On the incarnation of God the Word

No more than 22 sermons delivered by St. Cyril of Alexandria during his episcopal service in Alexandria. Some of them survive in fragments. The conversation “On the Incarnation of God the Word” is the 15th homily. It was probably pronounced early in 433. It contains a condensed statement of the doctrine of the Incarnation, defending the name Theotokos and rejecting the Nestorian term “mother of man.” Περὶ τη ς ἐνανθρωπήσεως του Θεου Λόγου How truly deep, great and worthy of wonder is the sacrament of piety, the very one that the holy Angels desire, as the Savior’s disciple said about all the holy prophets, proclaiming our Savior Christ about them all: “It was revealed to them that it was not they themselves, but us who served that which has now been preached to you by those who preached the gospel by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into which the Angels desire to penetrate” ( 1 Peter 1:12). Indeed, in fact, those who have looked even slightly into the great mystery of piety would then have seen that when Christ was born in the flesh, those who gave thanks for us said: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). How can I not be filled with appropriate joy when I see the Savior of the world and Redeemer born from the Virgin, and how can I, a repentant sinner, begin to celebrate the Feast of the Savior of all nature? So, together with us in a common choir, many holy spirits glorify Him. And what is the reason for this? The incarnation of the Only Begotten, His birth according to the flesh, the manifestation in us of the most extensive meekness, incomparable great love for mankind, as the blessed prophet Isaiah said: “Death will be swallowed up forever” (Is. 25:8) and also “and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces” (Is. 25:8). He in some way wiped away a tear from all over his face, or consequently that he made that ancient oath ineffective, abolishing the intolerable power of death, as the wise Paul again teaches: “And as children share in flesh and blood, He also took part in the same, so that by death He might destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through the fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Heb. 2:14-15). b. What does this mean: “and He also received them”? Is it not that for our sake He was born of Holy Mary the Mother of God, by blood and by flesh? He said that the real God and the true Word from God and the Father, consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, is exalted above all that is most glorious, “He, being in the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant from Saint Mary, becoming in the likeness of men and becoming human in appearance, becoming obedient even to death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:6-8), that is, He voluntarily reduced himself to humility, from which everyone was filled with gifts; He condescended to us, but not out of any necessity, but wanted for our sake to take on the image of a slave, He who is free by His nature becomes for us in our nature, Who is above every creature, Who reaches to death, Who gives life to everything. He is the bread of life, who will give His life for the life of the world (John 6:51). He became with us under the law, He who is above the law and like God is the Lawgiver. He who is above birth in his birth and in his beginning accepts lot, he who is before all ages and time, moreover, he is the creator and maker of ages. V. How did He become one of us? He receives a body from the Holy Virgin, a body not without a soul, as some of the heretics believed, but an animated one and, moreover, a rational (verbal) soul. Also from the wife came the perfect man, and he is not imagined or thought; The one who did not neglect him is God, he who did not reject man is the One who always was, and is and will be God. We also call the Holy Virgin Theotokos, as Blessed Paul writes: “There is one God and Father, from whom are all things, and we are for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6). We do not divide into two sons the one God and our Savior, the God of the Word made man and incarnate; No one has ever thought so except heretics and fools; So we do not think that one is Divinity and the other is humanity, actually speaking about God the Word as transformed into the nature of flesh, or that flesh was transformed into the nature of Divinity. In any case, God the Word is completely immutable and unchangeable, but it is said that truly the Word of God in Himself united animate flesh with a rational soul from the Holy Virgin, became incarnate and became human ineffably. d. So, our confession regarding the right and impeccable faith, which says and confesses the holy Virgin to be the Mother of God, is quite sufficient; they themselves add that there is no need or necessity to call the mother of man, for after becoming man we learned to confess and believe in Him, as Paul says: “There is one God, one mediator of God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), the unchangeable Word of God, as we say, became man. And since He appears in the nature of the flesh, the Holy Virgin gave birth to His body, which is consubstantial with us, but we speak in the Mother of God, bringing it together completely and completely and thereby testifying that the Holy Virgin did not give birth to pure Divinity, but flesh united with God the Word; and in no other way than in this way should one think about the Mother of God, thereby resorting in every possible way to the confession of incarnation; and it is also true that the Holy Virgin became the Mother of God, miraculously giving birth to the one Christ, equally transmitting our flesh and blood, and she is consubstantial with us in humanity, as being the flesh of Mary the Mother of God; not subsubstantial, as some of the heretics believed, but consubstantial, since it is from our essence. It is said, “The seed of Abraham receives.” Like-being does not mean true man, but the Son like unto man, as Daniel said. But the Apostle taught that He was not like us, but said: “The man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6), is consubstantial in divinity with God and the Father, just as our fathers confessed Him to be consubstantial with the Father, and not saying that He is co-essential. d. So, in fact, there is no particular need, saying Mother of God, to introduce (the word) mother of man; It is quite enough, as I said the first time, to have everywhere a confession of our sacrament, never introducing fabrications and not wanting to slander the truth; The custom of heretics is to change what is truly said with a lying mind, inventing what is error and reinterpreting these divine Scriptures. As for us, we do not bring in anything that is contrary to what is decent, and with the goal of conveying the words correctly; the one who again thinks incorrectly is not from us, let him listen to what the prophet says: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Is. 5:20). There is no communication between light and darkness, but there is also no agreement between Christ and Belial. May we walk the right and true path, that is, the trodden royal and irrevocable path, also achieving the honor of the high calling in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory with God and the Father, with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.