BOOK 7. On Love for the Brethren 1

BOOK 8. More on Love for the Brethren and on Him Who Steals a Bull or a Sheep 15

BOOK 9. Of the Holy Tabernacle, That It Was an Image of the Church of Christ 30

BOOK 10. Again Concerning the Same Thing and That Which Was in the Holy Tabernacle 46

BOOK 11. On the Priesthood and That the Priesthood Under the Law Was an Image of the Priesthood in Christ 67

BOOK 12. On the Priesthood 81

BOOK 7. On Love for the Brethren

Cyril. With extraordinary and very high praise, Palladius, crowns the law with the first and supreme commandment, that is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deut. 6:5; cf. Mk. 12:30), he also adds: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Lev. 19:18); moreover, Christ Himself clearly says that "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:40); and the divine Paul calls love the fulfillment of the law, because it does no harm to one's neighbor (Rom. 13:10). It seems to me that our conversation has sufficiently examined the first of these commandments, examining it as far as possible from different angles, as if circumambulating it and not badly showing what an image of perfect and completely irreproachable love for God can be in us. Now let us take up the commandment that is adjacent and related to it, and make an accurate consideration of love for one's neighbor, diligently examining how anyone can attain the beauty of virtue and, having acquired good fame in this matter by art, be in favor with God and man, like the divine Samuel (1 Samuel 2:26). I affirm that along with the love of God, love for the brethren must also be properly exercised: for the fault of one of them is the absence of both, according to John, who wrote thus: "Whoever says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also" (1 John 4:20-21). And so, each of them, together with the other, disappears and rises brightly. For these virtues are, as it were, adjacent to each other, and, like an indissoluble pair of horses, bring the one who has tried to rule them well to the one distinct and perfect beauty of piety before God.

Palladium. You've said it well. And since our goal is to work on this, go on, and, gathering evidence for each statement from the Holy Scriptures, try to tell me how it is possible to properly fulfill love for one's neighbor.

K. The path that leads us to it is very extensive. For it is written: "Thy commandment is immeasurably extensive" (Psalm 118:96); and the art in all that is done, I think, could be acquired by no one except by the law: for it is given to help us, as the prophetic word has spoken (Isaiah 8:20). Wherefore, stirring us up to the unceasing remembrance of what is lawful, the Lawgiver says: "Put these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign upon your hand, and let them be a bandage over your eyes; and teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk the way, and when you lie down, and when you get up; and thou shalt write them on the doorposts of thy house and on thy gates, that as many days may yours and the days of your children be in the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, as the days of heaven shall be over the earth" (Deuteronomy 11:18-21). And what does it mean: "Bind me on your hands, he clearly showed this in the book of Numbers. For thus it is written: "And the Lord said to Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and tell them to make unto themselves tassels on the edges of their garments for their generations, and to put threads of blue wool into the tassels that are on the edges. and they shall be in your tassels, that when you look at them, you may remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, and do not follow your heart and your eyes, which lead you to fornication, that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy before your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God" (Num. 15:37-41). And so, having wisely commanded in advance that we should write the law in our hearts, then, knowing the grave affliction of insanity, he commands us to inscribe the commandments, as it were on a tablet, on the thresholds; likewise, to impose on the right hand the records that bear the law and have revelation inscribed; in addition, he considers it not useless that tassels and threads of yakhont color hang on the clothes themselves.