Cyril was born in or near the city of Jerusalem around the year 315 A.D. We do not know a lot about his early life, but he was well educated in the Scriptures and in philosophy. He was ordained a deacon for the Church of Jerusalem around the age of twenty by Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, who was a staunch opponent of the Arian Heresy. After Macarius died, Maximus, another opponent of Arianism, became Bishop of Jerusalem and ordained Cyril a priest when Cyril was about twenty-eight years old. During his priestly ministry, Cyril became a true shepherd of the Church. He assisted Bishop Maximus of Jerusalem as a preacher and catechist, preaching every Sunday and catechizing those preparing for the Sacraments of Initiation. A set of twenty-four of his catechetical instructions have been preserved and are remarkable for their content and their clarity in instruction. Cyril himself became Bishop of Jerusalem in 348. He died in 387, having served as Bishop for 39 years. Due to all the controversies around heresies and the bitter divisions in the Church in this era, Cyril was exiled from Jerusalem on three different occasions while serving as Bishop. For his catechetical writings and for his defense of the faith, he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1883.
Just as there were strong divisions and heresies in the early Church in the era of Cyril of Jerusalem, our first reading from the first chapter of the prophet Isaiah calls for humility and an end to hypocrisy, invoking the image of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, well known for their sinfulness and their disobedience to God. We not only have to be true to the faith in our words, but in our actions and our way of life as well. May we hear this call to the humility and simplicity of our faith on our Lenten journey.
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