The Works of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Volume 1

CATECHESIS VII

CATECHESIS VII On the Father "For this reason I bend my knees to the Father . .. from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth receives its name."l (1) On the Unity of God we spoke at sufficient length yesterday; I mean sufficient, not according to the dignity of the subject (for that is quite impossible for human nature), but as far as it has been granted to our weakness. I detailed the deviations in the manifold errors of the impious heretics. Shaking off their filth and their soul-poisoning doctrines, yet remembering what concerns them (not that we may suffer harm, but that we may loathe them all the more), let us now return to ourselves and take up the saving doctrines of the true faith, joining to the dignity of the Unity of God that of the Fatherhood, and believing in One God, Father. For not only should we believe in One God, but also devoutly accept that He is Father of the Only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ. (2) For thus our thought will rise to a higher plane than that of the Jews, who, while they teach that God is One (though they have often denied this by idolatry), do not admit that He is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this they run counter to their own prophets, according to the Scriptures: "The Lord said to me, 'You are my son; this day I have begotten you.' "2 Even to this day, they rage and 1 Eph. 3.14, 15. 2 Ps.2.7. 170 CATECHESIS VII 171 "conspire together against the Lord and against his anointed,"3 presuming that they can gain the friendship of the Father without devotion to the Son, not knowing that "no one comes to the Father but through the Son,"4 who says: "I am the door,"5 and "I am the way."6 How will he, who rejects the Way that leads to the Father and denies the Door, be deemed worthy of entrance unto God? They contradict, too, the words of the eighty-eighth Psalm: "He shall say of me, 'You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior.' And I will make him the first-born, highest of the kings of the earth."7 For, if they argue that these words were spoken concerning David or Solomon or any of their successors, let them show how the throne of him they deem to be the object of the prophecy is "as the days of heaven,"B and "like the sun before me; like the moon, which remains forever."9 How is it they are not put to shame by that which is written: "from the womb before the daystar I have begotten you";10 and: "He shall endure as long as the sun, and like the moon through all generations"?l1 To refer these things to a man is to show a complete and utter lack of sense. (3) But let the Jews, since they will it thus, suffer their wonted sickness of unbelief in the case of these and similar statements of Scripture. For our part, we receive the devout teaching of the faith, worshiping one God, the Father of Christ. For to rob Him, who grants all the prerogative of parents,12 of like dignity, would be impious. We believe in One God, the Father, in order that even before our fuller discussion of the teachings concerning Christ, the belief in 3 Ps.2.2. 4 John 14.6. 5 John 10.9. 6 John 14.6. 7 Ps. 88.27,28. 8 Ibid. 88.30. 9 Ibid. 88.37, 38. 10 Cf. Ps. 109.3. 11 Cf. Ps. 71.5. 12 Cf. Isa. 66.9. 172 ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM the Only-begotten may be fixed in the soul of the hearers, to remain quite intact through the intervening discourses on the Father. (4) The very mention of the name of the Father suggests the thought of the Son, just as, in turn, the mention of Son implies the thought of the Father. For, if He is a Father, He is surely Father of a Son. Thus we say: "In One God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible"; and add: "And in one Lord Jesus Christ."13 That no one may irreverently suppose that the Only-begotten is second in...