St. Cyril explicitly rejects the Apollinarian thesis, and stresses the complete humanity assumed by Christ into a real ‘physical’ or ‘hypostatic’ unity with the Word. Cyril associates Christ’s High-priesthood with specifically with His humanity, and makes frequent reference to the Epistle to the Hebrews in his discussion of the human soul of Christ. Against Nestorius, he writes: Christ carried up the mind of believers into the one nature of the Godhead. Cyril describes Christian worship as ‘rational’, and constantly speaks of Christ as the ‘High Priest of our souls’. For Cyril, Christ fulfills His priesthood both as one who receives and as one who offers prayer. Since Christ is not two but indissolubly one, our rational worship is offered to Him as well as through and in union with Him, and by Him to God the Father. In his third epistle against Nestorius, Cyril affirms clearly the vicarious and high priestly character of Christ’s humanity: Christ ‘offers Himself for us and us through and in himself to the Father’. He worships for he has assumed the nature that pays worship. Although the host above and the holy spirits worship him, Cyril writes, when he became as we are, he worshipped with us as a man offering as fragrant incense, himself on our behalf, and us through himself and in himself to God the Father.
Matthew Baker Logiki Latreia and the Mind of Christ
