Resurrection is a hot topic and it
always has been. Many times over people
have witness the nearly or fully dead just come back to life as though nothing
was wrong with them at all. Many people
still doubt that resurrection exists and try to find scientific and rational
explanations for people coming back to life after their heart has stopped. St. Cyril of Jerusalem tried to explain to
Greeks and Samaritans that resurrection is real and it will occur in the
future.
St. Cyril talks to people in general
first, explaining that he is catholic and will be explaining this from a
catholic’s perspective. He explains that
he is here to tell the Greeks and Samaritans they are wrong for not believing
in the resurrection. He then proceeds to
explain to both groups separately that resurrection is real and it will occur
for us, humans, just as it does in everyday life today.
To the Greeks he tries to convince
them by saying, “But thou believest not what is written of the resurrection,
being a Greek: then from the analogy of nature consider these matters, and
understand them from what is seen to this day.
Wheat, it may be, or some other kind of grain is sown; and when the seed
has fallen, it dies and rots, and is henceforth useless for food. But that which has rotted, springs up in
verdure; and though small when sown, springs up most beautiful.” He also explains to them that the Phoenix is
another amazing example of resurrection.
“God knew men’s unbelief, and provided for this purpose a bird called
Phoenix. It makes itself a coffin of
frankincense and myrrh and other spices, and entering into this when its years
are fulfilled; it evidently dies and moulders away. Then from the decayed flesh of the dead bird
a worm is engendered, and this worm when grown large is transformed into a
bird.” He uses a few other analogies as
well, but those were the most proper analogies for the Greeks to understand and
try to grasp from.
After speaking with the Greeks St.
Cyril then proceeds to turn toward the Samaritans and preach of resurrection to
them. He used the Laws to explain
resurrection since the Samaritans do not allow their people to listen to the Prophets. He quotes to them Ps. 1:5 “The ungodly shall
not rise up in judgment”, Job 7:9 “For if man goes down to the grave he shall
come up no more”, and Ps. 15:17 “The dead shall not praise Thee, O Lord”. By quoting these verses he tried to tell them
that if they did not believe then they would not be allowed into heaven because
they did not believe in God if they did not believe in the resurrection.
St. Cyril then later enlightens them
by telling them about when we are resurrected we will not come back in our
earthly forms but rather in a different form.
By explaining this I am guessing it stopped a lot of debate since that
was the Greek’s and Samaritan’s main argument of “How can one be resurrected
when they have been dead and decaying for many years?”
As you can tell St. Cyril had his
work cut out for him. He tried
explanation after explanation to try and convince these people that
resurrection existed. If only at the end
of this lecture it explained if he had convinced people of its truth. It would have been nice to know if some
people were enlightened or not. The fact
that St. Cyril used so many analogies was interesting and yet distracting at
the same time. Using plants to explain
resurrection was not the smartest idea since today we know that it is not the
old plant that has come back to life, but rather it only slowed its growth at
the time or it had created a new plant to take its place so in reality it is
not true resurrection.
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