The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Read Chapter 24
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
Let us investigate carefully what “to be cut into pieces” means. When in ancient times Adam came into being, God made him a partaker of his own Spirit, giving to his nature a most perfect beauty. For “he breathed on his face the breath of life.” For to truly give life is to have the Spirit of life, that is, of Christ. But because Adam was deceived and slipped into sin, he was cut off from the Spirit. For it pleased our God and father “to bring all things together under one head in Christ” and to restore the ancient beauty to human nature. We have received this through grace, but the stealthy entrance of sin stripped it from us. For Christ breathed into us after the resurrection, restoring ancient beauty to us. “Receive,” he says, “the Holy Spirit.” And so the Spirit is united to us. For “he who unites himself to the Lord is one with him in spirit.” Surely, just as we have been compelled to be zealous in our efforts by a sense of devotion, we are receiving the utmost fullness since we n...
What then is the purport of that which follows?
(He) shall inflict upon him extreme punishment. Do you see how even everywhere He puts this, the fact of their ignorance, indicating that it was profitable, and by this making them always earnest minded? For this is the point at which He labors, that we should be always on the watch; and since it is always in luxury that we are supine, but in afflictions we are braced up, therefore everywhere He says this, that when there is relaxation, then come the terrors. And as further back He showed this by the example of Noah, even so here He says it is, when that servant is drunken, when he is beating, and that his punishment shall be intolerable.
But let us not regard only the punishment appointed for him, but let us look to this other point too, lest we ourselves also be un awares to ourselves doing the same things. For to this servant are they like, who have money, and give not to the needy. For you too are steward of your own possessions...
