Christ was truly crucified for our sins. For if you would deny it, this place refuses you visibly, and blessed Golgotha, in which we are now assembled for the sake of Him who was here crucified: and the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross. But He was crucified not for sins of His own, but that we might delivered from our sins. As thou as Man he was at that times despised of men, and was buffeted, yet He was acknowledged by the Creation as God: for when the sun saw his Lord dishonored, he grew dim and trembled, not enduring the sight.
Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ. You openly seal it upon your forehead that the devils may behold th royal sign and flee trembling far away. Make then this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in a word, at every act.
For He who was here crucified is in heaven above. If after being crucified and buried He had remained in the tomb, we should have had cause to be ashamed. But, in fact, He who was crucified on Golgotha here, has ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives on the East.
For after having gone down hence into Hades, and come up again to us, He ascended again from us into heaven, His father addressing Him, and saying, "Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."
From the Fourth Catethetical Lecture by St Cyril of Jerusalem. Died 386 AD.
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