Sacred vestments kept from common use; the law of the grain offering

Cyril: And so that those chosen for sacred service may know the surpassing holiness of the divine altar, he attaches reverence even to the sacred vestments themselves. For with wise provision he does not allow them to appear outside the tent in their sacred dress. For he means: let not the holy things, after contact with the unclean and carrying defilement from what is foreign, wrong the reverence due to the holy tent. For this reason he directs them to gather the ash dressed in sacred vesture, but to change their clothes when they carry it outside and leave the holy places (Leviticus 6:10–11). A command akin to this was also given through the voice of Ezekiel, who writes thus: ‘And he said to me: The chambers on the north and the chambers on the south, which face the open spaces, these are the chambers of the sanctuary, in which the priests, the sons of Zadok, who draw near to the Lord, to the most holy things, shall eat; and there they shall lay the most holy things and the grain offerings, and the offerings for sin and the offerings for ignorance, for the place is holy. No one shall enter except the priests; they shall not go out from the court of the sanctuary into the outer court, so that those who bring the offerings may be holy always, and may not touch their vestments in which they minister, for these are holy; and they shall put on other garments when they touch the people’ (Ezekiel 42:13–14). So the very vestments of the priests are holy, and kept apart from the common people. And the whole burnt offering burns night and day (Leviticus 6:9–13), for the fragrance of Christ never ceases. And the life of the saints too, if it is understood after the manner of a whole burnt offering, has a fragrance without end; for they give off the fragrance of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15), offering to God, as priests, what the gospel way of life gives them to boast of, as it were, in works.

Palladius: What you say is true.

Cyril: How the matter of the whole burnt offering stands is not unclear from what we have said. And how the rite of the grain offering, too, may be carried out quite correctly he lays down in these words: ‘This is the law of the grain offering, which the sons of Aaron shall bring before the Lord, in front of the altar. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour of the offering, with its oil and with all its frankincense that is on the offering; and he shall bring it up on the altar as an offering by fire, a fragrant odor, its memorial to the Lord. And what is left of it Aaron and his sons shall eat. It shall be eaten unleavened in a holy place; in the court of the tent of witness they shall eat it. It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it to them as their portion from the Lord’s offerings by fire. It is most holy, like the sin offering and like the guilt offering. Every male among the priests shall eat it. It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, from the Lord’s offerings by fire. Whoever touches them shall be made holy’ (Leviticus 6:14–18). So the whole burnt offerings signify the complete, so to speak, and entire dedication of those who are especially holy, while the grain offering signifies the life that is holy in part and lived under God.