Cyril of Alexandria's theology. 'Only if Christ is consubstantial with the Father and with us can he save us,'

Friday, 16 March 2012

Friday of the Third week of Lent 

Community Mass:

The Principal Celebrant (Fr. Raymond) said,

The Night Office Reading speaks how the Holy Spirit lives the bond of Christ and the Father, and how theHoly Spirit sanctifies and how we share in the divine nature. ...

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12:28b-34.

One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"

Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' ....

..

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA (d444) succeeded his uncle TheophiIus as patriarch in 412. Until 428 the pen of this brilliant theologian was employed in exegesis and polemics against the Arians; after that date it was devoted almost entirely to refuting the Nestorian heresy. The teaching of Nestorius was condemned in 431 by the Council of Ephesus at which Cyril presided, and Mary's title, Mother of God, was solemnly recognized. The incarnation is central to Cyril's theology. Only if Christ is consubstantial with the Father and with us can he save us, for the meeting ground between God and ourselves is the flesh of Christ Through our kinship with Christ, the Word made flesh. we become children of God, and share in the filial relation of the Son with the Father.

Night Office

First Reading

From the book of Exodus (35:30 - 36:1; 37:1-9)

Second Reading

From the commentary on Saint John's gospel by Saint Cyril of Alexandria

(Lib. 11, 10: PG 74, 544-545)

• In this work, written before the outbreak of the Nestorian controversy in 429, Cyril seeks to bring out the dogmatic meaning of the gospel and to refute heresy. He teaches in this passage that by offering himself as a sacrificial victim, Christ reconciled the world with the Father and so made it possible for us to receive the Holy Spirit, through whom we are sanctified and given a share in the divine nature.
• Christ said: For their sake I sanctify myself. In terms of the law, any offering made to God was said to be sanctified. Such for example was the offering the Israelites made of all their first born children. Sanctify to me all the firstborn, God commanded his saintly Moses. In other words, consecrate and offer them, set them apart as sacred.
• Since sanctification, then, was regarded as the equivalent of consecration and setting apart, we may say that in this sense the Son of God sanctified himself for our sake; for he offered himself as a victim, a holy sacrifice to God the Father, and by so doing he reconciled the world with the Father and restored the fallen human race to his friendship. For he, Scripture says, is our peace.
• We must realize, however, that our return to God is not accomplished by Christ our Saviour except through the Spirit in which he causes us to share and by which we are sanctified, for it is the Spirit that binds us to God and in a real way makes us one with him. By receiving the Spirit through the Son we become sharers in the divine nature and, in the Son, we receive the Father also.
• Concerning Christ John in his wisdom wrote to us: We know that we are in him and he is in us because he allows us to share his own Spirit. And what does Paul say? The proof that you are his children is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, the Spirit that cries out, "Abba, Father." If we had remained without a share in the Spirit, we should have had no experience of God's presence within us; nor could we ever have become the children of God had we not been enriched by the Spirit to whom we owe that title. How indeed could we have been adopted as children and enabled to share in the divine nature if God did not dwell within us, and if we had not been united to him by being called to receive a share in the Spirit?
• Now, however, we are sharers in the supreme Being and have become temples of God. For God's only Son sanctified himself on account of our sins; in other words, he consecrated and offered himself as a holy and fragrant sacrifice to God the Father, thus removing the barrier of sin that separated us from God. Henceforward there was nothing to hinder us from having access to him and adhering to him in close communion through participation in the Holy Spirit, who restores to us our original righteousness and holiness.
• If sin separates us from God, righteousness will surely be a bond of union with him and a means of setting us at his side with no division between us. We have been justified, Scripture declares, by our faith in Christ, who was delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification. In him, as the firstfruits of the human race, our whole nature was restored to newness of life, and returning as it were to its beginning, was formed anew in order to be sanctified.

Responsory

1 Corinthians 3:17; 6:19-20

Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that God's spirit lives in you?

- God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

You do not belong to yourselves; you were brought for a price. So use your body for the glory of God.

- God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.