Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures

15. I shall observe each man’s earnestness, each woman’s reverence. Let your mind be refined as by fire unto reverence; let your soul be forged as metal: let the stubbornness of unbelief be hammered out: let the superfluous scales of the iron drop off, and what is pure remain; let the rust of the iron be rubbed off, and the true metal remain. May God sometime shew you that night, the darkness which shines like the day, concerning which it is said, The darkness shall not be hidden from thee, and the night shall shine as the day 51 Ps. cxxxix. 12. On Easter Eve the Church was full of lights which were kept burning all night, and the newly-baptized carried torches. Gregory of Nyssa, preaching on the Resurrection (Orat. iv.) describes the scene: “This brilliant night, by mingling the flames of torches with the morning rays of the sun, has made one continuous day, not divided by the interposition of darkness.” . Then may the gate of Paradise be opened to every man and every woman among you. Then may you enjoy the Christ-bearing waters in their fragrance 52 Or, as the Benedictine Editor conjectures, “the waters which have a Christ-bearing (χριστοφόρον) fragrance.” On the epithet χριστοφόρος, see Bishop Lightfoot’s note on Ignat. ad Eph. § 1 and § 9. Its meaning, as well as that of Θεοφόρος is defined in the answer of Ignatius to Trajan, ῾Ο Χριστὸν ἔχων ἐν στέρνοις (Martyr. Ign. Ant. § 2). . Then may you receive the name of Christ 53 Cat. xxi. 1: “made partakers therefore of Christ, ye are rightly called Christs.” , and the power of things divine. Even now, I beseech you, lift up the eye of the mind: even now imagine the choirs of Angels, and God the Lord of all there sitting, and His Only-begotten Son sitting with Him on His right hand, and the Spirit present with them; and Thrones and Dominions doing service, and every man of you and every woman receiving salvation. Even now let your ears ring, as it were, with that glorious sound, when over your salvation the angels shall chant, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered 54 Ps. xxxii. 1, which verse is still chanted in the Greek Church as soon as the Baptism is completed. : when like stars of the Church you shall enter in, bright in the body and radiant in the soul.

51 Ps. cxxxix. 12. On Easter Eve the Church was full of lights which were kept burning all night, and the newly-baptized carried torches. Gregory of Nyssa, preaching on the Resurrection (Orat. iv.) describes the scene: “This brilliant night, by mingling the flames of torches with the morning rays of the sun, has made one continuous day, not divided by the interposition of darkness.”

52 Or, as the Benedictine Editor conjectures, “the waters which have a Christ-bearing (χριστοφόρον) fragrance.” On the epithet χριστοφόρος, see Bishop Lightfoot’s note on Ignat. ad Eph. § 1 and § 9. Its meaning, as well as that of Θεοφόρος is defined in the answer of Ignatius to Trajan, ῾Ο Χριστὸν ἔχων ἐν στέρνοις (Martyr. Ign. Ant. § 2).

53 Cat. xxi. 1: “made partakers therefore of Christ, ye are rightly called Christs.”

54 Ps. xxxii. 1, which verse is still chanted in the Greek Church as soon as the Baptism is completed.

Ὄψομαι τὴν σπουδὴν ἑκάστου, ὄψομαι τὸ εὐλαβὲς ἑκάστης. Πυρούσθω ἡ διάνοια πρὸς εὐλάβειαν, χαλκευέσθω ἡ ψυχὴ, σφυροκοπείσθω τὸ σκληρὸν τῆς ἀπιστίας, ἀποπεσάτωσαν αἱ περιτταὶ τοῦ σιδήρου λεπίδες, μενέτω τὸ καθαρόν: ἀποπεσάτω τοῦ σιδήρου ὁ ἰὸς, μενέτω δὲ τὸ γνήσιον. Ποτὲ ὑμῖν δείξῃ ὁ Θεὸς ἐκείνην τὴν νύκτα, τὸ σκότος τὸ ἡμεροφανὲς, περὶ οὗ εἴρηται: Σκότος οὐ σκοτισθήσεται ἀπὸ σοῦ, καὶ νὺξ ὡς ἡ ἡμέρα φωτισθήσεται: τότε ὑμῶν ἑκάστῳ καὶ ἑκάστῃ παραδείσου θύρα ἀνοιχθῇ. Τότε ὑδάτων ἀπολαύσητε Χριστοφόρων, ἐχόντων εὐωδίαν. Τότε Χριστοῦ προσηγορίαν λάβητε, καὶ ἐνέργειαν θείων πραγμάτων. Ἤδη μοι τῆς διανοίας τὸ ὄμμα ἀναβλέψατε: ἤδη μοι χοροὺς ἀγγελικοὺς ἐννοήσατε, καὶ δεσπότην τῶν ὅλων Θεὸν καθεζόμενον, Ὑιὸν δὲ μονογενῆ ἐν δεξιᾷ συγκαθήμενον, καὶ Πνεῦμα συμπαρόν, Θρόνους δὲ καὶ Κυριότητας λειτουργοῦντας: καὶ ὑμῶν δὲ ἕκαστον καὶ ἑκάστην, σωζόμενον καὶ σωζομένην. Ἤδη ὑμῶν τὰ ὦτα ὥσπερ κατηχεῖσθαι ποιήσατε ἐκείνην τὴν καλὴν ἠχὴν, ὅτε ὑμῶν σωθέντων οἱ ἄγγελοι ἐπιφωνήσουσι: Μακάριοι ὧν ἀφέθησαν αἱ ἀνομίαι, [καὶ ὧν ἐπεκαλύφθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι] ὅτε, ὥσπερ ἀστέρες τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, εἰσέλθητε φαιδροὶ τῷ σώματι, καὶ φωτεινοὶ τῇ ψυχῇ.