The Son's veiled saying about the day and hour
Cyril opens his homily on Matthew 24:29-36 by explaining that when Christ says no one knows the day or hour, not even the Son, he does not precisely mean the divine Son of God.
From a homily by Cyril entitled “On ‘Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven’ (Matthew 24:29); but about that day and hour no one knows.”
But when he says this too, he does not at all mean himself. For he did not add precisely “nor the Son of God,” but says in an unqualified way “nor the son,” so that you understand something like this: the disciples were eager to learn everything with precision, and they were attempting, if I may put it this way, to pry into the very depths of the Lord. But the matter was very much beyond them.
Greek
Κυρίλλου ἐν ὁμιλίᾳ ἐπιγεγραμμένῃ εἰς τὸ Εὐθέως δὲ μετὰ τὴν θλίψιν τῶν
ἡμερῶν ἐκείνων ὁ ἥλιος σκοτισθήσεται καὶ ἡ σελήνη οὐ δώσει τὸ φέγγος αὐτῆς καὶ
οἱ ἀστέρες πεσοῦνται ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ· περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης καὶ τῆς ὥρας
οὐδεὶς οἶδεν. Ἀλλ' ὅταν καὶ τοῦτο λέγῃ, οὐ πάντως ἑαυτὸν σημαίνει· οὔτε γὰρ
προσέθηκεν ἀκριβῶς Οὐδὲ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλ' ἀπολελυμένως Οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός φησιν·
ἵνα τοιοῦτόν τι νοῇς· ἐσπούδαζον κατὰ ἀκρίβειαν πάντα μανθάνειν οἱ μαθηταὶ, καὶ
ἐπεχείρουν ἵνα οὕτως εἴπω καὶ αὐτὰ περιεργάζεσθαι τὰ βάθη τοῦ Κυρίου. ἀλλ' ἦν τὸ
πρᾶγμα λίαν ὑπὲρ αὐτούς.