The Mystagogical Catechesis of St. Cyril of Jerusalem

St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem in the 4th century, is particularly famous for his twentythree catechetical lectures. Eighteen of them are addressed to candidates for baptism. The other five are known as his "Mystagogical Catecheses," that explained the mysteries in which the newly baptized had just participated.

Here's how this Doctor of the Church explains what he does in these catecheses.

He says, "You were found worthy of divine and lifegiving baptism and now you are ready to receive the more sacred mysteries. Now it's time to set before you a banquet of more perfect instructions. So let us teach you these things exactly, that you may know the effect worked upon you on that evening of your baptism."

In other words, you've been baptized. You've had the sacraments. Now I can tell you about them. Now I can explain how the stories of Scripture you've already learned are connected to the sacramental rites of the Church.

Next, St. Cyril guides his freshly baptized listeners through the ritual they have just experienced, stepbystep. He leads them from the Old Testament type to its New Testament fulfillment, and on into the sacramental mystery of Jesus Christ: "First you entered into the vestibule of the baptistery. There, facing west, you heard the command to stretch forth your hand, and, as if you were in the presence of Satan, you renounced him. Now you must know that this was prefigured in ancient history.

“For when Pharaoh, that most bitter and cruel tyrant, was oppressing the free and noble Hebrews, God sent Moses to bring them out of the evil bondage of the Egyptians. Then the doorposts were anointed with the blood of a lamb, that the destroyer might flee from the houses that had the sign of the blood; and the Hebrew people were marvelously delivered.

“But, after their rescue, the enemy pursued them, and saw the sea miraculously parted for them. Nevertheless, he went on, following close in their footsteps, and was all at once overwhelmed and engulfed in the Red Sea."

Cyril then continues by showing the New Testament fulfillment of these Old Testament stories: "Now turn from the old to the new, from the figure to the reality. There we have Moses sent from God to Egypt. Here we have Christ sent forth from His Father into the world. There, so that Moses might lead forth an afflicted people out of Egypt. Here, so that Christ might rescue those who are oppressed in the world under sin. There the blood of a lamb was the spell against the destroyer. Here the blood of the Lamb without blemish, Jesus Christ, is made the charm to scare evil spirits. There, the tyrant was pursuing that ancient people all the way to the sea. And here, the daring and shameless spirit, the author of evil, follows you even to the streams of salvation.

The tyrant of old was drowned in the sea; and this present one disappears in the water of salvation." So, Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea; the Devil drowns in baptism. Moses led

the Israelites out of slavery through the Red Sea; Christ leads us out of slavery to sin through the waters of baptism.

This is the stuff of mystagogy. The old is fulfilled in the new, which leads to a celebration of the mysteries of Christ through the sacraments. Christ connects the events of salvation history to the rites of the Church, which lead us into his mysteries, into his divine life.


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