Cyril of Jerusalem, 315-387. Doctor of Faith and Against Heresy, Feast March 18th.

The writings of Cyril, especially regarding the Holy Spirit, explain God as ever kind, compassionate and full of counsel. This sensitive doctor assures us as no other that God is a supreme consoler, a source of strength, peace, and ever-healing. He showed great concern for the poor by selling some of the church's riches to alleviate the poor's hardships. For this he was criticized, punished and banished.

Nearly half of his episcopacy was in exile. His fellow bishops called him a heretic. All Christians are challenged and tested with subtle heresy. Cyril was, particularly, a doctor against heresy and he was libeled and sent away from his flock into exile. Imagine the paradoxes and the evil tempter whispering to him-“ Forget Catholicism!” “You are foolish to believe in a religion that calls you a heretic.”

For this reason, this amazing doctor, is a superb model against heresy because he chose to adhere to church's teachings even though the official administrators of the church-the bishops-called him a heretic. Cyril's trust and love toward the poor and God, lead by the Spirit, empowered him to possess immovable and invincible faith.

Cyril's faith in the church was founded not on other's opinions about him, even though some were his superiors and bishops. His faith was placed in God, the source and origin of faith. Cyril is a marvelous guide because by his union with God he was totally moved and directed by the Spirit always in charity and in humility.

During his life, heresy, schism and crime tore Jerusalem apart. The Arian heresy denied the divinity of Christ. Arianism said that Christ was the highest of creatures but less than God. Apparently, Christ's sacred humanity was the reality and mystery the Arians couldn't grasp and no one can unless they have faith in Jesus' words. Another heresy, Monophysitism, condemned by the Council of Chalcedon, said that the human nature of Christ was totally absorbed by the divine nature. This in effect nullified his free will as a human being and was as bad and more subtle. The final heresy among thousands that I will mention went after St Mary claiming that she was not the Mother of God. Nestorianism said that Mary was the mother of the human Jesus only. Thus we see that the church was attacked in many ways and still is today.

Oddly enough, Cyril, was misunderstood and misinterpreted. He was actually accused of Arianism but later was vindicated. Imagine how he felt? They banned him from his jurisdiction. Think of his psychological scars and pain. But, as an anchor, Cyril remained rooted to Catholicism. Like a rock, he was immovable and would help others to believe. He fought heresy the best way. He made sure that those who wanted to be catholics would learn about it thoroughly and have a solid foundation.

All the doctors adhered to the importance of union with God and that it can only be reached in the fullest dimension through our identification with the sacred humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ. Both aspects make it easier, more challenging and more identifiable because we too are humans with a touch of divinity. Strange as it may sound, the church has said through her saints and Jesus that we are gods.

Cyril was an effective instructional teacher and placed emphases on that area for new catholics. His brilliant, catechetical instructions relate to this ceremony during the Easter season and it is one of the most precious remains of antiquity. His writings in this area include twenty-four areas including five that are called "mystagogical" (the art, science and profession of instructions in the mysteries of the catholic religion). They are designed during Easter week after converts are received into the church. Cyril’s feast day is appropriately near Easter.

Fr Christopher Rengers whose book is listed in the sources named St Cyril as the Doctor of Catechesis. That's exactly what he was. His basic building-blocks for the growth of the catholic faith is his lasting contribution. Catholics whether they are new or old in the faith need to always return frequently to ABC's of religion: faith, hope and charity. Through our faith and action we engaged in prayer and good works. With hope, we surrender and trust in God to provide us with our daily bread and have confidence in him as our Father, Brother and Lover. We also hope to obtain pardon for our sins by acknowledging our weaknesses and confessing them. By charity, we experience God in the most personal and intimate manner possible and convey that ineffable intimacy to others. Also, and this is most imperative, it is through our living out our gifts and graces that God touches us with, specifically by our speaking, and at times remaining silent, serious prayer times set aside routinely for prayer, and sacrifical living, that faith is solidified and unmovable. Father also points out that Cyril was the only doctor who was a bishop in the land of Christ's earthly life.

Openness, candor and non-secret approaches are the new efforts in the church’s structure. Blessed Pope John XXIII opened many windows of the church through the great council and we are on our way to integration, maturation, greater openness and candor. We know that we, as church, in a very good and concerned spirit, have been too secret, closed and private. The spirit of aggiornamento, or keeping abreast of the times, and approfondimento, or deepening of theological thought, will come with learning the basics. New policies, procedures and restrictions by those who promote change and new attitudes are being introduced. Let us pray that we as church become more compassionate and understanding without injury or injustice to others as we protect our faith, the faith of our forefathers and adhere to it in an ecumenical manner and spirit.

Cyril is tremendous for learning the basics. He is a foundational teacher. Loving God is very simple but we complicate it. For new members in the church, old members or any Christians, or even non Christian, Cyril will teach you the building-blocks of our faith. Talk to him in prayer and you will stay on the path to life, find new directions, meaning and purpose. The church has stamped out old heresy but new ones keep attempting to enter. Pray to be faithful and docile in following the true light because there are illusions and delusions, that can sometimes lurk within and around us, when we are not vigilant, dedicated and focused daily. There are more heresies than atoms and they are as close to us. No one could fully imagined our deplorable state after humans fell from grace. Before the promise and the coming of our radiant Redeemer, God from the very beginning, pledge himself to us because of unspeakable love, pity and mercy.

St Cyril is an outstanding model for all involved in the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) programs. Those candidates and converts who are about to enter the church either through baptism, or who look for spiritual growth through Confirmation and Eucharist, have Cyril to thank for his efforts in this area. Regular catholics, born into the faith, may sometimes miss the beauty of this awesome ceremony that the church has reinstated around the Easter season.

New candidates for Catholicism and converts to the faith, he treated with tenderness and great solicitude. He carefully explained formation and instruction. Read the following paragraph on catechetical instruction to see how he treats new candidates of Catholicism.

"The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden for God is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as the Spirit approaches. The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen and to console. The Spirit comes to enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then, through him, the minds of others as well."

The Arianism controversy was rampant during the fourth century and many were taken in by this false heresy which denied the divinity of Christ. How could anyone miss or overlook this most important aspect of our faith: the divinity of Christ? They didn't learn the basics. That's why the RCIA program is vitally important.

God desires that we be united to Christ’s divinity in order to share the Creator’s unlimited love. We are made in the image and likeness of God through creation. Christ is the original image both the natural and supernatural Image of God through the Word. The adherence to the complete knowledge of the divinity and humanity of Jesus will enable us to be intimately united to God in order to be happy, jubilant and good. It is only through charity, which is God’s personal and infinite love, that we will share God’s gifts. Knowledge and practice of Jesus’ divinity and humanity will empower us to be more kind, sensitive, compassionate. All the doctors assure us that the best way to union with God is through prayer and unselfish action toward others. It is acheived in the same manner as Jesus achieved it with his warm kindness to all and a profound prayer life with his Father.

Spiritual wisdom is needed to guide a nation and billions of people. Great care must be taken. Traditions, legacies, and sacred trust are at stake. The same Spirit that guided Cyril must guide us but with new attitudes which we have gained from our experiences. The Spirit of God will always be distinctly different from the spirit of the world. Evil and dangers are everywhere but we must not operate with fear. Today there are insidious attitudes and attempts to reduce the dignity of the individual. It is only by prayer and God's almighty power operating through his acceptable sources that we will become peaceful. We will always need order, forbearance, and toleration in a nation that prizes justice, liberty, and independence. We need to compromise for unity but never compromise unity. Certain truths never change. It is only by God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us and intimately united and perfectly joined with love, that we are we able to discern and know the difference.

The virtues of obedience, hope, faithfulness, trust, courage, loyalty, perseverance, faith and goodwill are indispensable qualities and virtues that God wants to bestow on all humankind. This will happen when there is more justice, sharing of wealth, less hoarding and sincerity toward our less gifted humans. We need a sincere spirit of generosity, mercy and forgiveness. Our heinous, heresies today are our inhumanity toward others. The people on this planet, as a whole, are in a deplorable state and it will only change by a deeper look within each of us and an awareness of what to do. We suffer with ignorance when we think that this awareness is gained with experience and intelligence. Authentic awareness is spiritual and comes with grace as a gift, our humility, trust, and charity towards others.

Our abrasive attitudes, subtle vices, unrestrained outspokenness, stoic silences, and our prejudices are most injurious. They are the heresies, albeit, it is not a physical separation with our religion. They negate the spirit of authentic Christian ethics. They are often ingrained and masked from us. Only by God’s grace and spiritual guides will they be exposed and revealed to us. Cyril laid the cornerstone for our RCIA programs and the church has revitalized it. Thank you, Cyril, for your bravery, heroism and loving example against violence.

Read between the lines of the final comment taken from Cyril’s Cathechesis V document

"It is not only among us, who are marked with the name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is great; all the business of the world, even those outside the church, is accomplished by faith. By faith, marriage laws join in union persons who were strangers to one another. By faith, agriculture is sustain; for a man does not endure the toil involved unless he believes he will reap a harvest. By faith, seafaring men, entrusting themselves to a tiny wooden craft, exchange the solid element of the land for the unstable motion of the waves. Not only among us does this hold true but also, as I have said, among those outside the fold. For though they do not accept scripture but advance certain doctrines, of their own, yet even these they receive on faith".

Cyril is telling us that faith is vital to life. Regardless of our faith, life is rule by it and it moves us to be motivated. If we don’t have a wise person to help us we can develop misleading faith, false faith, unfair faith, weak faith and no faith. Cry to Cyril to stimulate genuine faith. He will definitely help you through spiritual trials, test and pernicious suggestions camouflaged as good.

Faith is a force unimaginable. It is believing without seeing. It's most important to understand faith and how it should be used and practiced. Belief in a Supreme Being pleases the Deity because one has to go outside oneself. Faith in God will usher you into a beautiful world. Trust and surrendering to God empowers us. Faith is no substitute for reason but it elevates reason to think divinely.

Cyril can be as a first grade teacher to those who are entering the faith. He is also a spiritual guide for those seeking union with God at an advanced level.

Cyril was a great lover because he was a great believer despite the subterfuge and sinister attacks against him from people who used their faith falteringly. Faith must be guided by the faithful Spirit of Jesus that he promised us. Cyril's faith was united with love for all creatures. He allowed Jesus' Spirit to guard, guide, and grace him.

His form of protest against the church’s enemies were non-violent and he accepted exile rather than use violence. As Gandhi and other peaceful persons, Cyril suffered exile but refused to abandon his goals and belief. He protected the church and did not punish sinners but accepted them by good deeds and example.

As Cyril, Jesus too lived in exile in Egypt as a baby because of Herod’s irrational fear of losing control and one's power. World leaders must exercise great restraint, discretion and judgement when it comes to handling power, control and explosive situations. This requires virtue, clear thinking, superior judgment and sensitivity towards other people and nations.

Cyril of Jerusalem laid the basis for some of our catholic faith by his great contributions against heresy. The church in her zeal and protective efforts in the early church wanted her members to adhere to church teachings. Those who deny it committed heresy. We today still need to know the basics of our faith. We might be able to lessen legalistic heresy but not the basics if we want to share in the total gift of God's goodness and love. Those who are ignorant can best be instructed by our goodness and not by our condemnation and ostracism.

We know there is violence, hatred and evil. Wicked forces urged Cyril to deny Catholicism. They called him a heretic. However, the Doctor against Hersey, would not let anyone thwart his faith in the church or Christ. We was tempted to forget his religion because he was libeled and sent away from his flock into exile. Cyril affords us a living testimony on how to keep and maintain one’s faith when enemies, family or friends seek to destroy it or have it their way. Even St Jerome, in the best of his intentions, called him a heretic.

Some have opinions contrary to church dogma. That constitutes being a heretic. Some thinks it’s ok. They are dead wrong. Oh, they say, that’s not exactly a dogma. There is a lot of gray area and it is not all black and white. Let us ponder Cyril’s words referring to Mary, the Mother of God.

“We accept that the Word of God truly became man, not by the will of a man and woman, as the heretics say, but in conformity with what the gospel says: ‘He became man by the Virgin and the Holy Spirit.’…you must now listen to the exposition of this doctrine and accept the proofs for it, because the heretics make many errors about this topic.”

Cyril defends Mary and Jesus through the scripture. Death came through a virgin, Eve. It was necessary that life also should come through a virgin, so that, as the serpent deceived the former, so Gabriel might bring glad tidings to the latter.

Again, let us again ask whence he(Jesus) comes and how. Isaiah tells us: “Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.”

And finally, he says, “It was fitting that he who is all pure and the master of virginity should come forth from a virginal bridal chamber.”

Father Luigi’s book listed in the Sources states that Mary is a noble model. She is as a Grande Dame model, as the church, not only for women but as a starting point for a theology of woman: He quotes Cyril: “At first, the feminine sex was obligated to give thanks to men, because Eve, born of Adam but not conceived by a mother, was in a certain sense born of a man. Mary, instead, paid off the debt of gratitude: she did not give birth by means of a man, but by herself, virginally, through the working of the Holy Spirit and the power of God.”

The reason that I have used the title “Doctor against Heresy” which is not a felicitous subtitle, is because of Cyril’s great concern to help and point out the danger, deceit, and death that we incur when we form opinions and ideas that are contrary to our faith. It is so easy to do this and be misled.

Perhaps if Cyril could plead with us today on how to avoid this precarious and deadly state of mind, a sample of his own words might include: “If then, the heretics speak against the truth, the Holy Spirit himself will convict them; against them will rise the anger of the overshadowing power of the Most High and, in the Day of Judgment, Gabriel will rise up against them with severity; the manger that held the Lord will reprove them. The shepherds who received the glad tidings, the host of angels who sang praises and hymns saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will…they will all bear witness against the heretics.”

Cyril’s pastoral zeal is vividly seen in the above paragraphs. If we let the truth of Jesus Christ, who said he was the truth, penetrate and sink into our souls, we will be gaining heavenly wisdom. Sometimes our faith will challenge us. We might be tempted to quit our religion or not subscribe wholeheartedly to our dogmas, doctrines or inner convictions. It is always by practicing the basics of our religion and being firm in our faith that we will be safe, sure, and will not break down when conflict and problems arise. Doubts about our faith, especially when tested, surface easily. Be aware!

The tendency to commit sin is the challenge of holy living. In the Christian life they are called temptations. Scripture tells us that the life of the individual is a test and a temptation. We know that Jesus was led into the desert to be tested by the devil before his public life. That obviously does not mean he was not tempted after his public life began. It may sound strange that God would lead his Son to be tested by temptation. But it was for us that the Father gave us our Savior, Friend, Brother and Redeemer. Jesus is our personal and intimate model and he shows us how to handle temptations. He taught us how to pray to God especially in the famous prayer the Our Father. This prayer contains the petition: lead us not into temptation...

Our catholic roots are very important to learn and master. It will enable us to have a solid foundation in our faith. We can be sure that our faith will be tested in life. Cyril wants us to cling to the Creed we say at mass as if it were our entire foundation of Catholicism. That is exactly was it is: a solid force that will prevent death, evil or human weakness to harm us. This faith of ours will also allow us to persevere in carrying out the will of God.

Despite his many banishments and struggles over Ariansim, Cyril shines illustriously as a great model of courage and tenacity. His great concern to teach others the essentials of Catholicism through his instructions and catechism enabled them-and us- to withstand the attacks, pains and challenges from outside the faith, within the faith, and within us.

We too, as Cyril, the Doctor against Heresy, can be a doctor against heresy. Jesus Christ has showed us the way to heaven, our everlasting home, and how to arrive there. Saints, like Cyril, and the many thousands who have taught us our religion and the truths about God, have painstakingly taught us how to follow the example of Jesus. We can surely know that everyone will be tested, tried, and tempted by the flesh, the world and the devil. When we are faithful to God, we can be assured that God will be most faithful to us. The last petition of the Our Father, which is the dearest prayer of Jesus for us, is: deliver us from evil (evil one).

All of this will always happen when we turn to our loving Deliverer in prayer. Praise be the Lord and Lover, Jesus Christ, now and forever. No one knows better how to praise, see and bless the Lord than the Mother of the Lord: the Jewish Virgin, Mary of Nazareth.

During the last seven years of the saint’s life, people began to see Cyril's wisdom. He was restored to his rightful See in Jerusalem. Some of his former enemies acknowledged him to be right and restored his honor.

Intellectual, emotional and political roadblocks may slow us on our spiritual journey. No one is exempt from crosses. Perhaps the closer we get to God, the more challenges await us. However, with God's help, trials never really stop us. The courageous Cyril shines because he struggled with heresy and heretics employing confidence, virtue and mettle.

Many interconnecting links below:

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintc16.htm

See below link and scroll down the sidebar to Faith and open it. This section contains material pertaining to the dogma and doctrine of the Catholic Faith, by which we learn to come to know God so that we love Him as is our duty and privilege.

At the bottom is listed the 10 Commandments.

http://www.ourladyswarriors.org

Links:

Catechetical Lecture 5 with list of others at top of page

A link of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem from the web site of the ministry of Dr Marcellino D'Ambrosio is listed below.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04595b.htm

http://www.roca.org/OA/111/111f.htm
ttp://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Cyril_Jerusalem.htm