Festival of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
Posted on February 9, 2021 by under
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 11:1-7 (NKJV)
11:1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
Devotion
Sexagesima is focused on how we receive God’s Word. Our appointed reading bids us to do what we are called to do without regard to how things appear to our eyes. Both themes find flesh in today’s celebration of St. Cyril.
Cyril became the patriarch (archbishop) of Alexandria, Egypt at about the age of 36 in AD 412 and served in that capacity for 32 years. In faithfulness to God’s Word, Cyril was a central figure at the Council of Ephesus, where Nestorius had to be removed as patriarch of Constantinople because of his false teaching that Jesus was not truly God in the flesh. For Cyril’s strong stand, the Nestorians condemned him as a “monster, born and educated for the destruction of the church.”
Such remains the path of faithful pastors today, and of the lambs and sheep the Holy Spirit has given them to feed and oversee, as well. Our reading bids us all to such faithful confession of God’s Word. We aren’t to put our finger up to see which way the wind is blowing, or wait until everything seems just right to us. Even as ultrasound does not let us know perfectly how a child will turn out physically, we do not know what result our confession will produce—nor is that our concern. Instead, we are to get up each morning and live in our vocations in accord with God’s Word, and trust that “the Lord who makes everything” will produce whatever is right.
Prayer: O God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do, mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
