Festal Letters 1-12

Festal Letter Nine

155 FESTAL LETTER ninE A.D. 421 NCE AGAIN we display the radiant signal for the holy feast, crying out in a loud and piercing voice, “it is time to act for the Lord!”1 For once again there has come to us, come indeed through the yearly cycle, the time for fasting. For just as when the sun begins its flight over the earth from its eastern regions, but still holds within itself its splendor, its bright rays rise up to transform the dejection of darkness into the vision of the pleasantly laughing beauty of its colors, so also, i think, now that the announcement of our holy feast is being sent around, and the Church is persuading us to let this solemn proclamation of it shine forth, everyone’s mental energy somehow brightens to a more cheerful condition. And it seems to me, and i do not think that i am veering from the subject in saying so, that one might feel resentment toward the time for the competition to begin, if it continually delayed its arrival. For the mind, being industrious, naturally suffers and is wearied when it does not see the competitions starting when they are announced. Just so, the divinely inspired Scripture quite rightly compares those affected by desires so keen, to a war-horse, when it says, “Afar off he smells the war with prancing and neighing.”2 For the frightful uproar of battle, the clash of arms, the sight of the glittering steel, and the sound of the battle-trumpet, so freighted with fear, rouses in the high-spirited horse the longing for battle, while the description of those things which are the fairest of all incites the soul of the holy man to take part in the divine contest, disposing him quite effectively to the love of 1. Ps 119.126. 2. Jb 39.25. 156 ST. CYRiL OF ALEXAnDRiA God. i am sure that anyone will acknowledge that this sort of language is illuminating and estimable. now the fact that we appear in no way suited to this business might well have made us somewhat afraid, and made silence seem utterly desirable (for, as it is written, “they that are judges of themselves are wise”),3 had not the divine law driven us to the necessity to speak. For it says, “Hear, you priests, and testify to the house of Jacob, says the Lord Almighty.”4 And he reveals through another prophet what it is that we are to discover and testify about to the house of Jacob when he says, “Sanctify a fast, proclaim a service, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord our God, and cry earnestly to the Lord.”5 For of course one would never say that it is permissible to enter the inner tent6 with feet unwashed; one must rather be cleansed first with all due care, and then, and then only, once one “has put to death what is earthly in one”7 by the efforts of asceticism,8 should one hasten beyond the divine curtains,9 examining carefully the deep mystery of our Savior. For it is not possible, not at all possible, to share richly in the blessing given us from above, unless we choose to do what we are told here, and do it with great zeal. Thus we are brought to our present discourse : that we wage war at the signal given by the law, bearing arms in the company of the holy fighters, and keep festival with those who feast, present with them as an initiate. And what is the proof of this? The very Master of all, speaking to us thus through Moses: “if you shall go forth to war in your land against your enemies that are opposed to you, then you shall sound the trumpets ; and you shall be had in remembrance before the Lord, and you shall be saved from your enemies. And in the days of your gladness, and in your feasts, and in your new moons, you shall sound with the trumpets at your whole-burnt-offerings, and at 3. Prv 13.10 (LXX). 4. Am 3.13. 5. Jl 1.14. 6. Cf. Heb 9.2; Ex 26.33. 7. Cf. Col 3.5. 8. For a discussion of the ways in which Cyril was impacted by asceticism, see the introduction. 9. Cf. Lv 16.2; Heb 6.19; 9.3; 10.20. [18...