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they flee the cares of life, but are ready for the divine journey, so as to run to heaven. For our citizenship is in heaven, he says. And we have taken up a staff, on which we lean, faith and hope in Christ. And a lamp has been lit for us in our souls, just as for them the physical one was. And the lamp of our souls is the law of Christ; For your law is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths. And the Lord himself also says about these things: Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men waiting for their lord. It remains to be seen, who are those who eat the pascha. No uncircumcised person eats the pascha, but if even a foreigner, since he is also bought with money, he is circumcised. For no one can become a partaker of Christ, not circumcising the human superfluities, nor being cleansed from the carnal defilements, which we have inherited by birth from our fathers.

For of this the physical circumcision was a type. Wherefore it was also said by the prophet Jeremiah, to circumcise the hardness of your heart. Let us hasten then to the blessed communion of Christ, let us for this reason become pure from worldly evils, so that we may be sanctified by spiritual goods; let no one turn back to the world, but all hastening so that we may not remain under the slavery of the ruler of this age, but may pass over into the freedom that is with Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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τὰς τοῦ βίου μερίμνας ἀποφεύγουσι, πρὸς δὲ τὴν θείαν ἕτοιμοι πορείαν, ὥστε τρέχειν εἰς οὐρανόν. Ἡμῶν γὰρ τὸ πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς, φησί. Ῥάβδον δὲ ἀνει- λήφαμεν, ᾗ στηριζόμεθα, πίστιν καὶ ἐλπίδα τὴν εἰς Χριστόν. Ἀνῆπται δὲ καὶ ἡμῖν λύχνος ταῖς ψυχαῖς, ὥσπερ ἐκείνοις ὁ σωματικός. Ψυχῶν δὲ λύχνος ἐστὶν ἡμῖν ὁ νόμος τοῦ Χριστοῦ· Λύχνος γὰρ τοῖς ποσί μου ὁ νόμος σου, καὶ φῶς ταῖς τρίβοις μου. Λέγει δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος περὶ τούτων· Ἔστωσαν ὑμῶν αἱ ὀσφύες περιεζωσμέναι, καὶ οἱ λύχνοι καιόμενοι, καὶ ὑμεῖς ὅμοιοι ἀνθρώποις ἐκδεχομένοις τὸν κύριον αὐτῶν. Ὑπόλοιπόν ἐστιν ἰδεῖν, τίνες οἱ τὸ πάσχα ἐσθίοντες. Ἐσθίει δὲ τὸ πάσχα οὐδεὶς ἀπερίτμητος, ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ ἀλλογενὴς ἐπεὶ καὶ ἀργυρώνητος, περιτέμνεται. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ Χριστοῦ μέτοχος γενέσθαι δύναται, τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας περιττότητας μὴ περιτεμνόμενος, μηδὲ καθαρθεὶς ἀπὸ τῶν σαρκικῶν μολυσμάτων, ὧν κατὰ γέννησιν τὴν ἐκ πατέρων διεδεξάμεθα.

Τούτου γὰρ ἦν τύπος ἡ σωματικὴ περιτομή. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἐλέγετο ὑπὸ τοῦ προφήτου Ἱερεμίου περιτετμῆσθαι τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν ὑμῶν. Σπεύδωμεν οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν μακαρίαν Χριστοῦ κοινωνίαν, καθαροὶ κοσμικῶν κακῶν διὰ τοῦτο γενώμεθα, ἵνα τοῖς πνευματικοῖς ἁγιασθῶμεν ἀγαθοῖς· μηδεὶς ἐπὶ κόσμον μεταστρεφόμενος, ἀλλὰ σπεύδοντες ἅπαντες εἰς ἵνα μὴ μείνωμεν ὑπὸ τὴν δουλείαν τοῦ ἄρχοντος τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, ἀλλ' εἰς τὴν ἐλευθερίαν μεταστῶμεν τὴν παρὰ Χριστῷ, ᾧ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.