[Discourse delivered on December 25 in the great church of Alexandria] about Paul who spoke before, and about the incarnation of the Lord

St. Cyril of Alexandria owns 8 homilies, pronounced in Ephesus in the summer of 431 during the Third Ecumenical Council and preserved as part of the council’s acts. The conversations are anti-Nestorian in nature. They touch upon questions of dogmatic content: St. Cyril expounds the doctrine of the Incarnation, the Face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, and also concerns the events that took place at the Council. Adjacent to the “Ephesian” homilies are 2 homilies dating back to the time of peace between the Churches of Alexandria and Antioch at the beginning of 433. The “[Conversation delivered on December 25 in the great church of Alexandria] on Paul, who spoke before, and on the incarnation of the Lord” presented in this publication is the 3rd homily. This is a short epilogue to the sermon delivered on January 1, 433 in the “great church of Alexandria” by the envoy of the Antiochians, Bishop. Paul of Emesa. The homily deals with the Incarnation of the Son of God. The blessed prophet Isaiah, foreshadowing the abundance of the words of Christian teachers, said: “Draw water with joy from the fountain of salvation” (Is. 12:3). And so we have drawn water for you from a sacred source: I am talking about the teacher who spoke before us, who, enlightened by the light of the Holy Spirit, revealed to us the great and venerable sacrament of our redemption, the sacrament by faith in which we are saved, laid aside the heavy and unbearable yoke of sin, and in addition, having freed ourselves from the bonds of death, we say with the prophet: “Where is your spin, death, where is the yours, hell" (Hos. 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:55)? So God the Word, who “was in the beginning” and remains “in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), through whom everything and in whom everything, for our sake, voluntarily underwent exhaustion and “became flesh,” that is, man. For our sake He “humbled Himself” (Phil. 2:8) and became the Son of man, so that through Him we might be enriched by the Father; for in our prayers we are taught to say: “Our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Thus, the Only Begotten became the firstborn so that we might be enriched with His blessings. He bore the cross, despising shame, and voluntarily gave up His body to death, not in order to remain dead with us, guilty of death, but in order to resurrect us with Himself, destroying the power of death. Let us give thanks to the Word made man for us, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.