Blemished offerings as sicknesses of the soul
Cyril: …in turn, seems to mean the person who is sick in every way and has nothing at all sound in him, who cannot walk straight, that is, has no strength to do anything good, and falls wholly short of the strength that is in Christ and in the Spirit. Something like this has happened to those of whom it is written through one of the holy prophets: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing weakness upon this people, and fathers and sons together shall grow weak in it; the neighbor and his friend shall perish’ (Jeremiah 6:21). But our divine Psalmist presents those who have been justified by faith in Christ as joyful, singing psalms and saying: ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from corruption’ (Psalm 103:2–4). The animal with a cut tongue, as I think, is the one who does not know how to speak rightly and has no strength to proclaim, as it is written, ‘the word of faith which we preach’ (Romans 10:8), ‘the appeal to God from a good conscience’ (1 Peter 3:21). Yet the prophet will make plain that at the coming of Christ they will throw off this kind of disease too, when he says: ‘And the stammering tongues will quickly learn to speak peace’ (Isaiah 32:4). So the one with a cut tongue is the one who still stammers and has not yet been taught to speak the peace that comes to us from above and from the Father, that is, Christ (Ephesians 2:14), or the things concerning him. The animals with warts, with festering mange, or with scabs (Leviticus 22:22) we take to be those who have within themselves a mind in the grip of passion and are deeply sick with the corruption that lies in sin, yet never consider that they ought to reduce them, but rather let them creep on toward what is more shameful and spread toward what is worse. For warts and festering mange and scabs plainly always grow, tend somehow toward a worse state, and little by little spread over the whole body. So too are the passions in our souls that are not cut short but always race on toward the worse, as if with a rush that nothing holds back. The animal with its ears cut off, and besides it the one with a docked tail (Leviticus 22:23), would signify the person who is hard to persuade and will not listen, and the one who is not seemly in every respect. Or is the harm not to the hearing, for those whose ear has been cut off?
Palladius: Very much so.
Cyril: And animals that have no tail, would you yourself grant that they have the finest form? Not at all; for in themselves they are badly marred by unsightliness. So the person hinted at indirectly, as it were by an animal that has no tail, is unseemly and lacks beauty. The law also rejects what is male by nature but cannot do what males do; I mean the bruised and the cut (Leviticus 22:24). Such again would be those who have a reputation for the manly courage that leads to virtue, yet are not actually active in pursuit of the glories of virtue; they are dry, as it were, and barren, and in many ways robbed of the power to bear fruit. For a vast crowd of unholy passions forces us into weakness and impotence, and besides this into being unable to bear fruit. This is why, I think, the law calls by many names…
Greek
νον δὲ αὖ, τὸν ὁλοτρόπως ἠῤῥωστηκότα, καὶ ὑγιὲς ἔχοντα παντελῶς οὐδὲν, οὔτε μὴν ὀρθοποδεῖν δυνάμενον, ἤγουν δράσαι τι τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἰσχύοντα, εὐρωστίας δὲ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ καὶ ἐν Πνεύματι παντελῶς ἡττώμενον, πεπόνθασι δέ τι τοιοῦτον, οἱ περὶ ὧν γέγραπται, δι' ἑνὸς τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν· «Τάδε λέγει Κύριος· Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ δίδωμι ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον ἀσθένειαν, καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν ἐν αὐτῇ πατέρες καὶ υἱοὶ ἅμα· γείτων καὶ ὁ πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἀπολοῦνται.» Ἀλλ' ὅγε θεῖος ἡμῖν Μελῳδὸς, τοὺς ἐν πίστει τῇ ἐν Χριστῷ δεδικαιωμένους, εἰσκεκόμικεν ἱλαροὺς, ψάλλοντάς τε καὶ λέγοντας· «Εὐλόγει, ἡ ψυχή μου, τὸν Κύριον, τὸν ἰώμενον πάσας τὰς νόσους σου, τὸν λυτρούμενον ἐκ φθορᾶς τὴν ζωήν σου.» Γλωσσότμητόν τε, καθάπερ ἐγῷμαι, τὸν ὀρθοεπεῖν οὐκ εἰδότα, οὔτε μὴν ἀναφωνεῖν ἰσχύοντα τὸ ῥῆμα τῆς πίστεως ὃ κηρύσσομεν κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, τὸ ἐξ ἀγαθῆς συνειδήσεως ἐπερώτημα εἰς Θεὸν, πλὴν ὅτι καὶ τὴν τοιάνδε πάλιν ἀποκρούσονται νόσον, ἐν παρουσίᾳ Χριστοῦ, σαφηνιεῖ λέγων ὁ προφήτης· «Καὶ γλῶσσαι αἱ ψελλίζουσαι ταχὺ μαθήσονται λαλεῖν εἰρήνην.» Γλωσσότμητος οὖν ὁ ψελλίζων ἔτι, καὶ λαλεῖν οὔπω δεδιδαγμένος τὴν ἄνωθεν ἡμῖν καὶ παρὰ Πατρὸς εἰρήνην, τοῦτ' ἔστι, Χριστὸν, ἤτοι τὰ ἐπ' αὐτῷ. Μυρμηκιῶντάς γε μὴν καὶ ψωραγριῶντας, καὶ λειχῆνας ἔχοντας εἶναί φαμεν τοὺς, οἵπερ ἂν ἔχοιεν ἔν γε δὴ σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἐμπαθῆ τὸν νοῦν, καὶ πολλὴν ἐγκατηῤῥωστηκότας τὴν ἐν ἁμαρτίαις φθορὰν, οὐ μὴν ὅτι χρὴ καὶ πρὸς τὸ μεῖον ἄγειν αὐτοὺς διενθυμουμένους, ἐφιέντας δὲ μᾶλλον διέρπειν ἐπὶ τὸ αἴσχιον, καὶ κατευρύνεσθαι πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον. Μυρμηκία τε γὰρ καὶ ἀγρία ψώρα, καὶ μὴν καὶ λειχὴν, ἀεὶ πρὸς ἐπίδοσιν ἰόντα φαίνεται, καὶ πρὸς τὸ χειρόνως ἔχειν διανένευκέ πως, καὶ ὅλην κατὰ βραχὺ διανέμεται τὴν σάρκα. Τοιαῦτα δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐν ταῖς ἡμετέραις ψυχαῖς οὐκ ἀνακοπτόμενα τῶν παθῶν, ἀσχέτῳ δὲ ὥσπερ ὁρμῇ πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ἀεὶ διεκτρέχοντα. Ὠτότμητον δὲ, πρός γε δὴ τούτῳ τὸν κολοβόκερκον, τὸν δυσπειθῆ καὶ ἀνήκοον, καὶ τὸν μὴ μέχρι παντὸς εὐσχήμονα κατασημήνειεν ἄν. Ἢ οὐχὶ τὸ βλάβος εἰς ἀκοὴν, τοῖς γε τὸ οὖς ἀποκεκομμένοις;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ μάλα.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τὰ δὲ τῶν ζώων τὴν κέρκον οὐκ ἔχοντα, δοίης ἂν αὐτὸς ἔν γε τῷ καλλίστῳ σχήματι; Οὐδαμῶς· νοσεῖ γὰρ ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν πολὺ δὴ λίαν τὸ ἀπρεπές. Οὐκοῦν ἀσχήμων καὶ ἀκαλλὴς ὁ ὡς ἐν ζώῳ τυχὸν τῷ τὴν κέρκον οὐκ ἔχοντι πλαγίως ὑποδηλούμενος. Ἀπόβλητον δὲ ποιεῖται τὸ ἄρσεν μὲν, ὅσον ἧκεν εἰς φύσιν, ἐνεργεῖν δὲ τὰ ἀρσένων οὐ δυνάμενον, θλαδίαν δὴ λέγω καὶ ἐκτομίαν· εἶεν δ' ἂν οἱ τοιοίδε πάλιν, οἱ ἐν ὑπολήψει μὲν ἀνδρείας τῆς εἰς ἀρετὴν, οὐ μὴν ἔτι καὶ ἐνεργοὶ πρὸς ἀρετῆς αὐχήματα, ξηροὶ δὲ ὥσπερ καὶ ἄκαρποι, καὶ τὸ δύνασθαι καρποφορεῖν πολυτρόπως παρῃρημένοι. Πλεῖστος γὰρ ὅσος ἡμᾶς ἀνοσίων παθῶν καταβιάζεται δῆμος εἰς τὸ ἄναλκί τε καὶ ἀδρανὲς, καὶ προσέτι τούτῳ τὸ μὴ ἰσχύσαι καρποφορεῖν. Ταύτῃτοι, καθάπερ ἐγῷμαι, καὶ πολλοῖς ὀνόμασι τὸ