The leper outside the camp and the cloth given to the fire
Cyril: …that could plead its case. That is why it says: ‘And the leper who has the affliction must have his garments unfastened and his head uncovered; he must cover his mouth, and he shall be called unclean. All the days that the affliction is on him he is unclean, and unclean he shall remain; he shall live apart, and his dwelling shall be outside the camp’ (Leviticus 13:45–46). The unfastened garments and the uncovered head would indicate quite clearly that he is disgraced with nothing to hide it. The covering of the mouth means that he has, so to speak, no defense and can say nothing when God charges him with his uncleanness. And the requirement that he leave the camp would again be a type of his no longer living among the choirs of the saints, but, banished as it were from the holy assembly, having no share in any good thing.
Palladius: What a dreadful thing, and one to pray we may be spared!
Cyril: Dreadful indeed, Palladius. That is why the divine David said to us: ‘Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorance; according to your mercy remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O Lord’ (Psalm 25:7). The law, carrying as it were the proof of its own exactness through everything, extends it even to articles—I mean wool, weft and warp, and anything made of leather. ‘If leprosy appears,’ it says, ‘and one of these is affected, the priest is to examine it again and set the affected thing apart; and if the mark shows no change for the better, it is to be burned with fire’ (Leviticus 13:47–52). For it is, it says, a lasting leprosy (Leviticus 13:51). Yet it orders the affected article to be washed; and if after this the affliction still appears rooted in it, it then gives it to the fire as wholly useless (Leviticus 13:54–55). Here again it is perhaps likening our condition to wool and weft, to warp and skins. For who could doubt, or on what grounds, that God takes no account of wool or weft or the rest? We shall grant, then, that among offenses it is most grievous if, after the cleansing and washing that Christ would work in us, we do not get free of our defilements but settle in them to stay. For if Christ washes us and it does us no good, he hands us over to the fire to be punished, just as the priest under the law, when washing had done the weft or the warp no good, then burned it.
Palladius: So it is.
Cyril: By leprosy, then, the law aptly points to what we might call deadness in works. It neatly conveys the meaning of hidden things through things one can see plainly with the senses, and makes spiritual realities clear by bodily examples. Setting before us, as it were, a rich knowledge of the defilements in souls, and making vivid, as in the illnesses of the body, what happens in the spiritual realm, it declared again in Leviticus: ‘When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean’ (Leviticus 15:2).
Greek
δυνάμενον Διὰ τοῦτό φησι· «Καὶ ὁ λεπρὸς, ἐν ᾡ ἐστιν ἡ ἁφὴ, τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ ἔστω παραλελυμένα καὶ ἡ κεφαλὴ αὐτοῦ ἀκατακάλυπτος, καὶ περὶ τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ περιβαλέσθω, καὶ ἀκάθαρτος κεκλήσεται πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας, ὅσας ἐὰν ᾖ ἐπ' αὐτοῦ ἡ ἁφὴ, ἀκάθαρτος ὢν ἀκάθαρτος ἔσται, κεχωρισμένος καθήσεται, ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς αὐτοῦ ἔσται ἡ διατριβή.» Τὸ μὲν γὰρ παραλελύσθαι τὰ ἱμάτια, καὶ ἀκατακάλυπτον εἶναι τὴν κεφαλὴν, ὑπεμφήνειεν ἂν καὶ μάλα σαφῶς. τὸ ἀκρύπτως ἀσχημονεῖν. Τὸ δέ γε περιβεβλῆσθαι περὶ τὸ στόμα, τὸ, οἱονείπως ἀπολογίαν οὐκ ἔχειν, καὶ εἰπεῖν δύνασθαι μηδὲν, ἐγκαλοῦντος Θεοῦ τὴν ἀκαθαρσίαν. Τὸ δέ γε τῆς παρεμβολῆς ἐξοίχεσθαι δεῖν, τύπος ἂν εἴη πάλιν, τοῦ μηκέτι τοῖς τῶν ἁγίων αὐτὸν συναυλίζεσθαι χοροῖς, πληθύος δὲ ὥσπερ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐξωστρακισμένον, ἀμέτοχον ἔσεσθαι παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς δεινὸν τὸ χρῆμα καὶ ἀπευκτόν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Παντάπασι μὲν οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τοιγάρτοι καὶ ἔφασκεν ὁ θεῖος ἡμῖν Δαβίδ· «Ἁμαρτίας νεότητος μου, καὶ ἀγνοίας μου, μὴ μνησθῇς, κατὰ τὸ ἔλεός σου μνήσθητί μου, ἕνεκεν τῆς χρηστότητός σου, Κύριε.» Διὰ πάντων δὲ ὥσπερ ἱεὶς ὁ νόμος, τῆς ἐνούσης ἀκριβείας αὐτῷ τὴν ἔνδειξιν, καὶ μέχρι σκευῶν, ἐρίου δὴ λέγω, καὶ κρόκης, καὶ στήμονος, καὶ δερματίνου σκεύους· «Εἰ λέπρα γένοιτο,» φησὶν, «καὶ τούτων ἑνὶ συμβαίνοι τὸ πάθος, καταθρείτω πάλιν ὁ ἱερεὺς, καὶ ἀφοριζέτω τὴν ἁφήν· καὶ εἰ μή τις γένοιτο μεταδρομὴ τῆς σημασίας ἐπὶ τὸ ἄμεινον, δαπανάσθω πυρί.» Λέπρα γὰρ ἔμμονός ἐστι, φησί. Πλὴν, ἀποπλύνεσθαι δεῖν ἐπιτάττει τὸ πεπονθός· καὶ εἰ μετὰ τοῦτο φαίνοιτο τὸ πάθος ἐμπεφυκὸς, πυρὶ δίδωσι λοιπὸν, ὡς ἀχρεῖον παντελῶς, ἐρίῳ που πάλιν τάχα καὶ κρόκῃ, στήμονί τε καὶ δέρμασι παρεικάζων τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς. Ὅτι γὰρ ἐρίων ἢ κρόκης, ἤγουν τῶν ἑτέρων, οὐδεὶς ἂν γένοιτο παρὰ Θεῷ λόγος, πῶς ἂν ἢ πόθεν ἐνδοιάσειέ τις; Παγχάλεπον οὖν ἐγκλημάτων εἶναι δώσομεν, τὸ μετὰ κάθαρσιν καὶ ἀπόνιψιν, ἣν ἂν ὁ Χριστὸς ἐν ἡμῖν ἐργάσαιτο, μὴ ἀποφέρεσθαι μολυσμῶν, ἀλλὰ ἔμμονον εἰς αὐτοὺς ποιεῖσθαι τὴν στάσιν. Εἰ γὰρ μηδὲν ὀνίνησιν ἀπονίζων ἡμᾶς ὁ Χριστὸς, πυρὶ παραδίδωσι κολασθησομένους, καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ ὁ κατὰ νόμον ἱερεὺς, οὐδὲν ὠφελήσας τὴν κρόκην, ἤτοι τὸν στήμονα, διὰ τῆς ἐκπλύσεως, κατεπίμπρα λοιπόν.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Λέπραν δὴ οὖν ὁ νόμος, τὴν ὡς ἐν ἔργοις νέκρωσιν ὑποφαίνει καλῶς, ἀφ' ὧν ἄν τις ἴδοι σαφῶς τε καὶ αἰσθητῶς τὰς τῶν ἀφανεστέρων ἐννοίας ἀνακομίζων ἀστείως, καὶ σαρκικοῖς παραδείγμασι καταλευκαίνων τὰ νοητά. Πλουσίαν δὲ ὥσπερ ἡμῖν τῶν ἐν ψυχαῖς μολυσμῶν παρατιθεὶς τὴν γνῶσιν, καὶ καθιστὰς ἐναργῆ, καθάπερ ἐν ἀῤῥωστήμασι σώματος τὰ νοητῶς συμβαίνοντα, προσεφώνει πάλιν ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ· «Ἀνδρὶ, ἀνδρὶ, ᾧ ἂν γένηται ῥύσις ἐκ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ, ἡ ῥύσις αὐτοῦ ἀκάθαρτός ἐστι.