Mystagogic Catecheses 1-1

PROCATECHESIS, that is, the prologue of the Catecheses of our Father among the saints Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem.

Already the fragrance of blessedness is upon you, O you who are being enlightened; already you are gathering the spiritual flowers to weave heavenly crowns;

already the sweet savour of the Holy Spirit has breathed upon you.

Already you have come to the forecourt of the royal palace;

may it come to pass that you also be led in by the King.

For now the blossoms of the trees have appeared;

may it come to pass that the fruit also be perfect.

For the present the enrolling of your names has taken place, and the summons to enlistment;

and there are the torches of the bridal procession, and the longing for a heavenly citizenship, and a good purpose, and the hope that follows therefrom.

For he who said, 'To them that love God all things work together for good,' speaks no lie.

For God is lavish in His benefits;

but He waits for each man's sincere resolve.

Therefore the Apostle went on to say, 'to them that are called according to His purpose';

for the purpose, being sincere, makes you one called.

For even if you have your body here, but have not your mind here, it profits you nothing.

Once Simon Magus too came to the laver;

he was baptized, but he was not enlightened;

and his body indeed he dipped in water, but his heart he did not enlighten with the Spirit;

and his body went down and came up;

but his soul was not buried together with Christ, nor raised together with Him.

Now I mention these instances of those who fell, that you may not fall yourself.

For these things happened to them by way of example, and were written for the admonition of those who to this day draw near.

Let none of you be found tempting the grace;

let no root of bitterness springing up trouble you;

let none of you enter saying:

'Come, let us see what the faithful do;

let me go in and see, that I may learn what is being done.'

You expect to see, but do you not expect to be seen? And do you suppose that, while you are prying into what is being done, God is not prying into your heart? Once in the Gospels a man pried into the wedding feast;

and having taken on unworthy attire he came in, and reclined, and ate;

but he ought, seeing all clothed in white, to have put on such a garment himself.

Indeed he partook of the same food;

but he had an inequality of attire and of purpose.

But the bridegroom, though generous, was yet not undiscerning;

going about among each of the guests and observing (for He cared, not that they should eat, but that they should behave seemly), and seeing one a stranger not having a wedding garment, He said to him:

'Friend, how did you come in here? In what colour? In what conscience? Granted the porter did not hinder you, because of the bounty of the Giver;

granted you were ignorant in what attire one must enter the banquet;

you came in, you saw the attire of the guests gleaming as it were;

ought you not to have been taught even by what was visible? Ought you not to have gone out in good time, that you might also come in in good time? But now you came in unseasonably, that you should be cast out unseasonably.'

And He commands the servants:

'Bind his feet, who rashly thrust himself in;

bind his hands, that knew not how to put on a bright garment;

and cast him out into the outer darkness;

for he is unworthy of the bridal torches.'

For we, the deacons of Christ, have received each one, and holding as it were the rank of porters, have left the door open.

And it is possible for you to enter with your soul befouled with sins and your purpose defiled.

Be instructed by what is visible;

go out now in good time, and come in tomorrow most seasonably.

If you have the disposition of your soul covetous, put on another and come in;

put off the disposition you had, do not hide it; put off, I bid you, fornication and uncleanness, and put on the most shining robe of self-control.

I charge you, before the Bridegroom of souls, Jesus, comes in and sees the attire.

You have forty days for repentance;

you have abundant opportunity both to put off and to wash, and to put on and enter in.

But if you persist in an evil purpose, he who speaks is blameless, but do not you expect to receive the grace;

for the water indeed will receive you, but the Spirit will not receive you.

If any one is conscious of his wound, let him take the salve;

if any one has fallen, let him rise;

let there be no Simon among you, no hypocrisy, no idle curiosity about the matter.

It is possible too that you have come for some other pretext;

for it is possible too that a man, wishing to win a woman, may for this reason come forward;

and the like reasoning applies conversely in the case of women;

and a slave often has wished to please his master, and a friend his friend.

I accept the bait of the hook, and I receive you, who have come indeed with an evil purpose, but shall be saved by a good hope.

Perhaps you knew not whither you were coming, nor what net was taking you;

you have come within the nets of the Church;

for Jesus angles for you, not that He may put you to death, but that having put you to death He may make you alive;

for you must die and rise again;

for you have heard the Apostle saying:

'Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto righteousness';

die unto your sins, and live unto righteousness.

See, I pray, what a dignity Jesus bestows on you.

You were called a Catechumen, while the word echoed round you from without;

hearing of hope, and not knowing it;

hearing mysteries, and not understanding;

hearing Scriptures, and not knowing their depth.

No longer does it echo round you, but it echoes within you;

for the indwelling Spirit henceforth makes your mind a house of God.

When you hear what is written concerning the mysteries, then you will understand things you did not know.

And think not that you receive a small thing;

though a pitiable man, you receive the appellation of God.

Hear another Scripture saying:

Foreseeing this, the Psalmist said in the person of God, 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 heed lest, while the name is that of the faithful, the purpose be that of the unfaithful.

You have entered into a contest; toil through the course;

another such opportunity you have not.

If your wedding day were before you, would you not have despised all else, and busied yourself about the preparation of the feast? And when you are about to consecrate your soul to the heavenly Bridegroom, will you not cease from bodily things, that you may win spiritual? One cannot receive the laver twice or thrice;

Having failed once, I will succeed the second time;

but if you fail the once, the matter is past mending.

For there is one Lord, and one faith, and one baptism;

for only certain heretics are re-baptized;

because the former was not a baptism.

For God seeks nothing else from us but a good purpose;

'How are my sins blotted out?' I tell you: by willing, by believing;

what is shorter than this? But if your lips say 'I will,' and your heart says it not, He who judges is the Knower of hearts.

From this day cease from every evil deed;

let not your tongue speak unseemly words;

let not your eye sin, nor rove after things unprofitable.

But let your feet hasten to the catechisings.

Receive the exorcisms with earnestness;

whether you are breathed upon or exorcised, the thing is salvation to you.

Consider gold to be unrefined and adulterated, mingled with various materials, copper and tin and iron and lead;

we seek to have the gold alone;

gold cannot be purged of its impurities without fire;

so without exorcisms the soul cannot be purified;

and these are divine, being gathered out of the divine Scriptures;

that the eye, roving about, may not make the heart also to rove.

But while the eyes are covered, the ears are not hindered from receiving the saving doctrine.

For just as those skilled in the goldsmith's craft, applying the blast to the fire by means of certain fine instruments, and blowing up the gold hidden in the crucible, stir up the flame at hand and find what they seek;

so the exorcists, by the Divine Spirit instilling fear, and as it were heating the soul in the crucible of the body;

the hostile demon flees, but salvation abides, and the hope of eternal life abides, and thenceforth the soul, cleansed from its sins, has salvation.

Let us therefore abide in hope, brethren, and let us give ourselves up, and let us hope;

that the God of all, seeing our purpose, may cleanse us from our sins, and grant us good hopes of our estate, and give us repentance unto salvation.

God has called, and you have been called.

Abide in the catechisings;

though we prolong our discourse with much speaking, let not your mind ever grow slack;

for you are receiving armour against the adverse power;

you are receiving armour against heresies, against Jews, and Samaritans, and Gentiles;

you have many foes; take many darts;

for you have to hurl them against many;

and you need to learn how to strike down the Greek, how to contend against the heretic, against the Jew and the Samaritan;

and the weapons are ready, and the sword of the Spirit is most ready;

but you also must stretch out your right hand with good purpose, that you may fight the Lord's battle, that you may overcome the adverse powers, that you may become invincible against every heretical assault.

Let this too be a charge to you:

learn what is told you, and keep it for ever.

Think not that these are the customary homilies;

for those indeed are good, and worthy of belief;

but if today we neglect them, tomorrow we may learn them;

whereas the teachings concerning the laver of regeneration, delivered in due sequence, if neglected today, when shall they be set right? Suppose, I pray, it is the season for the planting of trees;

if we do not dig and go deep, when else can that be well planted which was once ill planted? Suppose, I pray, the catechising to be a building;

if we do not go deep and lay a foundation, if we do not bind the structure together in due sequence with the bonds of building, lest something be found loose, and the building become unsound, there is no profit even of the former labour;

but it behoves us in due sequence that stone follow stone, and corner succeed corner;

and when we have chiselled off the superfluous parts, so to raise up the complete building.

Thus we offer you stones, as it were, of knowledge;

you must hear concerning the living God;

you must hear concerning the Judgment;

you must hear concerning Christ;

you must hear concerning the Resurrection;

and there are many things said in their order, now told here and there in scattered fashion, but then to be presented in due harmony;

but if you do not join them into the one whole, and remember the first things and the second, the builder builds indeed, but you will have the building unsound.

When therefore the catechising is being delivered, if a Catechumen question you, what the teachers said, tell nothing to him that is without;

for we deliver to you a mystery, and a hope of the age to come;

keep the mystery for Him who gives the reward.

'What harm is it, if I too learn?' The sick also crave wine;

but if it is given unseasonably, it produces delirium;

and two evils result, both the sick man perishes, and the physician is blamed;

so the Catechumen, if he hear from one of the faithful;

the Catechumen becomes delirious, for he knows not what he heard, and finds fault with the matter, and scoffs at what is said;

and the faithful man is condemned as a traitor.

Now you already stand on the border-line; take heed, I pray, not to blab it out;

not that the things spoken are unworthy of speech, but that the hearing is unworthy to receive them;

you too were once a Catechumen, and I did not describe to you what lay before;

when by experience you grasp the loftiness of the things taught, then you will know that the Catechumens are unworthy of the hearing.

You have become sons and daughters of one mother, you who have been enrolled;

at the exorcisms, let each one of you speak the things that pertain to godliness;

and if any of you be absent, seek him out.

If you were invited to a banquet, would you not wait for the fellow-guest? If you had a brother, would you not seek your brother's good? Then busy not yourself henceforth with the unprofitableness of worldly matters;

ask not, what did the city do? what did the village do? what did the king do? what did the bishop do? what did the presbyter do? Look upward;

your present season has need of that upward look.

'Be still, and know that I am God.'

If you see the faithful ministering, and free from anxiety;

they have security, they know what they received, they possess the grace;

but you stand yet in the balance, either to be received, or not to be received;

imitate not those who have the freedom from care, but pursue the godly fear.

And when the exorcism is taking place, until the others who are being exorcised arrive, let men be with men, and women with women.

For now I have need of Noah's ark;

that Noah may be apart, with his sons;

and his wife, with the wives of his sons.

For though the ark was one, and the door was shut;

yet things were ordered with due arrangement.

Though the church be shut, and you all be within;

yet let things be separated, men with men, and women with women;

lest the occasion of salvation become a pretext for destruction;

and though the occasion be good, to sit near one another, yet let the passions be far off.

Then let the men, while sitting, have a profitable book;

and let one read, and another listen;

and if no book be at hand, let one pray, and another say something profitable.

And again let the company of the virgins be gathered in like manner, either singing or reading quietly;

so that the lips speak, but others' ears hear not.

'For I suffer not a woman to speak in the church';

and let the married woman likewise imitate this;

and let her pray, and let her lips move, but let her voice not be heard;

that Samuel may come forth, that your barren soul may bring forth the salvation of God who has hearkened.

For Samuel has this interpretation.

I shall watch the earnestness of each man, I shall watch the reverence of each woman.

Let the mind be fired unto reverence, let the soul be wrought as on the anvil, let the hardness of unbelief be hammered, let the superfluous scales of the iron fall off, let the pure remain;

let the rust fall off the iron, but let the genuine remain.

May God one day show you that night, the darkness that shines like day, concerning which it is said:

'The darkness shall not be darkened from you, and the night shall be light as the day';

then to each man and each woman of you may the gate of Paradise be opened.

Then may you enjoy the Christ-bearing waters, that have fragrance.

Then may you receive the appellation of Christ, and the energy of divine things.

Already lift up to me the eye of your mind;

already conceive the angelic choirs, and God the Master of all seated, and the Only-begotten Son sitting on the right hand with Him, and the Spirit present with them, and Thrones and Dominions ministering;

and each man and each woman of you being saved.

Already make your ears as it were catechised for that fair sound, when at your being saved the angels shall cry aloud:

'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered'; when, like stars of the Church, you shall enter in, bright in body and radiant in soul.

Great is the Baptism that lies before you;

but a dragon by the wayside watches those who pass by.

He sees so many being saved, and seeks whom he may devour.

You are going in to the Father of spirits, but you pass through that dragon;

how then shall you pass through him? Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

have faith dwelling in you, a strong hope, a firm foundation, that you may pass through the enemy, and enter in to the Master.

Prepare your own heart for the reception of doctrine, for the communion of the holy mysteries.

Pray more frequently, that God may count you worthy of the heavenly and immortal mysteries.

Be idle neither by day nor by night;

but when sleep falls from your eyes, then let your mind be free for prayer.

And if you see a shameful thought rise into your mind, take the saving remembrance of the Judgment;

free your mind for learning, that you may forget base things.

If you see any one saying to you:

'And are you going in to go down into the water? Has the city no baths just now?' Know that the dragon of the sea is contriving these things against you;

attend not to the lips of him who speaks, but to God who works.

Guard your own soul, that you may not be caught;

that abiding in hope, you may become an heir of eternal salvation.

We indeed, as men, both charge and teach these things.

But make not our building hay, and stubble, and chaff;

lest, when the work is burnt up, we suffer loss;

but make the work gold, and silver, and precious stones.

For in me it is to speak, in you to set your purpose, and in God to perfect.

we hope concerning eternal things.

And God is able—He who knows your hearts, and knows who is genuine and who is a hypocrite—to guard the genuine, and to make the hypocrite faithful.

For God is able even to make the unbeliever faithful, if only he give his heart.

And to blot out the handwriting that is against you;

and may He grant you amnesty for your former trespasses;

and may He plant you in the Church, and enlist you for Himself, clothing you with the armour of righteousness;

and may He fill you with the heavenly things of the new covenant, and give you the unfading seal of the Holy Spirit unto the ages, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages.

[These Catecheses of the Enlightened you may give to be read by those who are coming to baptism, and by the faithful who already have the laver; but to Catechumens, or to any others who are not Christians, give them by no means;

for you shall give account to the Lord.

And if you make a copy, write this at the head, as in the presence of the Lord.]