Defiled by the dead: lost days, and cleansing in Christ
Cyril: …among the disciples, saying: ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ But he said, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead’ (Matthew 8:21–22). By ‘the dead’, I think, he means those who have chosen to set their minds on the things of the world and have not kept away from the deeds of death.
Palladius: So it is.
Cyril: This, then, is the manner of the wholly pure and exceptional way of life according to the law, or rather as it is in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24); for the law is a shadow (Hebrews 10:1). But if it should happen, it says, that the consecrated person is ever defiled over a dead body, let him then be shorn and have his head stripped bare, since his hair has now in a way become unholy. And on the eighth day he shall bring a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And let him also bring, it says, a year-old lamb; and the first days shall not count, because the head of his vow was defiled (Numbers 6:9–12). For if the consecrated person should grow careless of what is fitting and be defiled by ways that lead to deadness, having turned aside to the things of the flesh, it will surely follow that he must barter away the glories of the wholly pure way of life, and he will make his own head, as it were, utterly dishonored. For the shaving hints at something of this kind. And having labored in vain through the time that is past, he will lament the loss of his sweat. This, I think, is the meaning of ‘The first days shall not count.’ He says something like this through the voice of Ezekiel too: ‘The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him on the day he sins; and the lawlessness of the lawless shall not harm him on the day he turns from his lawlessness’ (Ezekiel 33:12). So if the consecrated should somehow be defiled in the meantime, they will suffer the loss of what they had already achieved; yet the loss they suffer from it is not hard to escape. For they are scoured clean in Christ, who, in the place, as it were, of the turtledove and the dove, offers himself for us to God the Father, and is sacrificed as a lamb, and justifies us by the death of his own flesh. That is why the law has ordered that the one who has undergone the shaving should offer sacrifices as a type of Christ, who justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5), strengthens what is weak, raises what has fallen, turns back what has strayed (Ezekiel 34:16), and washes clean what has been stained.
Palladius: Excellently said.
Cyril: But I think that if we apply our minds a little to what lies before us, we can see another depth of subtle and hidden ideas. For the law, not without forethought, spurs us toward this very thing when it speaks of the one who grows his hair for God: ‘But if one dies suddenly, at once the head of his vow shall be defiled; and he shall shave his head on the day he is cleansed; on the seventh day he shall be shaved. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest. And he shall sanctify,’ it says, ‘his head on that day’ (Numbers 6:9–11). He was also commanded to offer a year-old lamb (Numbers 6:12).
Palladius: One taught by Christ might well be at a loss to know what, then, the riddle means. I am eager to learn: tell me what it points to.
Greek
ἐν μαθηταῖς, λέγων· «Κύριε, ἐπίτρεψόν μοι πρῶτον ἀπελθεῖν, καὶ θάψαι τὸν πατέρα μου.» Ὁ δὲ, «Ἀκολούθει μοι, φησὶ, καὶ ἄφες τοὺς νεκροὺς θάπτειν τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς·» νεκροὺς, οἶμαι, λέγων τοὺς τὰ ἐν κόσμῳ φρονεῖν ἑλομένους, καὶ τῶν τῆς νεκρότητος ἔργων οὐκ ἀπεσχημένους.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Τρόπος μὲν γὰρ δὴ πολιτείας τῆς πανάγνου καὶ ἐξῃρημένης οὑτοσὶ, κατὰ τὸν νόμον, μᾶλλον δὲ ὡς ἐν πνεύματί τε καὶ ἀληθείᾳ· σκιὰ γὰρ ὁ νόμος. Ἀλλ' εἰ γένοιτο, φησὶν, ἐπὶ νεκρῷ καταμιανθῆναί ποτε τὸν ἡγιασμένον, ἀποκειρέσθω δή ποτε, καὶ ψιλούσθω τὴν κεφαλὴν, ἀνίερον ἔχων ἤδη πως τὴν κόμην. Καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ οἴσει ζεῦγος τρυγόνων, ἢ δύο νεοσσοὺς περιστερῶν. Προσκομιζέτω δὲ, φησὶ, καὶ ἀμνὸν ἐνιαύσιον· καὶ αἱ ἡμέραι αἱ πρῶται ἄλογοι ἔσονται, ὅτι ἐμιάνθη ἡ κεφαλὴ εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ. Εἰ γὰρ γένοιτο τὸν ἡγιασμένον καταῤῥᾳθυμῆσαι τοῦ πρέποντος, καὶ τοῖς εἰς νεκρότητα καταμιανθῆναι τρόποις, ἀπονενευκότα πρὸς τὰ σαρκὸς, ἕψεταί που πάντως αὐτῷ τὸ ἀπεμπωλῆσαι δεῖν τῆς πανάγνου πολιτείας τὰ αὐχήματα, καὶ ἀτιμοτάτην ὥσπερ ἐργάσεται τὴν ἑαυτοῦ κεφαλήν. Ὑπαινίττεται γάρ τι τοιοῦτον ἡ ξύρησις. Εἰκῆ δὲ πεπονηκὼς τὸν παρῳχηκότα χρόνον, τὴν τῶν ἱδρώτων θρηνήσει ζημίαν. Τοῦτο γὰρ, οἶμαι, ἐστὶ τὸ, Αἱ ἡμέραι αἱ πρῶται ἄλογοι ἔσονται. Τοιοῦτόν τί φησι καὶ διὰ φωνῆς Ἐζεχιήλ· «Δικαιοσύνη δικαίου οὐ μὴ ἐξέληται αὐτὸν, ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἁμάρτῃ, καὶ ἀνομία ἀνόμου οὐ μὴ κακώσει αὐτὸν, ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ ἀποστρέψῃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας αὐτοῦ.» Οὐκοῦν εἰ γένοιτο μεταξὺ καταμιαίνεσθαί πως τοὺς ἡγιασμένους, ζημίαν μὲν ὑποστήσονται τῶν ἤδη προειργασμένων, οὐ μὴν δυσδιάφυκτον τὴν ἐντεῦθεν νοσοῦσι ζημίαν· διασμήχονται γὰρ ἐν Χριστῷ, καθάπερ ἐν τάξει τρυγόνος καὶ περιστερᾶς, ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν προσάγοντος τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ, καὶ ὡς ἀμνοῦ καταθυομένου, καὶ δικαιοῦντος ἡμᾶς τῷ θανάτῳ τῆς ἰδίας σαρκός. Ταύτῃτοι προστέταχε, τὸν τὴν ξύρησιν ὑπομείναντα θυσίας προσάγειν ἐν τύπῳ Χριστοῦ, τοῦ δικαιοῦντος τὸν ἀσεβῆ, καὶ ῥωννύντος τὸ ἀσθενὲς, καὶ ἀνιστάντος τὸ πεπτωκὸς, καὶ ἐπιστρέφοντος τὸ πλανώμενον, καὶ ἀπονίζοντος τὸ μεμολυσμένον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἄριστα ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Οἶμαι δ' ἔγωγε, μικρὸν ἐνιέντας τοῖς προκειμένοις τὸν νοῦν, καὶ ἕτερον ἡμᾶς δύνασθαι καταθρῆσαι βάθος λεπτῶν τε καὶ κεκρυμμένων ἐννοιῶν. Παραθήγει γὰρ εἴς γε δὴ τοῦτο ἡμᾶς οὐκ ἀπερισκέπτως ὁ νόμος, περὶ τοῦ τὴν τρίχα τρέφοντος Θεῷ· «Ἐὰν δὲ ἀποθάνῃ ἐξάπινα, παραχρῆμα μιανθήσεται ἡ κεφαλὴ εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ξυρήσεται τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ καθαρισθῇ, τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ξυρηθήσεται, καὶ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ ὀγδόῃ οἴσει δύο τρυγόνας, ἢ δύο νεοσσοὺς περιστερῶν, πρὸς τὸν ἱερέα. Καὶ ἁγιάσει, φησὶ, τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ἐν ἐκείνῃ ἡμέρᾳ.» Προσάγειν δὲ καὶ ἐνιαύσιον ἀμνὸν ἐπετάττετο.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἐπαπορήσειε δ' ἂν εἰκότως ὁ χριστομαθὴς, τί δ' ἂν εἴη λοιπὸν τὸ αἴνιγμα· καὶ πρὸς τί βλέπει μαθητιῶντι φράσον.