Sacrifice in the wilderness; idle, you are idle

Cyril went on: That is, either one who has ended by a law of nature, or one forced out by the murderers. For you, he said, have temples and precincts, bolts and gates, inside which, having perhaps run in, it will be possible to sacrifice purely, as you yourselves think according to yourselves; but we, sacrificing of necessity in the middle of a city, in crossroads and in fields, are defiled by the sights of the dead. For there is wholly nothing to keep it off by bounds. And the word of the history would have for us the persuasive in the customs of the Egyptians, and what was said by Moses, who was wise in all things, would be rightly said, even if it should be understood spiritually. For we must sacrifice as in a wilderness, and complete a holy feast to God, setting out from the Egyptians', and also refuse the sight of death. For with a leisured mind, and one that has come to stand far from being darkened in a worldly way, and setting the eye free from the things that carry it down into deadness and corruption, we shall sacrifice purely to the God who rules all. And dead works would be the things of the flesh. And worldly darkening is the muddying from evil and vain distractions, defiling the clean and clear ether of the mind. That it is fitting for those who wish to worship purely to be separated from these, the word of the history also persuades us.

Palladius said: And this at least is not unclear; so complete for me what follows.

Cyril: So then a hard-to-bear and sharp longing for the ancient freedom ran in, I think, upon those from Israel; and already having turned aside toward this, they provoked terribly to angers the one who binds them in the yokes of slavery. And saying that the desires upon such things are a work of leisure, he commands that the sweat upon the works be stretched tight for them, the accustomed quota being demanded without delay, and the distribution of the straw being cut off from them contrary to custom; for he said that 'You are idle, you are idlers; because of this you say, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Now then go and work; for the straw shall not be given, and you yourselves shall give the quota of the brickmaking. So the scribes of the sons of Israel saw themselves in evils, saying: You shall not fall short of the brickmaking, the due for the day. And they met Moses and Aaron coming to meet them, as they were going out from Pharaoh, and they said to them: May God look upon you, and judge, because you have made our smell abominable before Pharaoh and before his servants, to give a sword into his hands to kill us.' For, my friend, do you not say it is exact, that whenever someone should choose to loose himself from the yoke of the devil's greed, and to take up instead the bright and free boast of the worship toward God, and to be still and to know the true Master, according to what is sung in the Psalms: 'Be still and know that I am the Lord God,' he will accuse us of the leisure and will upon this as an unholy thing.