A few thoughts on St. Cyril of Alexandria's comments on death

I have just begun reading St. Cyril of Alexandria's "Glaphyra on the Pentateuch, Volume 1 Genesis", and am already immediately excited about learning from this great teacher of the Church by reading some of his thoughts on the Fall and on Christ's restoration or recreation.  He like St. Gregory of Nyssa clearly explains the purpose of God allowing sinful man to die physically.  The physical death of the man that had become inclined to base acts allows for the deliverance from those things improper and the removal of corruption, as well as the return to a better state and the restoration of those good things that were there in the beginning.  He likens it to the refashioning of a vessel that had been smashed and later was made whole.  St. Gregory uses a very similar image of a vessel that had been contaminated and that by dissolving back into dust is able to part with the contamination and by the Resurrection being reformed anew after the original pattern if in this life he has preserved the image.

We can feel confident that death is more of a cleansing and that if we preserve the image of God that is hidden in us, we will be refashioned in the Resurrection because Christ has destroyed death and death has no more dominion over us.  Our Baptism can take on a greater meaning knowing that death of the old man and death to the world is our way of preserving the image and being ready for our physical death, knowing that we will finally be cleansed of all impurities and base desires.  We can see that when God tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son, He wanted to demonstrate Abraham's understanding of all of this for all that would later hear and read about his actions.  Abraham was God's friend and was enlightened to know that physical death is nothing but a cleansing of the corruption that we have developed, and that God will resurrect us allowing these impurities to be removed.  That is why St. Paul commends Abraham saying that he reckoned "that God was able to raise even from the dead" because Abraham "was waiting for the city which hath the foundations of which the artificer and maker is God" a "fatherland, that is, a heavenly one."  (Hebrews 11:10,16-19)  He knew that Christ would restore and refashion man one day, even though the Incarnation had not happened in time.  He was enlightened to know that from the beginning, in God's foreknowledge, the resurrection and conquering of death was already a reality to have faith in.  How much more should we living in the time of Grace, where death has already been conquered and Christ and the Saints are already ruling in the Kingdom of Heaven, should have the faith that Abraham had, and that Holy Cyril and Gregory had.  May we remember our death and also Christ's victory.