Festival of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor
Posted on February 9, 2023 by under
Scripture: Joshua 24:14-25 (NKJV)
24:14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
23 “Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!”
25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
Devotion
The conversation between Joshua and the people of Israel is quite interesting, to say the least. Joshua implores the people to put away false gods, and they were quick to respond with “far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” And yet, after all their claims that they would follow the true God, Joshua had to tell them, “put away the foreign gods which are among you.” While the people of Israel claimed they wanted to follow God, they were still clinging to false gods. As today’s reading shows, it is one thing to claim to be a follower of God, but quite another to follow through on the claim.
In the 5th century, St. Cyril of Alexandria encountered a similar situation with Nestorius. Nestorius claimed to be a Christian while denying that Jesus is God and man in one. Instead, he advocated that in Jesus two distinct and separate beings existed, one being God and the other being man. By doing so, Nestorius denied the very essence of Christianity, that in the incarnation God became man. As the Athanasian Creed confesses of Jesus: “One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking manhood into God. One altogether; not by confusion of the Substance, but by unity of the person.”
We can thank God for the confessors like St. Cyril, his holding fast to the truth of the incarnation of Jesus, and his condemning the error of Nestorius.
Prayer: O Lord, we beseech Thee favorably to hear the prayers of Thy people: that we, who are justly punished for our offenses, may be mercifully delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Festival of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor
O God, who didst give St. Cyril as a faithful teacher of the saving truth in a time of great trial, grant to Thy people zeal for Thy Word and faithful teachers for Thy Church, that they may stand steadfast against all error, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who livest and reignest with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
