767 discourse ii: the freely accepted bonds rather escorted all the way up to that most shameful and most severe punishment. Cyril says: “When, however, they captured the Lord, they dragged with chains Him, who came to us for this reason: That He might release us from the chains of the devil.”12 O, what unprecedented charity! O, what inexplicable love of the Son of God for miserable men! 3. How exactly did our Liberator fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, speaking of His captivity through him in this way: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; [H]e has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Is 61:1). In what way does He speak of release to those confined (prisoners)? As always, He accustomed to teaching with deeds rather than words. When He was seized, the liberty to break free from diabolical bondage was granted to us. When He was confined in the dark prison at the house of Caiaphas, the prison of hell was opened for us. By those dreadful chains, which were thrown around His most sacred hands, we have been stripped of the snares both of the devils and of sins. By those weighty shackles, by which He desired His divine neck to be encircled and then to be imprisoned, He shattered from us the fetters of all evils. O truly heavenly Orator! O truly most wise and most eloquent, most holy Mercury! So efficaciously did He beg for our liberty, that He deprived Himself of His own liberty for ours. Legal defense did not purchase this, by which we were redeemed; neither was it obtained by a compliance of votes, that we were acquitted from all slavery, whether on account of guilt or of punishment. As soon as our Advocate allowed His most merciful hands to be bound, the human race was immediately freed from captivity to the netherworld. “[He] who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom 4:25) cheerfully 12 Cyrillus, op. cit., Lib. XI: PG 74, 594 (ad Job 18, 12-14).
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