The two calves and the people's hands on the Levites
Cyril: …works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16). So it must be that those who are truly holy and consecrated carry about in their own body, purely both within and without, the dying of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:10), and are in some way joined with him through holy baptism.
Palladius: You have spoken well.
Cyril: He said that the sacrifice for them must be offered with two calves, one full-grown and one a year old, that is, tender and young (Numbers 8:8). The full-grown one is for the whole burnt offering, and fine flour mixed with oil is burned together with it; the other, for sin, is burned outside the camp (Leviticus 4:12), for that is how the sacrifices for sin are completed. And here again Christ is in both. In the calf for the whole burnt offering he is wholly holy and a sweet-smelling fragrance to God the Father on our behalf (Ephesians 5:2), bringing to the saints the delight and gladness of the life that is in hope; for the fine flour mixed with oil was offered up together with the calf, and it will surely, I think, follow those who have honored the life that is in Christ. He is also the young calf for sin, consumed by fire, for ‘by his wound we were healed’ (Isaiah 53:5), as the Scriptures say. Notice that the full-grown calf is burned whole, while the yearling is slaughtered for sin (Numbers 8:12), so that through the two you may understand at once the One: most fragrant in a spiritual sense, as in the perfection of virtues, and slaughtered, as in simplicity and innocence. For he says: ‘I, like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know’ (Jeremiah 11:19). The laying on of hands by the people of Israel would show that the priestly race is brought to God as an offering on behalf of all and from all together. For he says: ‘The sons of Israel shall lay their hands on the heads of the Levites’ (Numbers 8:10). The Levites laid their hands on the heads of the sacrificial victims, which were slaughtered on their behalf as a type of Christ (Numbers 8:12). They did this not to bless them in any way, far from it, but as though by the laying on of hands to point to the God who bears our sins (Isaiah 53:4) and is offered in sacrifice for us, so that he might nail to his own cross the record of debt that stood against us (Colossians 2:14). You will understand that the people’s ordination of the Levites was carried out in the same way. For when they laid their hands on them, it was as though they were setting them before God in their own place for the sacred service, as chosen men. Then, the laying on of hands was the practice. But now that things have passed over to what is incomparably better, the people vote for those who are called through Christ to the sacred service, joining heartily in the cry that they are worthy; and they do this in the churches, just as, of course, those of old performed the laying on of hands upon the Levites at the sacred and divine tabernacle (Numbers 8:10). It is plain, then, that if an ordination took place neither in church nor in the presence of the people, it would be contrary to the divine will and outside the sacred laws. Once the Levites have been consecrated, they handle everything that belongs to the sacred service (Numbers 8:15).
Greek
ἔργα ὑμῶν, καὶ δοξάσωσι τὸν Πατέρα ὑμῶν τὸν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.» Εἶναι δὴ οὖν ἀναγκαῖον τοὺς ἀληθῶς ἁγίους καὶ ἱεροὺς, ἔσωθέν τε καὶ ἔξωθεν καθαρῶς τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ περιφέροντας ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι, καὶ συντεθειμένους αὐτῷ τρόπον τινὰ διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Προσκομίζεσθαι δὲ δεῖν τὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἔφη θυσίαν ἐν μόσχοις δυσὶ, τελείῳ τε καὶ ἐνιαυσίῳ, τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἁπαλῷ τε καὶ νέῳ· καὶ τέλειος μὲν, ὁ εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα, συνθυμιωμένης αὐτῷ σεμιδάλεως ἐλαίῳ δεδευμένης· ὅγε μὴν ἕτερος, ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς ἐμπιπρᾶται· τελειοῦται γὰρ οὕτω τὰ ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας θύματα. Καὶ ἔστι δὴ πάλιν ἐν ἀμφοῖν ὁ Χριστὸς, ἐν μόσχῳ μὲν τῷ εἰς ὁλοκαύτωσιν, ὅλος ἅγιος, καὶ εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ τῆς ἐν ἐλπίδι ζωῆς τὸ εὔχαρί τε καὶ ἱλαρὸν τοῖς ἁγίοις φέρων· σεμίδαλις γὰρ ἐλαιόδευτος συνανεκομίζετο τῷ μόσχῳ· ἕψεται δέ που πάντως τοῖς τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ τετιμηκόσι ζωήν. Καὶ μὴν καὶ ὡς μοσχάριον ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας πυρὶ δαπανώμενον. «Τῷ γὰρ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἰάθημεν,» κατὰ τὰς Γραφάς. Ἐπιτήρει δὲ, ὅτι τέλειος μὲν ὁλοκαυτοῦται μόσχος, ἐνιαύσιος δὲ ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας σφάζεται· ἵνα ἐν ταὐτῷ νοῇς διὰ δυοῖν τὸν ἕνα ὡς ἐν τελειότητι μὲν ἀρετῶν, τὸν εὐοσμότατον νοητῶς, ὡς ἐν ἁπλότητι δὲ καὶ ἀκακίᾳ σφαζόμενον. «Ἐγὼ γὰρ,» φησὶν, «ὡς ἀρνίον ἄκακον ἀγόμενον τοῦ θύεσθαι οὐκ ἔγνων.» Ὅτι δὲ ὡς ὑπὲρ πάντων τε ἅμα καὶ παρὰ πάντων ἀνάθημα τῷ Θεῷ τὸ ἱερουργὸν προσάγεται γένος, ἐνδείξειεν ἂν ἡ χειρῶν ἐπίθεσις τῶν ἐξ Ἰσραήλ. «Ἐπιθήσουσι γὰρ,» φησὶν, «οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰσραὴλ τὰς χεῖρας ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς τῶν Λευϊτῶν.» Ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ Λευῗται ταῖς τῶν θυμάτων κεφαλαῖς τὰς χεῖρας ἐπῆγον, καὶ τοῖς σφαζομένοις ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ (ἔδρων δὲ τοῦτο, οὐκ εὐλογοῦντές ποθεν, πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ, ἀλλ' οἱονεί πως τῇ τῶν χειρῶν ἐπιθέσει καταδεικνύντες τὸν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν φέροντα Θεὸν, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἱερουργούμενον, ἵνα «Προσηλώσῃ τῷ ἰδίῳ σταυρῷ τὸ καθ' ἡμῶν χειρόγραφον»)· οὕτω πεπρᾶχθαι νοήσεις τὴν τοῖς Λευΐταις χειροτονίαν τῶν λαῶν. Οἱονεὶ γάρ πως ἀνθ' ἑαυτῶν τῷ Θεῷ πρὸς ἱερουργίαν προκαθίσαντες αὐτοὺς, ὡς ἐξειλεγμένους, τὰς κεῖρας ἐπῆγον. Ἀλλ' ἐπράττετο μὲν ἡ χειρῶν ἐπίθεσις τότε. Μετεῤῥυηκότων δὲ τῶν πραγμάτων νυνὶ εἰς τὸ ἄμεινον, ἀσυγκρίτως τοῖς ἐπὶ ἱερουργίαν διὰ Χριστοῦ καλουμένοις ἐπιψηφίζονται λαοὶ, τὸ ὡς εἶεν ἄξιοι παραφωνοῦντες εὖ μάλα· καὶ τοῦτο ἐν Ἐκκλησίαις, καθάπερ ἀμέλει καὶ οἱ πάλαι, παρὰ τῇ ἱερᾷ τε καὶ θείᾳ σκηνῇ, τὰς ἐπὶ τοῖς Λευΐταις χειροθεσίας ἔδρων. Πρόδηλον οὖν ὅτι εἰ μήτε ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ, μήτε μὴν ἐπὶ λαοῦ χειροτονία γένοιτο, παρὰ τὴν θείαν ἔσται βούλησιν, καὶ ἔξω νόμων τῶν ἱερῶν. Τετελειωμένοι δὲ οἱ Λευῗται, τῶν εἰς ἱερουργίαν ἅπτονται πάντων.