A
New Priesthood
Our final examination from the Commentary
on John pertains to Christ’s post-resurrection appearances. John 20:22-3
has often been dubbed the Johannine Pentecost: “And when He had said this, He
breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven them, and if you retain the sins of any,
they are retained.’” Cyril writes:
After dignifying the holy apostles with
the glorious distinction of apostleship, and appointing them ministers and
priests of the sacred altar. . . . he at once sanctifies them by promising to
them the Holy Spirit through the external signs of his breath—that we should be
firmly convinced that the Holy Spirit is not foreign to the Son, but
consubstantial with him, and through him proceeding from the Father—showing that
the gift of the Spirit attends those who have been ordained by him to be
apostles of God. (Commentary on John, 3.131)
This is an exceptional passage for a few
reasons. First, Cyril clearly connects the role of apostleship to that of
priesthood, thus justifying the tradition current in the fifth century to speak
of Christian holy orders as priesthood, comparable to that of the Temple.
Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are ordained to minister at the “sacred
altar.” Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, they are ordained to minister at
the “sacred altar,” which is the holy table found in Church edifices. But having
mentioned this act of the Holy Spirit, Cyril is careful to harmonize John with
the Book of Acts, opining that the breath of Christ is this instance was a
presaging of the gift of Pentecost, not John’s own version of the event.
Second, he uses this occasion to address a dogmatic issue concerning the Holy
Spirit. That the Son and Spirit are consubstantial was this time
uncontroversial; but in his polemic against the “Two Sons” Christology of
Diodore and Theodore, Cyril is apt to show that the Spirit proceeds “through”
the Son from all eternity, and thus Jesus Christ—God and man—gives the Spirit
to the apostles precisely because his divine relationship with him is retained
in the incarnation. If the Son of God was merely joined to the Son of Man by “good
pleasure,” this would be impossible.
Having designated the apostles (and by
implication their successors) as priests, Cyril compares the priesthoods of the
Temple and the Church. ‘The old written Law, which contained shadows and types
of reality, commanded that the appointment of priests be performed. . . . with
more outward display.” (Commentary on John, 3.132) Aaron and the Levites
were required to wash themselves, and be anointed with ram’s blood on the ear,
thumb, and toe. The “mystery of Christ” is sketched in these cultic acts, signifying
by “water and blood the instruments of sanctification” in other words, baptism
and eucharist. “Our lord Jesus Christ, transforming into the power of truth the
figure of the Law consecrates through himself the ministers of the sacred
altar; for he is the Lamb of consecration, and he consecrates by actual
sanctification, making men partakers in his nature through participation in the
Holy Spirit.” (Ibid., 3.133) In the shift from the old to new, Law to
grace, letter to spirit, Jesus Christ abolishes the blood offerings of rams—as well
as lambs, goats, oxen and bulls—and simultaneously establishes a new priesthood
through the apostles, through whom the sacraments of baptism and the bloodless
offering of the eucharist indicate a new life of worship in spirit and in
truth. (Joseph Lucas, Jewish and Christian Sacrifice in Cyril of Alexandria [2023],
176-78)
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