MARCH 18 – ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM.

• Our Lady of Mercy, Marian Feast. (Historical)
• St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop, Doctor of the Church. (Current, Traditional)

CYRIL was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the year 315. He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, who gave him the important charge of instructing and preparing the candidates for baptism. This charge he held for several years, and we still have one series of his instructions, given in the year 344 or 348. They are of singular interest as being the earliest record of the systematic teaching of the Church on the Creed and Sacraments, and as having been given in the church built by Constantine on Mount Calvary. They are solid, simple, profound; saturated with Holy Scripture; exact, precise, and terse; and, as a witness and exposition of the Catholic Faith, invaluable. On the death of St. Maximus Cyril was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem. At the beginning of his episcopate a cross was seen in the air reaching from Mount Calvary to Mount Olivet, and so bright that it shone at noonday. St. Cyril gave an account of it to the emperor; and the faithful regarded it as a presage of victory over the Arian heretics. While Cyril was bishop, the apostate Julian resolved to falsify the words of our Lord by rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem. He employed the power and resources of a Roman emperor; the Jews thronged enthusiastically to him and gave munificently. But Cyril was unmoved. “The word of God abides,” he said; “one stone shall not be laid on another.” When the attempt was made, a heathen writer tells us that horrible flames came forth from the earth, rendering the place inaccessible to the scorched and scared workmen. The attempt was made again and again, and then abandoned in despair. Soon after, the emperor perished miserably in a war against the Persians, and the Church had rest. Like the other great bishops of his time, he was persecuted, and driven once and again from his see; but on the death of the Arian Emperor Valens he returned to Jerusalem. He was present at the second General Council at Constantinople, and died in peace A.D. 386, after a troubled episcopate of thirty-five years.

REFLECTION: “As a stout staff,” says St. John Chrysostom, “supports the trembling limbs of a feeble old man, so does faith sustain our vacillating mind, lest it be tossed about by sinful hesitation and perplexity.”

WORD OF THE DAY 

REASON. In general, the mind in its function of attaining the truth. Also the basis or evidence used by the mind in its pursuit of truth. It differs from the intellect, whose proper role is to perceive the truth, whether arrived at by a reasoning process or perceived immediately as intuition. Reason, therefore, is a process, where intellect is possession.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

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