From Saint Gregory’s same oration On
Pascha:
If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up
the cross and follow.
Simon means “obedience,” while Cyrene,
they [1372C] say, means “readiness.” Thus anyone who is ready for obedience to
the Gospel, and who, through the mortification of his earthly members,
eagerly endures the affliction of practical philosophy for the sake of virtue,
has become Simon of Cyrene; voluntarily practicing virtue, bearing the cross on
his shoulders, and following Christ, he shows that his way of life according to
God is completely removed from the earth. (Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to
John: Ambiguum 52, in On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua,
2 vols. [trans. Nicholas Constas; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library; Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2014], 2:235)
