The mountain, and Zoar the smaller city
Cyril went on: 'And the vulture's young fly the high things,' according to what is written, if they have their citizenship as on a mountain in heaven, and take for themselves the fatherland above. And Paul also writes somewhere: 'Seek the things above, not the things on the earth.'
Palladius said: So then the mountain of the mind is the life in sanctification, and the lifted-up character of the exceptional way of life, the one in uncleannesses and sin-loving, and melted into earthly things, being understood as below.
Cyril: You have spoken well; for the word shows us this very well, and you might still wonder at this also.
Palladius: At what?
Cyril: For the blessed angel said that divine Lot, running through without neglect and without turning back, must spring up to the mountain. He pleaded, saying: 'I ask, Lord, since your servant has found mercy before you, and you have magnified your righteousness, which you do upon my soul's living; but I shall not be able to be saved through to the mountain, lest the evils overtake me, and I die. Behold, this city is near for me to flee there, which is small; there I shall be saved. Is it not small, and my soul shall live? And he said to him,' it says: 'Behold, I have admired your face also in this word, of not overthrowing the city about which you spoke. Hurry then to be saved there, for I shall not be able to do a thing until you enter there. Therefore he called the name of that city Zoar. The sun came out upon the land, and Lot entered into Zoar.'
Palladius: And what profit would there be for us through these things also? I would wish, as you well know, to learn it through.
Cyril: Or do you not understand, though you have leaned much toward a very great aptitude, that for those who have just run out of a cheap and low life, and think they must go upon the path of salvation, virtue is not at once, nor from first attempts, graspable, nor is the thing that seems good easy to walk? But neither would one easily be brought up into an exceptional way of life, nor would he become far from the passions as it were reared with him, but he will be outside of such things gently, at least as far as eagerness toward better things and beginnings of attempts; yet not very high, or far; and he would all but go over into a land as into another, into a life that is praised, but has not yet obtained a high and conspicuous glory, such as was the tutoring according to the Law, carrying toward beginnings of a best and good life. For it is written: 'The beginning of a good road is to do the just things.' For in the way that, for those who have been eager about knowledge and long for the mystical contemplation, the word of catechesis would be suitable at the start and most fitting of all; but when they dart through toward a man already mature, and into the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ, the more solid food would already somehow be fitting.
Greek
φρόνημα. «Καὶ νεοττοὶ γυπὸς τὰ ὑψηλὰ πέτονται,» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, εἴπερ ἔχουσι καθάπερ εἰς ὄρος ἐν οὐρανῷ τὸ πολίτευμα, καὶ μεταποιοῦνται πατρίδος τῆς ἄνω. Γράφει δέ που καὶ Παῦλος· «Τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε, μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὄρος οὖν ἄρα τὸ νοητὸν, ἡ ἐν ἁγιασμῷ ζωὴ, καὶ τῆς ἐξαιρέτου πολιτείας τὸ ὑπερτενὲς, νοουμένης που κάτω τῆς ἐν ἀκαθαρσίαις καὶ φιλαμαρτήμονος, καὶ τοῖς ἐπιγείοις ἐντετηγμένης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Εὖ ἔφης· τουτὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος εὖ μάλα καταδηλοῖ, θαυμάσειας δ' ἂν ἔτι καὶ τόδε.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Τὸ τί;
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὁ μὲν γὰρ μακάριος ἄγγελος ἀμελητί τε καὶ ἀμεταστρεπτὶ διαθέοντα τὸν θεσπέσιον Λὼτ, χρῆναι δεῖν ἔφασκεν εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἀναπηδᾷν. Ὃ ἐλιπάρει λέγων· «Δέομαι, Κύριε, ἐπειδὴ εὗρεν ὁ παῖς σου ἔλεος ἐναντίον σου, καὶ ἐμεγάλυνας τὴν δικαιοσύνην σου, ὃ ποιεῖς ἐπὶ τοῦ ζῇν τὴν ψυχήν μου· ἐγὼ δὲ οὐ δυνήσομαι διασωθῆναι εἰς τὸ ὄρος, μὴ καταλάβῃ με τὰ κακὰ, καὶ ἀποθάνω. Ἰδοὺ ἡ πόλις αὕτη ἐγγὺς τοῦ καταφυγεῖν με ἐκεῖ, ἥ ἐστι μικρὰ, ἐκεῖ σωθήσομαι. Οὐ μικρά ἐστι, καὶ ζήσεται ἡ ψυχή μου; Καὶ εἰπὼν αὐτῷ, φησίν· Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐθαύμασά σου τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ῥήματι τούτῳ, τοῦ μὴ καταστρέψαι τὴν πόλιν περὶ ἧς ἐλάλησας. Σπεῦσον οὖν τοῦ σωθῆναι ἐκεῖ, οὐ γὰρ δυνήσομαι ποιῆσαι πρᾶγμα ἕως τοῦ σὲ εἰσελθεῖν ἐκεῖ. Διὰ τοῦτο ἐκάλεσε τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης, Σηγώρ. Ὁ ἥλιος ἐξῆλθεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, καὶ Λὼτ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν Σηγώρ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Καὶ τίς ἂν γένοιτο καὶ διὰ τούτων ἡμῖν ἡ ὄνησις, ἐθέλοιμ' ἂν, ὡς εὖ ἴσθι τοι, διαμαθεῖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἢ οὐχὶ συνίης, καίτοι πολὺ νενευκὼς εἰς τὸ λίαν εὐμαθὲς, ὅτι τοῖς ἄρτι φαυλότητος ἐκδεδραμηκόσι, χρῆναι δὲ δεῖν οἰομένοις ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς σωτηρίας ἵεσθαι τρίβον, οὐκ εὐθὺς, οὔτε μὴν ἐκ πρώτων ἐγχειρημάτων, ἁλώσιμος ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ βάσιμον τὸ δοκοῦν; Ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἂν εὐκόλως ἀνακομίζοιτό τις εἰς πολιτείαν ἐξῃρημένην, οὐδ' ἂν γένοιτο μακρὰν τῶν οἱονεί πως αὐτῷ συντεθραμμένων παθῶν, ἀλλ' ἔξω μὲν ἔσται τῶν τοιούτων ἠρέμα, τό γε ὅσον εἰς προθυμίας τὰς ἐπ' ἀμείνοσι, καὶ ἐγχειρημάτων ἀρχάς· ὑψοῦ δὲ οὐ λίαν, ἢ μακράν· μονονουχὶ δὲ μεταφοιτήσειεν εἰς γῆν μὲν ὥσπερ εἰς ἑτέραν, εἰς ζωὴν μὲν ἐπαινουμένην, ὑψηλὴν δὲ οὔπω καὶ περίοπτον λαχοῦσαν τὴν δόξαν, ὁποία τις ἦν ἡ κατὰ νόμον παιδαγωγία, πρὸς ἀρχὰς ἀναφέρουσα ζωῆς ἀρίστης τε καὶ ἀγαθῆς. Γέγραπται γάρ· «Ἀρχὴ ὁδοῦ ἀγαθῆς τὸ ποιεῖν τὰ δίκαια.» Ὃν γὰρ τρόπον τοῖς περὶ γνῶσιν ἐσπουδακόσι, καὶ θεωρίας ἐφιεμένοις τῆς μυστικῆς, ἐπιτήδειος μὲν ἐν ἀρχαῖς καὶ ὅτι μάλιστα πρέπων εἴη ἂν ὁ τῆς κατηχήσεως λόγος· διᾴττουσι δὲ πρὸς ἄνδρα τέλειον ἤδη, καὶ εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ,