Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria,
Bishop, Doctor, and Father of the Church. He is most famous for presiding over
the Council of Ephesus in 431 as Archbishop of that city and the Pope’s
representative. He was the principle defender of Our Lady’s title “Mother of
God”—“God bearer”—Theotokos, in the Greek.
Listen to his words, from this morning’s Office of Readings,
“That anyone could doubt the right of the holy Virgin to be called the mother of
God fills me with astonishment. Surely she must be the Mother of God if our
Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she gave birth to him! Our Lord’s disciples may
not have used those exact words, but they delivered to us the belief those
words enshrine, and this has also been taught us by the holy fathers.”
A couple things going on here. First, St. Cyril teaches us,
whenever there is a theological question, to look to the scriptural and
apostolic tradition. Scripture is clear that Jesus is the Word Made Flesh, and
that he took that flesh from the Virgin Mary, “he fashioned a body for himself
from a woman and shared our flesh and blood”. Cyril also looked to the Church
Fathers, like St. Athanasius, who taught nothing contrary to the Scriptures.
St. Athanasius several times calls Mary, Theotokos, in his writings.
St. Cyril shows that Mariology, the study of Mary,
enshrining Mary with beautiful titles that extolling her virtues and her role
in salvation history is part of our earliest Tradition.
St. Cyril also shows that good theology is an application of
right reason and common sense. Jesus is God, Mary is his mother, therefore she
can be called Mother of God.
Isn’t it interesting that we have as our Gospel today, on
this feast of this logical, learned, holy doctor and defender of the faith,
this short little passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus telling his
disciples not to “throw pearls to swine”. I’ve always connected this passage
with our work of evangelization.
There comes a point, when we are spreading the faith, that
we come across people who show contempt for the faith, who have no interest in
it, no desire for repentance or intellectual conversion. If people show open
disdain for the holy word of God, then it is prudent to withdraw and take the
good news elsewhere. It is unwise to waste time preaching to those who only
balk at the message, and especially to lose your temper over it.
I think of St. Cyril: showing clear reasoning, pointing to
scripture, apostolic tradition, the church fathers. And still, there were heretics
who clung to their errors. There is a point when the discussion is over: you
accept the true faith, or you don’t, and there will be eternal consequences for
that. As Our Lord told his Apostles, “those who reject you, reject me”
Like St. Cyril we are called to be learned in the words of
Scripture and the teachings of the church fathers, so that we can explain and
spread the faith clearly and patiently, to be champions of the Truth for the
glory of God and salvation of souls.
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That our bishops and clergy may be zealous in preaching and
teaching the truth of the Gospel, and that our future bishop of the diocese of
Cleveland may be a man of true faith and the Holy Spirit.
That this fortnight of prayer for religious freedom may help
people of faith remain vigilant in defending their religious liberty and united
in making their voice heard on behalf of the rights of the Church.
For all those who reject the faith, for those who show
contempt for the holy word of God and the Catholic Church, for their openness
to the Truth, and that all Christians may be committed to spreading the faith boldly,
patiently, and clearly.
For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the
homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and
unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who
grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their
comfort, and the consolation of their families.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of
the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends,
and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland,
and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.
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