Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, was born in Jerusalem in the year 315 and was raised in strict Christian piety. Upon reaching the age of maturity, he became a monk, and in the year 346 he became a presbyter. In the year 350, upon the death of Archbishop Maximus, he succeeded him on the episcopal throne of Jerusalem.
As Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Cyril zealously fought against the heresies of Arius and Macedonius. In so doing, he aroused the animosity of the Arian bishops, who sought to have him deposed and banished from Jerusalem.
There was a miraculous portent in 351 at Jerusalem: at the third hour of the day on the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Cross appeared in the heavens, shining with a radiant light. It stretched from Golgotha above the Mount of Olives. Saint Cyril reported this portent to the Arian emperor Constantius (351-363), hoping to convert him to Orthodoxy.
The heretic Acacius, deposed by the Council of Sardica, was formerly the Metropolitan of Caesarea, and he collaborated with the emperor to have Saint Cyril removed. An intense famine struck Jerusalem, and Saint Cyril expended all his wealth in charity. But since the famine did not abate, the saint pawned church utensils, and used the money to buy wheat for the starving. The saint’s enemies spread a scandalous rumor that they had seen a woman in the city dancing around in clerical garb. Taking advantage of this rumor, the heretics forcibly expelled the saint.
The saint found shelter with Bishop Silvanus in Tarsus. After this, a local Council was held at Seleucia, at which there were about 150 bishops, and among them Saint Cyril. The heretical Metropolitan Acacius did not want to allow him to take a seat, but the Council would not consent to this. Acacius stormed out of the Council, and before the emperor and the Arian patriarch Eudoxius, he denounced both the Council and Saint Cyril. The emperor had the saint imprisoned.
When the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) ascended the throne he repealed all the anti-Orthodox decrees of Constantius, seemingly out of piety. Saint Cyril returned to his own flock. But after a certain while, when Julian had become secure upon the throne, he openly apostasized and renounced Christ. He permitted the Jews to start rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the Romans, and he even provided them part of the funds for the building from the state treasury.
Saint Cyril predicted that the words of the Savior about the destruction of the Temple down to its very stones (Luke. 21:6) would undoubtedly transpire, and the blasphemous intent of Julian would come to naught. Soon there was such a powerful earthquake, that even the solidly set foundation of the ancient Temple of Solomon shifted in its place, and what had been rebuilt fell down and shattered into dust. When the Jews resumed construction, a fire came down from the heavens and destroyed the tools of the workmen. Great terror seized everyone. On the following night, the Sign of the Cross appeared on the clothing of the Jews, which they could not remove by any means.
After this heavenly confirmation of Saint Cyril’s prediction, they banished him again, and the bishop’s throne was occupied by Saint Cyriacus. But Saint Cyriacus soon suffered a martyr’s death (October 28).
After the emperor Julian perished in 363, Saint Cyril returned to his See, but during the reign of the emperor Valens (364-378) he was exiled for a third time. It was only under the holy emperor Saint Theodosius the Great (379-395) that he finally returned to his archpastoral activity. In 381 Saint Cyril participated in the Second Ecumenical Council, which condemned the heresy of Macedonius and affirmed the Nicea-Constantinople Symbol of Faith (Creed).
Saint Cyril’s works include twenty-three Instructions (Eighteen are Catechetical, intended for those preparing for Baptism, and five are for the newly-baptized) and two discourses on Gospel themes: “On the Paralytic,” and “Concerning the Transformation of Water into Wine at Cana.”
At the heart of the Catechetical Instructions is a detailed explanation of the Symbol of Faith. The saint suggests that a Christian should inscribe the Symbol of Faith upon “the tablets of the heart.”
“The articles of the Faith,” Saint Cyril teaches, “were not written through human cleverness, but they contain everything that is most important in all the Scriptures, in a single teaching of faith. Just as the mustard seed contains all its plethora of branches within its small kernel, so also does the Faith in its several declarations combine all the pious teachings of the Old and the New Testaments.”
Saint Cyril, a great ascetic and a champion of Orthodoxy, died in the year 386.
“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15
Jesus Christ did not come with a new religion. He came to save us and give us His life, eternal life. He gave us the key and the way to receive Him in the Holy Spirit. He said, “give me your heart,” If I am in your heart, you will love Me. And if you love Me, you will obey my commands. It is easy to turn our lives as Christians into mindless religious obedience. Many Christians pray not out of a heartfelt desire to communicate with God and cast their cares on Him, but they pray and go to church out of duty. Others read their Bibles to check a box and feel like they have done their duty towards God’s commandments to avoid His punishment and not to discover the will of God for their lives. But this is not what Jesus said and commanded us. He came to our world to give us Himself and His love, His power, His authority over demons, and to set us free from this evil world and its temptations. We must obey God out of love, not just out of duty, and move from mindless religion to a real relationship with God by making our obedience an overflow of our love for Christ. Amen
“Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkenness and bodily comfort. Fasting possesses great power and it works glorious things. To fast is to banquet with angels.”
This teaching is not found in the Gospel. It was spread in the twelfth century by Ansalem, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the one who taught the ‘Satisfaction Theory’ that says that God cannot forgive unless a sacrifice is offered to Him and that this sacrifice was the Son of God, Jesus Christ. No verse in the New Testament supports this incorrect theological theory. We read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter two, verses fourteen and fifteen, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” And also, chapter nine, verse twenty-six, ”but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Christ confronted the devil’s power of sin and death on the cross, and He overcame him and abolished sin and death. The forgiveness of Christ that He has given us is cleansing and purification from sin. He gave us the power to reject the temptation of sin and set us free from its bondage.
The theology of the Old Testament is based on the law and it sees everything from the perspective of the law. Therefore, sin was considered an act against the law and encroachment on it. So sin was punished according to what was determined by law. David the prophet sinned against the law when he seduced Uriah’s wife, and then killed her husband in the war so that he would not be exposed. This sin made him obliged to die by the law. But when Nathan, the prophet, confronted him with what had happened in secret, David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” At moment, Nathan replied, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” (2Samual12:13). When Nathan said to David, “you shall not die,” he talked about the death of the punishment of sin committed by David under the rules of the law. He also told him that, “the Lord has put away your sin,” which means that, God had passed over your sin in His forbearance. This statement is explained to us in Romans, chapter three, verse twenty-five “in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed" (Romans3:25).
So the forgiveness of sin, in the Old Testament, was that God passes over the sins in His forbearance, and stops the punishment of death of the law, I.e., the obligation that the law requires on the guilty. As for the forgiveness of the New Testament in the blood of Jesus, it is the cleansing of sin that dwells in us “Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.” (Romans 7:20). In the First Epistle of John, chapter one, verse seven, we read that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin, “and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1john1:7). And again in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter one, verse three, we read that Jesus purged our sins, “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins,” (Hebrews1:3).
St. Paul explains to us in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter six, verse six, the meaning of cleansing of sins and how this happens, saying, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6). The forgiveness of sin of the New Testament is the cleansing of sins by the execution of our old nature, which is infested with sins, being buried with Him, I.e., through baptism into death, that as Christ was raised from the dead, we also should walk in newness of life, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans6:4). So the meaning of forgiveness of sins in the blood of Jesus is not just forgiving, but cleansing, healing, and liberation from sins, accompanied by the power of resurrection and the renewal of our old nature.
St. John in his First Epistle tells us that faith in the blood of Christ, which gives justification and salvation, must have strong and clear manifestations that tell of man’s acceptance of Christ’s salvation, and that is, the crucifixion of the old nature and the receipt of life and the new nature, which will invest in turn, the life of love and obedience to the will of the Gospel. “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1John3:10-11).
With this proper understanding of the word of God, we realize that the victory of Christ over Satan by shedding His blood on the cross is an abolishment of the power of death and sin. Therefore, the forgiveness of Christ’s blood is the forgiveness of purification and the predominance over sin, not just pass over sin by God’s forbearance. The salvation of Christ’s blood has manifestations; we have become the children of God and love each other. But if the manifestations of love and the new nature are not present in our lives, this means we have not received the salvation of Christ yet.
Therefore, Christians who say they are washed by the blood of Christ should realize that washing with the blood of Christ means the death of the old nature that existed before the faith in Christ. St. Paul explained his own situation before his faith in Christ, in Romans chapter seven verse twenty-four, saying, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” So if sin still dwells in the inner depth of man, this means that he was not washed, nor cleansed by the forgiveness and purification of the blood of Jesus. They also did not realize that repentance according to the forgiveness of the blood of Christ means the renewal of the old nature and mind that bear fruit to a life of victory over sin. We have to examine our souls, are we still overcome by sin that still dwells in us or have we received the new nature and the authority of Christ’s salvation overcoming sin and purifying from it? “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Corinthians 15:57).
My Heavenly Father,
I know that you are a good God and you love me. I am unfaithful but you remain faithfulI forever and ever. I know that my sins became obstacles to receive your healing power. I come to you now and I confess all my transgressions and I repent asking your forgiveness. I know you already hold my heart and life in your hands. If I can bring you more glory through healing, then that's what I ask for. That's what I desire. Amen.
“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”
We have to know that
• There are DIVERSITIES of GIFTS given to us BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
• There are DIFFERENCES of MINISTRIES, BUT THE SAME LORD.
• And there are DIVERSITIES of ACTIVITIES DONE BY ONE SPIRIT.
BUT
• It is the SAME GOD who works ALL IN ALL.
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit are:
1- Word of Wisdom.
2- Prophecy.
3- Word of knowledge.
4- Faith.
5- Gifts of Healings.
6- Working of Miracles.
7- Discerning of Spirits.
8- Speaking with Tongues.
9- Interpretation of Tongues.
• BUT ONE & THE SAME SPIRIT WORKS ALL
• DISTRIBUTING TO EACH ONE INDIVIDUALLY AS HE WILLS.
