The Pharisees’ ‘gift’, and the life we owe to Christ
Cyril: …because of your tradition’ (Matthew 15:6). For the Pharisees, being greatly in love with money and greedy for gain, wanted to see as many people as possible coming to the enrollment the law prescribed, so that their purses might grow fat as they gathered with insatiable hand what came from each one who approached. But it was likely that some would hold back from the enrollment, having their poverty as an honorable excuse for hesitating, and above all the duty of caring in old age for their fathers or mothers out of what they themselves earned, and that with no little sweat. No sooner had the wicked Pharisees learned this than they urged them to go readily to the dedication. They no longer thought as was right, and they set aside what the law had laid down, I mean, that reverence toward parents be shown in full and that they be treated with tender care; instead they urged them, so to speak, to bid a quick farewell to fulfilling what custom required. For since under the laws it was a crime and an indictable offense to take for oneself anything that had been offered for the glory of God, and ‘gift’ was the name given to dedicated offerings, they taught people to say to their own parents, when they asked for support: ‘Whatever you might have gained from me is a gift’ (Matthew 15:5). That is: whatever I might give you is a dedicated offering, and be sure that you would be wronging the law, stealing what belongs to the glory of God and taking it impiously. And the men who brought in these most shameful inventions of theirs affirmed that inhumanity toward parents was blameless in those who had chosen instead to dedicate their goods to God according to the law. This, I think, is the meaning of the words: ‘Whoever says to his father or his mother, “Whatever you might have gained from me is a gift,” need not honor his father or his mother’ (Matthew 15:5–6). For the point is this: let those be allowed not to honor a father, nor to show reverence to a mother, who say, ‘Whatever you might have gained from me is a gift’; that is, whatever I might perhaps help you with by giving it to you, that is a gift to God, and you would be a thief of sacred offerings.
Palladius: That, I say, is rightly and truly said.
Cyril: Since the historical sense is now clear enough to us, let us go on to the spiritual meaning and take up the contemplation that goes beyond what the senses perceive.
Palladius: Let us go on.
Cyril: Every one of us, Palladius, who has been justified in faith and sanctified in the Spirit has become a sacred offering to God. Each of us owes his own life to Christ. For as the inspired Paul said, ‘We were bought with a price, and we are not our own’ (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). And, ‘One died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised’ (2 Corinthians 5:14–15). For he acquired us through himself for God the Father, laying down his own blood as a kind of price on our behalf. So we come to Christ, the Savior of all, through faith and sanctification, bringing him a repayment for what he has done for us: the dedication of a life lived in godliness. Yet the manner of the offering may be understood, and with good reason, to be varied rather than one and the same. For some come to it without much strength, while others, with warmer…
Greek
παράδοσιν ὑμῶν.» Ἐρασιχρήματοι μὲν γὰρ καὶ φιλοκερδεῖς ἄγαν ὄντες οἱ Φαρισαῖοι, πλείστους μὲν ὅσους ὁρᾷν ἐπεθύμουν πρὸς τὴν κατὰ νόμον ἰόντας ἀπογραφὴν, ἵνα δὴ σφίσιν ἁδρύνοιτο τὰ βαλάντια, τὰ παρ' ἑκάστου τῶν προσιόντων ἀπλήστῳ χειρὶ συλλέγουσιν. Ἀλλ' ἦν εἰκὸς ἀναδύεσθαί τινας τὴν ἀπογραφὴν, ὄκνου πρόφασιν ἔχοντας οὐκ ἀγεννῆ τὴν πτωχείαν, καὶ τόγε δὴ χρῆναι δεῖν γηροκομεῖν πατέρας ἤγουν καὶ μητέρας, ἐξ ὧν αὐτοὶ καὶ οὐ σὺν ἱδρῶτι βραχεῖ πορίσαιντο· μόλις ταυτὶ μαθόντες οἱ ἀλιτήριοι Φαρισαῖοι, προὔτρεπον ἑτοίμους ἰέναι πρὸς τὴν ἀνάθεσιν, οὐ τὰ εἰκότα φρονοῦντες ἔτι, καὶ τὸ νόμῳ δοκοῦν ἐκτετιμηκότες, τὸ ἀποπεραίνειν εὖ μάλα, φημὶ, τὴν εἰς γονέας αἰδὼ, καὶ φειδοῦς μεταποιεῖσθαι τῆς εἰς αὐτοὺς, ἐῤῥῶσθαι δὲ μᾶλλον ἐπιφωνοῦντας ἤδη πως, τὰ νενομισμένα πληροῦν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἔγκλημα καὶ γραφὴ κατὰ νόμους ἦν τὸ σφετερίσασθαί τι τῶν εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ προσενηνεγμένων, δῶρον δὲ ἦν ὄνομα τοῖς ἀναθήμασιν, ἐδίδασκον λέγειν ἐξαιτοῦσι τὰς ἐπικουρίας τοῖς γεγεννηκόσι· «Δῶρον ὃ ἂν ἐξ ἐμοῦ ὠφεληθῇς,» τουτέστιν, ὅπερ ἄν σοι δῴην ἐγὼ, τοῦτό ἐστιν ἀνάθημα, καὶ λελυπηκὼς ἴσθι τοι τὸν νόμον, τὰ εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ παρακλέπτων καὶ ἀνοσίως λαμβάνων. Ἀκαταιτίατον δὲ τὴν εἰς γονέας ἀπανθρωπίαν διεβεβαιοῦντο ὑπάρχειν οἱ τῶν αἰσχίστων αὐτοῖς εὑρημάτων εἰσηγηταὶ, Θεῷ μᾶλλον ἀναθεῖναι τὰ ὄντα κατὰ τὸν νόμον ᾑρημένοις. Τοῦτο, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ, «Ὃς ἂν εἴπῃ τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ ἢ τῇ μητρὶ ὐτοῦ, Δῶρον ὃ ἐὰν ἐξ ἐμοῦ ὠφεληθῇς, οὐ μὴ τιμήσει τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ, ἢ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ.» Ἐξέστω γὰρ δὴ τὸ μὴ τιμᾷν πατέρα, μήτε μὴν αἰδὼ ποιεῖσθαι μητρὸς, τοῖς λέγουσι· «Δῶρον ὃ ἂν ἐξ ἐμοῦ ὠφεληθῇς,» τοῦτ' ἐστιν, ὅπερ ἄν σοι δοὺς, ὠφελήσαιμι τυχὸν, τοῦτο θεῖόν ἐστι δῶρον, καὶ τῶν ἱερῶν ἀναθημάτων ἔσῃ κλοπεύς.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὀρθῶς τε καὶ ἀληθῶς εἰρῆσθαί φημι.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ὁ τῆς ἱστορίας ἡμῖν οὐκ ἀσυμφανῶς ἔχει λόγος, ἴωμεν ἐπὶ τὰ πνευματικὰ, καὶ τῆς τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπέκεινα θεωρίας ἁψώμεθα.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἴωμεν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἕκαστος ἡμῶν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τῶν ἐν πίστει δεδικαιωμένων καὶ ἡγιασμένων ἐν Πνεύματι, ἱερὸν ἀνάθημα γέγονε τῷ Θεῷ. Ὀφείλομεν δὲ τῷ Χριστῷ τὴν οἰκείαν ζωὴν ἕκαστος. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ θεσπέσιος ἔφη Παῦλος, «Τιμῆς ἠγοράσθημεν, καὶ οὐκ ἐσμὲν ἑαυτῶν.» Καὶ, «Εἷς ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀπέθανεν, ἵνα οἱ ζῶντες μηκέτι ἑαυτοῖς ζῶσιν, ἀλλὰ τῷ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἀποθανόντι καὶ ἐγερθέντι.» Κατεκτήσατο γὰρ ἡμᾶς δι' ἑαυτοῦ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ, τιμὴν ὥσπερ τινὰ καταθεὶς τὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, τὸ ἴδιον αἷμα. Προσίεμεν οὖν ἄρα τῷ πάντων Σωτῆρι Χριστῷ διὰ πίστεως καὶ ἁγιασμοῦ, τῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς παρ' αὐτοῦ γεγονότων, προσάγοντες τὴν ἀντέκτισιν, τῆς ἐν εὐσεβείᾳ ζωῆς τὴν ἀνάθεσιν. Ἀλλὰ διάφορος καὶ οὐχ εἷς νοοῖτ' ἂν ὑπάρχειν, καὶ μάλα εἰκότως, τῆς προσαγωγῆς ὁ τρόπος. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ, οὐκ ἄγαν εὐσθενῶς, οἱ δὲ, θερμοτέραις