Baldness is clean: small human faults, and anger to be checked
Cyril: …little honors, and passions of that kind; and these are apt at times to befall even those whose life is blameless and who are truly pure. For they are human, and in a way common to all who spend their life in flesh and blood. So the law sketches these too, again in a figure, and says this: ‘If anyone’s head loses its hair, he is bald; he is clean. And if his head loses its hair at the front, he is bald on the forehead; he is clean’ (Leviticus 13:40–41). The involuntary loss of hair would be a condition of the head; and we were saying just now that the head is named as a type of the mind, for the head is the dwelling place of the mind, at least in the opinion of some.
Palladius: I will remember.
Cyril: So the conditions of the bodily head would fittingly show the sicknesses of the mind, small ones again, and of the kind it is right to pardon. Therefore the law releases us from every human passion and from the involuntary defilements that may befall us, since our nature cannot help suffering weakness; and to be wholly freed from passions does not belong to the present time, but would befit the age to come, when sin will be shaken from its foundations and we shall pass over into a life wholly free from harm. ‘But if,’ it says, ‘there should be a scar with a reddish mark on the bald head or on the bald forehead, he is a leper and will be unclean’ (Leviticus 13:42–44). For sometimes even small passions run on until they carry the weight of offenses, and they defile terribly when we do not cut them short and they have gained, as it were, an open passage toward worse things, one wholly unrebuked. I mean something like this: someone is sometimes a little angry, and the passion has taken hold in him, as happens to a human being. Let it be cut short by gentle means, so that the small fault may not grow until, little by little, a charge that leads to death is found against those who suffer it. This is what is meant when leprosy happens to break out on a bald head: the slide from nothing toward worse things, taking place, as it were, in a type. So I say that this was rightly spoken by blessed David: ‘Be angry, and do not sin’ (Psalm 4:4).
Palladius: How profound the argument is!
Cyril: Very much so. For you notice, I think, that I am speaking with great subtlety, and that I cannot either grasp or put into words such insights without sweat. But that those who suffer the unholy sickness of open offenses cannot escape notice, even though the smallest and hidden faults sometimes go unnoticed, you will learn from this as well. Those who have become bald, it says, are clean, as you will remember; the law rightly pardons us our small stumbles, as we were saying just now. But if leprosy should appear on someone’s bald head, that is, when the passion is carried from small things to worse, then, then indeed it says that he becomes conspicuous and disgraceful, with no word to plead for him against the charges…
Greek
ρίων ἔφεσις, καὶ τὰ τοιάδε τῶν παθῶν, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἔσθ' ὅτε τοῖς ἀδιάβλητον ἔχουσι τὴν ζωὴν, καὶ καθαροῖς ἀληθῶς, συμβαίνειν ἔθος. Ἀνθρώπινα γὰρ, καὶ οἱονείπως πᾶσι κοινὰ, τοῖς τὸν ἐν σαρκὶ καὶ αἵματι διαζῶσι βίον. Ὑπογράφει δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος καὶ ταυτὶ πάλιν αἰνιγματωδῶς, οὕτω τέ φησιν· «Ἐὰν δέ τινι μαδίσῃ ἡ κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ, φαλακρός ἐστι, καθαρός ἐστιν. Ἐὰν δὲ κατὰ πρόσωπον μαδίσῃ ἡ κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ, ἀναφάλαντός ἐστι, καθαρός ἐστιν.» Ἡ τριχῶν ἀνεθέλητος ἀποβολὴ, κεφαλῆς ἂν εἴη πάθος, νοῦ δὲ εἰς τύπον ὠνομάσθαι τὴν κεφαλὴν, ἀρτίως ἐλέγομεν· νοῦ γὰρ ἐνδιαίτημα κεφαλὴ, κατά γε τό τισι δοκοῦν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Μεμνήσομαι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐκοῦν τὰ κεφαλῆς πάθη σωματικῆς, ἐμφαίνειν ἂν εἰκότως τὰ εἰς νοῦν ἀῤῥωστήματα, σμικρὰ δὲ δὴ πάλιν, καὶ τὰ οἷς ἂν ἕποιτο ἀνεῖσθαι πρέπειν. Ἀπαλλάττει δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος παντὸς ἡμᾶς ἀνθρωπίνου πάθους, καὶ μολυσμῶν ἀνεθελήτων, οἵπερ ἂν ἡμῖν ἐπισυμβαίνοιεν, ἐπεί τοι τὸ ἄναλκι νοσεῖν ἀνάγκη τῇ φύσει, καὶ ἀπηλλάχθαι παθῶν εἰσάπαν οὐ τοῦ παρόντος καιροῦ, πρέποι δ' ἂν αἰῶνι τῷ μέλλοντι, καθ' ὃν ἐκ βάθρων ἡ ἁμαρτία κατασεισθήσεται, καὶ εἰς ἀλώβητον παντελῶς μεταχωρήσομεν βίον. «Πλὴν εἰ γένοιτο,» φησὶν, «οὐλὴ σημασίας πυῤῥίζουσα ἐν τῷ φαλακρώματι, ἢ ἐν τῷ ἀναφαλαντώματι, λεπρός ἐστι, καὶ μιαρὸς ἔσται.» Μετατρέχει γὰρ ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ τὰ σμικρὰ τῶν παθῶν εἰς ἐγκλημάτων δύναμιν, καὶ καταμιαίνει δεινῶς μὴ ἀνακοπτόμενα πρὸς ἡμῶν, ἀνειμένην δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ ἀνεπίπληκτον παντελῶς τὴν εἴς γε τὰ χείρω λαχόντα πάροδον, οἷόν τί φημι· ὀργίζεταί τις ἔσθ' ὅτε μικρὰ, καὶ ἠῤῥώστηκεν ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ τὸ πάθος, ἀνακοπτέσθω ταῖς ἐπιεικείαις, ἵνα μὴ τοῦ μικροῦ παραπτώματος εἰς αὔξην ἰόντος, κατὰ βραχὺ γραφὴ πρὸς θάνατον τοῖς παθοῦσιν εὑρίσκηται. Τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ ἐν φαλακρώματι τυχὸν ἐξανθῆσαι λέπραν, τὴν ἐκ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω ῥοπὴν, ὡς ἐν τύπῳ συμβαίνουσαν. Ὀρθῶς δὴ οὖν εἰρήσθω φημὶ τῷ μακαρίῳ Δαβὶδ τὸ, «Ὀργίζεσθε, καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς βαθὺς ὁ λόγος.
{ΚΥΡ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν. Ὑπαισθάνῃ γάρ με, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, λεπτοεποῦντα λίαν, καὶ ἀνιδρωτὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν θεωρημάτων ἢ νοεῖν ἢ φράζειν οὐκ ἔχοντα. Ὅτι δὲ οὐκ ἔνεστι τοὺς τὰ ἐκφανῆ τῶν πλημμελημάτων ἀνοσίως ἠῤῥωστηκότας δύνασθαι λαθεῖν, ἀγνοουμένων ἔσθ' ὅτε τῶν ἐλαχίστων, καὶ κεκρυμμένων, κἀντεῦθεν εἴσῃ τοι. Τοὺς μέν τοι φαλάκρωμα πεπονθότας, καθαροὺς εἶναι, φησὶν, ἀναμνήσει, καλῶς ἡμῖν ἀνιεὶς τὰ τῶν πταισμάτων μικρὰ, καθάπερ ἐλέγομεν ἀρτίως. Ἀλλ' εἰ γένοιτό τισιν ἐν φαλακρώματι λέπρα, τουτέστιν, ὅταν ἐκ μικρῶν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω φέρηται τὸ πάθος, τότε δὴ, τότε καταφανῆ καὶ ἀσχήμονα γενέσθαι λέγει, καὶ λόγον οὐκ ἔχοντα τὸν τοῖς ἐγκλήμασι συνειπεῖν