The ordination meal; Christ the calf burned outside the camp
Cyril: …‘and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the loaves in the basket at the doors of the tent of witness. They shall eat the things by which they were sanctified, to consecrate their hands and to sanctify them; and no stranger shall eat of them, for they are holy. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of consecration or of the loaves is left until morning, you shall burn what remains with fire. It shall not be eaten, for it is a holy thing.’ (Exodus 29:32–34)
Palladius: How deep a thing the commandments of the law are!
Cyril: Very deep indeed; you were right to say so. Yet they are not wholly obscure, since the Holy Spirit makes the divine light flash within us. Come, then, let us again speak of each point as best we can. Our Lord Jesus Christ sanctifies us in countless ways, and makes us sacred and acceptable. For through him and in him we have gained access (Romans 5:2), and we are not unwelcome to God the Father. For us who are subject to corruption and sin, his death is most needful and necessary for salvation; so too is his life, and besides these the perfecting that comes through his body and blood; for perfection is in Christ, not in the law (Hebrews 7:19).
Palladius: Well said.
Cyril: See, then, how the things by which we have been so fully saved and sanctified, and have become sacred and holy in Christ, are still set out in types. A young calf from the herd was brought for sacrifice, and it is slaughtered at the very doors of the holy tent after hands have been laid on it. Its blood was poured out at the altar, and the horns of the altar were smeared with it; the inward parts are sent up in smoke, ranked with the most fragrant offerings of incense; and the rest of the body is carried out beyond the camp and burned (Exodus 29:10–14). Christ is the calf, as one both free of the yoke and under the yoke. For though he is God by nature, he came under the law because of his humanity (Galatians 4:4). Is not a young calf unused to the yoke, and yet of a nature made to bear the yoke?
Palladius: It is so.
Cyril: Christ, then, is again called a calf in keeping with the plan of salvation, so that we may grasp at one and the same time both that the Godhead of the Word is a stranger to servitude, and that in his humanity he came to be in a nature that bears the yoke. He is slaughtered, as it were, for the holy tent and for those who laid their hands on him; and these are Levites and priests. For he died for the Church and for those consecrated to him through faith. That the death of Emmanuel is sacred, and acceptable to God the Father as a sacrifice, you may see from the blood poured out at the holy altar and smeared on it, and from the inward parts burned as incense. These may stand as a type of the virtues that lie within and belong to the mind. In these virtues there is a spiritual fragrance, and not in one way only, since the inward parts are many: the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver (Exodus 29:13). What is left of the body is burned outside the camp. For Christ suffered outside the gate; so Paul writes (Hebrews 13:12). And the consuming of the body by fire would signify, in a subtle way, that his suffering and death…
Greek
υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ τὰ κρέα τοῦ κριοῦ, καὶ τοὺς ἄρτους τοὺς ἐν τῷ κανῷ, παρὰ τὰς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἔδονται αὐτὰ, ἐν οἷς ἡγιάσθησαν ἐν αὐτοῖς τελειῶσαι τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν ἁγιάσαι αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀλλογενὴς οὐκ ἔδεται ἀπ' αὐτῶν· ἔστι γὰρ ἅγια. Ἐὰν δὲ καταλειφθῇ ἀπὸ τῶν κρεῶν τῆς θυσίας τῆς τελειώσεως καὶ τῶν ἄρτων ἕως πρωῒ, κατακαύσεις τὰ λοιπὰ πυρί. Οὐ βρωθήσεται· ἁγίασμα γάρ ἐστι.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὡς βαθὺ τὸ χρῆμα τῶν νομικῶν ἐνταλμάτων.
{ΚΥΡ.} Βαθὺ μὲν οὖν λίαν· ἔφης γὰρ ὀρθῶς· πλὴν οὐκ εἰσάπαν ἀσυμφανὲς, τὸ θεῖον ἐν ἡμῖν ἐναστράπτοντος φῶς τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Καὶ φέρε δὴ πάλιν, ὡς ἔνι, τὰ ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ λέγωμεν. Κατὰ μυρίους ὅσους ἡμᾶς ἁγιάζει τρόπους ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, ἱερούς τε καὶ εὐπροσδέκτους ἀποτελεῖ. Δι' αὐτοῦ γάρ τε καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τὴν προσαγωγὴν ἐσχήκαμεν, καί ἐσμεν οὐκ ἀνεθέλητοι τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί. Χρειωδέστατά τε καὶ ἀναγκαῖα πρὸς σωτηρίαν ἡμῖν, τοῖς ὑπὸ φθοράν τε καὶ ἁμαρτίαν, ὅ τε θάνατος αὐτοῦ καὶ μέν τοι καὶ ἡ ζωὴ, καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἔτι ἡ διὰ τοῦ σώματός τε καὶ αἵματος αὐτοῦ τελείωσις· ἐν Χριστῷ γὰρ δὴ, καὶ οὐκ ἐν νόμῳ τὸ τέλειον.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν ὡς ἐν τύποις ἔτι τὰ δι' ὧν εὖ μάλα σεσώσμεθά τε καὶ ἡγιάσμεθα, ἱεροί τε καὶ ἅγιοι γεγόναμεν ἐν Χριστῷ. Μοσχάριον ἦν ἐκ βοῶν τὸ εἰς θυσίαν ἠγμένον, καὶ σφάζεται μὲν πρὸς αὐταῖς ταῖς θύραις τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, ἐπενηνεγμένων αὐτῷ τῶν χειρῶν. Προσεχεῖτο δὲ τὸ αἷμα τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ, καταχριομένων αὐτῷ τῶν κεράτων· καὶ καπνίζονται μὲν ἐν τάξει τῶν εὐοσμοτάτων θυμιαμάτων τὰ ἐντόσθια. Τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ἐμπίπραται σῶμα, διακομισθὲν ἐπέκεινα τῆς παρεμβολῆς. Καὶ μοσχάριον μὲν ὁ Χριστὸς, ὡς ἔξω ζυγοῦ καὶ ὑπὸ ζυγόν. Θεὸς γὰρ ὢν φύσει γέγονεν ὑπὸ νόμον διὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. ἦ γὰρ οὐχὶ τὸ βραχὺ μοσχάριον ζυγοῦ μὲν ἄηθές ἐστι, φύσεώς γε μὴν τῆς ὑπὸ ζυγόν;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Μοσχάριον δὴ οὖν ὠνόμασται πάλιν οἰκονομικῶς ὁ Χριστὸς, ἵν' ἐν ταυτῷ νοῆται πρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ τὸ ἄηθες τῆς τοῦ Λόγου θεότητος εἰς δουλείαν, καὶ τὸ ὡς ἐν φύσει γενέσθαι τῇ ὑπὸ ζυγὸν κατά γε τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Σφάζεται δὲ ὡς ὑπέρ γε τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς καὶ τῶν ἐπιθέντων αὐτῷ τὰς χεῖρας· Λευῖται δὲ οὗτοι καὶ ἱερεῖς· ἀπέθανε γὰρ ὑπέρ τε τῆς Ἐκκλησίας καὶ τῶν αὐτῷ καθιερωμένων διὰ τῆς πίστεως. Ἱερὸς δὲ ὅτι καὶ ὡς ἐν τρόπῳ θυσίας εὐπρόσδεκτος τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ ὁ θάνατος, πάρα σοι νοεῖν, προσχεομένου τοῦ αἵματος τῷ ἁγίῳ θυσιαστηρίῳ, καὶ καταχρίοντος αὐτὸ, θυμιωμένων δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐντοσθίων, ἃ καὶ εἰς τύπον εἶεν ἂν τῶν εἰς τὸ ἔσω καὶ εἰς νοῦν ἀρετῶν, αἷς ἔνεστι μὲν τὸ εὐῶδες πνευματικῶς, οὐ καθ' ἕνα δὲ τρόπον, ἐπεί τοι πολλὰ τὰ ἐντόσθια, πιμελὴ καὶ νεφροὶ, καὶ ὁ λοβὸς τοῦ ἥπατος. Ἐμπίπραται δὲ τοῦ σώματος τὸ λειπόμενον, ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς. Ἔξω γὰρ τῆς πύλης ἔπαθεν ὁ Χριστός· γράφει δὲ οὕτως ὁ Παῦλος. Τὸ δέ γε πυρὶ δαπανᾶσθαι τὸ σῶμα κατασημήνειεν ἂν ἰσχνῶς, ὅτι τὸ πάθος αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ θά