Priests and people offer themselves to God

Palladius: I understand what you mean.

Cyril: For my part, I think that the sacrifice for Aaron and for the people neatly hints at the consecration of the saints to God. Emmanuel has now been revealed and has made plain all that concerns him; through him we have been called to sanctification, made acceptable and consecrated, and dedicated to the Father for a fragrant aroma. For notice that, through the rites just described, the perfecting of the priests was carried out according to the law, while it was through him, in turn, that they were sanctified in many ways. For he was burned like a calf outside the camp for sin (Leviticus 9:11); he was offered up in smoke like a ram duly burned whole, all of him, limb by limb, as though for each one and for all (Leviticus 9:13); and he sanctified them by anointing them with blood, as the ram of salvation. Now that the eighth day has dawned, that is, the day on which the glory of Christ became more manifest, when death was abolished and corruption trampled down, priests and people alike bear fruit for God. They do not honor him with things foreign to them, nor delight the Master of all with things from outside, as Israel according to the flesh did (1 Corinthians 10:18), but they show themselves to be a fragrant sacrifice. For in a way, as if in the likeness of the victims, we offer up our own souls in sacrifice and bring them to God. We die to the world and to minding the things of the flesh (Romans 8:5), we endure the putting to death of the passions, and we are all but crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:19–20), so that, passing over to a holy and blameless life, we may live as he wills. The inspired Paul, too, writes something of this kind: ‘Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body’ (2 Corinthians 4:10). And again: ‘If we endure, we shall also reign with him’ (2 Timothy 2:12). If we are conformed to his death and his sufferings, as it is written, we shall share in the resurrection and the glory as well (Philippians 3:10–11). So then Christ suffered for us outside the gate, as the blessed Paul says, and we too go out of the gate, bearing his reproach (Hebrews 13:12–13); slain in the same way, like a young calf, and burned whole like a ram, we make our life in Christ fragrant to God. These, then, are the victims offered for Aaron and for those with him and descended from him. For the people, a male goat is the sin offering (Leviticus 9:15). And why is that, when a young calf was offered for the cleansing of the priests? Everything that belongs to the priests stands higher: the bringing of sacrifices and the rites of cleansing and purification. And a young calf is larger in body than a goat, and so displays a clear token of the spiritual pre-eminence found in the realities themselves. The young calf and the lamb for the whole burnt offering (Leviticus 9:3) hint at the infancy in Christ of those consecrated in faith. The calf and the ram signify very well endurance and courage, and fruitfulness in gentleness: the calf is the type of the first, the ram of the second (Leviticus 9:4). The fine flour soaked with oil (Leviticus 9:4) shows very clearly the bright hope of the life in Christ. For it is not in gloom and tears…