12 September 2005
Patristic Quote for the Day
THY KINGDOM COME. The clean soul can say with boldness, 'Thy Kingdom come'; for he who has heard Paul saying, Let not sin reign in your mortal body, but has cleansed himself in deed, thought, and word, will say to God, 'Thy Kingdom come.' - St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis V:13
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4 comments:
Pastor Weedon,
What about those who haven't "cleansed themselves in thought, deed and word?"
The only way I can say with boldness, "Thy Kingdom come," is by focusing on the gift of forgiveness I have in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, I'm scared out of my socks.
St. Cyril is right -- but please tell me he's not trying to give Gospel there. If he is, I'm toast.
I wondered, when I posted, if this would be a stumbling block. The odd thing is, though, that the same stumbling block is replete in the Scriptures:
"And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." 1 John 3:3
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2 Cor. 7:1
"Purify your hearts, ye double-minded." James 4:8
What are we to make of these?
I'd suggest that St. Cyril's words actually offer a beautiful way to understand them. For the cleansing spoken of here is precisely that accomplished in the prayer: "Thy Kingdom come!" It is the advent of God's gracious reign through the Holy Spirit in our hearts by faith that cleanses.
St. Peter spoke to the Jerusalem Council of how God cleansed hearts through faith (Acts 15:9) in contradistinction to the vain attempts to cleanse hearts by the law. St. Cyril is not urging the words of the law to cleanse the heart - but he is confessing that those who wish to have sin reign in them cannot pray from the heart the cleansing prayer of "Thy Kingdom come!"
Does that help?
One more point - and probably more important than all the above - these are mystagogical catecheses! They were delivered to those still wet with the Baptismal water - and the reference to "those who have cleansed themselves" is probably best taken precisely as the Baptized, who have "cleansed themselves" by submitting to washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit.
The second post helps clarify things for me, more than the first.
I understand that Scripture calls on us to do things like "cleanse" and "purify" ourselves. I guess my mental hurdle regarding the Cyril quotation is his emphasis. In the Scripture you cited, we are commanded to purify and cleanse ourselves. God's law does demand perfection, after all. The Cyril quotation, the way I was reading it originally, seemed to indicate that we could indeed meet those perfect demands for self-purification. Or, at least, that there is some threshhold above which we have purified ourselves enough to be able to welcome God's judgment. If he's referring to the cleansing of baptism, then it makes much more sense to me.
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