βραχεῖς, σύμμετροι κινήσεις αἱ πρὸς ὀργὰς, ὀλιγοψυχίαι πρὸς ἀδελφοὺς, καὶ κενῶν ἔσθ' ὅτε δοξα