12. When, therefore, the Lecture is delivered,
if a Catechumen ask thee what
the teachers have said, tell nothing to him that is without On the Disciplina
Arcani, or rule against publishing the Christian Creed and Mysteries to
Catechumens and Gentiles, see Index,
“Mysteries.”. For we deliver to thee a mystery, and
a hope of the life to come. Guard the mystery for Him who gives
the reward. Let none ever say to thee, What harm to thee, if I
also know it? So too the sick ask for wine; but if it be given at
a wrong time it causes delirium, and two evils arise; the sick man
dies, and the physician is blamed. Thus is it also with the
Catechumen, if he hear anything from the believer: both the
Catechumen becomes delirious (for he understands not what he has heard,
and finds fault with the thing, and scoffs at what is said), and the
believer is condemned as a traitor. But thou art now standing on
the border: take heed, pray, to tell nothing out; not that the
things spoken are not worthy to be told, but because his ear is
unworthy to receive. Thou wast once thyself a Catechumen, and I
described not what lay before thee. When by experience thou hast
learned how high are the matters of our teaching, then thou wilt know
that the Catechumens are not worthy to hear them.