Procatechesis

OF OUR HOLY FATHER CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF JERUSALEM, CATECHESES

PROCATECHESIS

^A 1 You who are now being enlightened, you are already gathering the intelligible flowers, to weave heavenly crowns; already the fragrance of the Holy Spirit has breathed upon you. Already you are about the vestibule...

^A of the royal palace; would that you might also be led inside by the King. For now the flowers of the trees have appeared; would that the fruit also might prove perfect. Hitherto you have given in your names. This is your call to warfare ^B. [Hold in your hands] the lamps ^C for the leading of the bride; the desire for the heavenly city [is present], and a good purpose, and a hope that follows. For He is truthful who said: *For to those who love God all things work together for good.* ^D For God is lavish in bestowing benefits; but He awaits the sincere volition of each one: for this reason the Apostle added, saying, *To those who are* according to purpose.

^A Since the purpose is sincere, it makes you one who is called; for even if you have your body here, yet if you do not have the intent, you gain nothing.

^B II. Simon Magus once came to the washbasin; he was baptized, but he was not illuminated; and he dipped his body in water, but he did not illuminate his heart with the Spirit; and his body went down and came up, but his soul was not buried with Christ, nor was it raised with Him. I mention these examples of falls ^C so that you may not fall; for these things happened to them as types, but they were written for the admonition of those who draw near even until today. Let none of you be found tempting grace, lest *any root of bitterness springing up* might disturb you. Let no one of you enter, saying: "Let us see what the believers do; I will go in and see, so that I may learn what happens." Do you expect to see, but do not expect that you will be seen? And do you imagine that you are prying into what is happening, ^D while God is not prying into your heart?

III. Someone once pried into the marriage in the Gospels; and having taken a garment unworthy, he entered, and reclined, and ate; for the bridegroom allowed it. But it was necessary for him, upon seeing the one who was white-robed ^A of all, to take upon himself such a garment; but he partook of the same food, yet he did not look for the bridegroom's approval. For indeed he was baptized, but he was not illuminated; for since his body was not from a sincere intent, he was not illuminated. I mention these things, so that you may not fall, for those things happened to them as types; but they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

^A and to accept such a garment. But he was partaking of the same food as the others, though he was entirely different in manner and purpose. Yet the bridegroom, however generous, is not without discernment; for, going around to each of the guests and observing—for his concern was not how they ate, but how they conducted themselves with propriety—when he saw someone who was a stranger, not wearing a wedding garment, he said to him: "Friend, how did you enter here? With what color? With what conscience?" Granted, the doorkeeper did not stop you because of the host’s generosity; granted, you were ignorant of the kind of dress in which one ought to enter the banquet. But once you had entered, you saw the garments of those reclining as shining ^B like lightning; ought you not to have been instructed, at least from what you saw? Ought you not to have entered at the right time, so that you might depart at the right time? But as it is, you entered at the wrong time, so that you might be cast out at the wrong time. And he commands the servants: "Bind his feet," which entered with such boldness; "bind his hands," which did not know how to wrap themselves in a bright garment; and cast him into the outer darkness; for he is unworthy of the ^C wedding.

^A You see what became of that man then; secure your own affairs.

IV. For we, who are the ministers of Christ, have received each one, and acting in the place of doorkeepers, we have left the door open. It is possible that you may have entered in, carrying a soul stained with the mire of sins, and a purpose foully infected. You have entered; you have been admitted; your name has been written down. Do you see for me this venerable condition ^B of the Church? Do you observe the order and the discipline? The reading of the Scriptures, the presence of those of the canon, and the sequence of teaching? Be awed by the place, and be instructed by the things you see. Go out now at a suitable time, and enter tomorrow most suitably. If you had an avaricious ^C disposition...

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having put on something else, enter. Put off the clothing you had, do not cover it. Put off, I pray, fornication and uncleanness, and put on for me the most splendid robe of temperance. I give this command, before Jesus, the bridegroom of souls, enters and sees the garments. You have a long period of grace; you have forty days for repentance; you have ample opportunity to put off and wash away, and to put on and enter. But if you persist in a wicked disposition, the speaker is blameless, but do not you expect to receive grace; for the water will receive you, but the Spirit will not receive you. If anyone is conscious of a wound in himself, let him take the plaster; if anyone has fallen, let him arise. Let there be no Simon among you, no hypocrisy, no curiosity about the matter.

^B V. It is possible that you may come for some other pretext. It happens that a man desires to win the favor of a woman, ^C and for that reason approaches. The case is the same in return for women. And a slave has often desired to please his master, and a friend his friend. I accept the bait of the hook, and I receive you—though coming with a bad intention—for the sake of the hope of one who later comes with a right disposition, and is saved by faith. You have come, you have been catechized, you have been echoed: become a [true] hearer. ^D

^A Perhaps you did not know where you were going, nor by what net you were being caught. You have entered into the ecclesiastical nets; be caught, do not flee; for Jesus is angling for you, not in order to kill you, but by killing you to make you alive; for it is necessary for you to die and to rise again. For you heard the Apostle saying: "Dead indeed to sin, but alive to righteousness." Die to your sins, and live to righteousness; live from this day forward.

VI. Consider what great dignity Jesus is bestowing ^B upon you. You were called a catechumen, echoed from the outside; hearing of hope, and not knowing it; hearing mysteries, and not understanding; hearing the Scriptures, and not seeing their depth. No longer do they echo round your ears, but the interior sound is heard by you; for the indwelling Spirit hereafter makes your mind a divine house. When you hear the things written about the mysteries, then you will understand what you did not know. And do not think that you are receiving a small thing; being a wretched man, you are receiving the title of God. Hear Paul saying: "God is faithful." Hear another Scripture saying: "God is faithful and just." Foreseeing this, the Psalmist spoke in the person of God ^{C D}

(since men were to receive the appellation of God): "I said: You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." But take care lest you have the designation of a believer, but the intention of an unbeliever. You have entered the contest; endure the labor of the race; you have no other time like this. If the days of a wedding were set before you, would you not neglect everything else and occupy yourself in preparing the banquet? And are you, while preparing to consecrate your soul to the heavenly bridegroom, not going to abstain from bodily things, so that you may receive spiritual ones?

^A VII. It is not permitted to receive the bath twice or thrice; otherwise it would be possible to say: "Having failed once, I shall succeed a second time." But if you fail even once, the matter admits of no amendment; for there is "one Lord, and one faith, and one baptism." For only heretics are rebaptized, since their former baptism was not a baptism.

^B VIII. For God requires nothing else from us but a good intention. Do not say: "How are my sins blotted out?" I say to you: By willing it, by believing.

^A If your lips say one thing, but your heart does not say it, the Searcher of hearts passes judgment. ^B Cease from this day forward from every evil deed; let not your tongue speak unseemly words; let not your eye sin, nor your mind wander ^C about useless things.

IX. Let your feet hasten to the catecheses. ^D Receive the exorcisms 4 with earnestness; whether you are breathed upon, or exorcised, the matter is for your salvation. Consider it as unrefined gold, and alloyed, mixed with various materials, with copper,

^A tin, iron, and lead. We seek to have only the gold; but gold cannot be purified from what is foreign to it without fire; so, without exorcisms, the soul cannot be purified; and these are divine, gathered from the divine Scriptures. Your face was covered, so that your thoughts might henceforth be at leisure, and that your wandering gaze might not cause your heart also to wander. But though your eyes were covered, your ears are not hindered from receiving the means of salvation. For just as those skilled in the goldsmith’s craft, by means of certain delicate instruments, blowing the spirit into the fire and stoking the gold hidden in the crucible, while they stir the flame acting upon it, find what they seek; so do the exorcists, by the divine Spirit, inject fear, and, as in a crucible, in the body, arouse the soul; the enemy demon flees, but salvation remains, and the hope of eternal life remains, and finally the soul, purified of its sins, possesses ^B its salvation. Let us therefore remain in this hope, brethren, and give ourselves over, and hope; so that God of the universe, seeing our disposition, may purify us of our sins, and grant us good things from reality, and what you were called to.

X. Persevere in the catecheses; even if our discourse should prove somewhat long, do not ever lose heart. For you are receiving weapons against the opposing power; you will receive weapons against heresies, against the Jews, and Samaritans, and Gentiles. You have many enemies, take many weapons; you are throwing the javelin against many, and you have need to learn how to strike down the Greek, how you may contend against the heretic, against the Jew and the Samaritan. And the weapons are ready, and the sword of the Spirit is most prompt: ^C one must also extend the right hand.

^A

XI. Let this also be a command to you: Learn what is said, and keep it forever. Do not think that these are ordinary homilies; these also are good and worthy of faith, but if we neglect them today, we learn them tomorrow. But as for those doctrines regarding the laver of regeneration which are transmitted in order, if they are neglected today, when will they be put right? Consider it, for me, as a season for planting trees; unless we dig and delve deep, when can that which has once been planted poorly be planted well again? Consider the catechesis to be a building; unless we dig deep and lay a foundation; unless we join the house together with the connective bonds of a structure in order, so that nothing loose and gaping is found, and the building becomes ruinous, all labor previously undertaken will fall into vain; but it is necessary that, in order, stone be laid upon stone, and ^B corner follow corner; and with the superfluous parts smoothed away, only then must a smooth building rise. In the same way, we bring before you stones, as it were, of knowledge. You must hear what concerns the living God; you must hear what concerns judgment; you must hear what concerns Christ; you must hear what concerns the resurrection. And there are many things spoken in sequence, which are now indeed mentioned sporadically, but then are brought forth harmoniously in their proper place. But if you do not join them into one, and remember both the first and the second, the architect indeed builds, but you will have a shaky building.

XII. When, therefore, the catechesis is being delivered, if a catechumen questions you as to what the teachers have said, tell nothing to the outsider. For we are delivering ^C to you a mystery, and a hope of the life to come. Keep the mystery.

^A for the Rewarder. Do not ever let someone say to you, "What harm does it do if I also learn it?" Even the sick are accustomed to ask for wine; but if it is given to them at the wrong time, it causes frenzy: and two evils result—the sick man perishes, and the physician is slandered. The same thing happens with a catechumen ^B if he hears the mysteries from a believer; for the catechumen suffers frenzy (since he does not know what he has heard, and he finds fault with the matter, and mocks what is being said), and the believer is condemned as a traitor. You are now standing on the boundary line; see to it, I beseech you, not to babble anything out: not because the things being said are not worthy of being spoken of, but because the ears are unworthy of receiving them. Once you were a catechumen yourself, and I did not explain to you the things set before you; when by experience you grasp the height of the things being taught, then you will know that the catechumens are unworthy of hearing them.

XIII.

XIV.

^A others come up to be exorcised, let men be with men, and women with women. For now I need the ark of Noah, in which were Noah and his sons, and his wife and the wives of his sons. For although there was one ark, and the door was shut, yet things were arranged with propriety. Even if the church is shut and you are all inside, yet let things be separated, men with men, and women with women; so that the occasion of salvation may not become an occasion of destruction. Even if the proposal is good ^B to sit near one another, yet let the passions be far away. Then let the men who are sitting have 6 a useful book, and let one read, and another listen; and if a book is not present, let one pray and another speak something useful. And let the assembly of virgins likewise be gathered thus: either chanting or reading in silence, so that the lips may speak, but the ears of others may not hear. "For I do not permit a woman to speak in the church." And let the married woman 8 also imitate this in the same way; let her pray, and let her lips move, but let no voice be heard, so that Samuel may come forth, so that your barren soul may bring forth the salvation of Him who hears God; for Samuel has this interpretation. ^{C D}

^A XV. I shall see the zeal of every man; I shall see the piety of every woman. Let the mind be inflamed toward piety; let the soul be forged as if upon an anvil. Let the hardness of infidelity be subdued and beaten; let the superfluous scales of the iron fall away; let that alone remain which is pure; let the rust of the iron be wiped away, that the genuine substance may remain. At some time may God show you that night, and the darkness that is light-revealing, concerning which it is said: *Darkness shall not be darkened from Thee, and night as the day shall be illuminated*. ^B Then to each man and each woman among you may the gate of paradise be opened; then may you enjoy Christ-bearing waters, breathing forth fragrance; then may you receive the appellation of Christ, and the efficacy of divine things. Already now lift up the eye of your mind; already now conceive of angelic choirs in your soul, and the Lord of all, God sitting, and the only-begotten Son sitting with Him at the right hand, and the Spirit co-present; and thrones and dominions...

^A ministering, and each one of you, both man and woman, having attained salvation. Now let your ears be affected as if by a sound; desire that noble voice, when, upon your being accepted unto salvation, the angels shall acclaim: *Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.* ^B When, as stars of the Church, bright in body and luminous in soul, you shall enter.

XVI. Truly it is a great thing that is proposed in words, baptism: a ransom for the captives, the forgiveness of sins, the death of sin, the regeneration of the soul, a luminous garment, a holy and indissoluble seal, ^C a chariot to heaven, a delight of paradise, a gift of adoption. But the dragon is by the way ^D

^A watches those who pass by; see that he does not bite you with unbelief. He sees so many being saved, and seeks whom he may devour. You are entering unto the Father of spirits, but you are passing through that dragon. How then shall you pass him by? Shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, so that even if he bites, he does not harm; have faith as an indwelling, firm hope, a strong foundation, so that you may pass by the enemy and enter in to the Master. ^B Prepare your own heart for the reception of instruction, for the communion of the holy mysteries. Pray more frequently, that God may count you worthy of the heavenly and immortal mysteries. Do not be idle by day or by night; but when sleep departs from your eyes, then let your mind be at leisure for prayer. And if you see a shameful thought rising in your mind, take up the reflection of judgment, a reminder of salvation; busy your mind with learning, so that you may forget evil things. If you see someone saying to you, “And are you entering in to go down into the water? Does not the city currently have baths?” know that the dragon of the sea is contriving these things for you; do not pay attention to the lips of the speaker, but to the God who is at work. Guard your own soul, so that you may be ^C unassailable, so that remaining in hope, you may become an heir of eternal salvation.

XVII. We indeed, as men, both exhort and teach these things; but do not make our building hay, and stubble, and straw, that we may not, when the work is burned, suffer loss; but make the work gold, and silver, and precious stones. ^A For it is mine to speak, but yours to add to it, and God’s to bring it to perfection. Let us strengthen our mind, let us stretch our soul, let us prepare our heart; for it is for our soul that we are struggling, and it is for eternal things that we are hoping. But God is powerful, (He who knows your hearts, and discerns who is sincere, and who is a simulator) both to keep the sincere, and to make the simulated faithful. For He is able, ^B even to make the simulator faithful. ^C For ^D it is for me to speak, and to point out the immortal and abiding efficacy of the things that must be done; but for you to add to it, and to pursue the experience of these things; and for God to bring it to perfection, and to keep such faith in you unshaken. Let us strengthen, brothers, our mind.

^A For God is able to make even the unbeliever a believer, if only he provides his heart. ^B And may He blot out the handwriting that is against you, and grant you an amnesty for your former transgressions; and may He plant you into the Church, and enlist you as soldiers to Himself, clothing you with the armor of righteousness; and may He fill you with the heavenly things of the New Covenant, and grant you the indelible seal of the Holy Spirit for the ages; in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory for the ages of ages. Amen.

TO THE READER

^C Present these catecheses of the candidates for illumination to those who are approaching baptism, and to those who, being already faithful, have obtained the laver, so that they may read them; but to catechumens, and to any others whatsoever who are not Christians, do not give them at all; otherwise you shall render an account to the Lord. And if you make a copy, I wish you to write these things as if in the presence of the Lord. ^D