Judas’s softness, and the priest’s grain offering wholly burnt
Cyril: Judas too grew soft, and turned aside to greed for shameful gain; and this came from an unmanly and ignoble way of thinking. That is why he has remained without any taste of the good things that come from God, and wholly without share in the gifts given to the saints.
Palladius: So it is.
Cyril: This, then, is the law for the offering from the common flock. But he commanded that the offering from the priestly race be brought in another way, saying: ‘This is the gift of Aaron and his sons, which they shall offer to the Lord on the day when you anoint him: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a perpetual grain offering, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening. It shall be made with oil in a pan; he shall bring it kneaded, in rolls, a grain offering of broken pieces, a grain offering for a fragrant odor to the Lord. The anointed priest who succeeds him from among his sons shall make it. It is a perpetual law; all of it shall be offered. And every grain offering of a priest shall be wholly burnt; it shall not be eaten’ (Leviticus 6:20–23). See, Palladius, how exact the law is, and how finely it provides for the safety proper to holy things. Since he commanded that the offerings of the common flock should not be wholly burnt, because these people do not have a life that is entirely holy, but one divided, as it were, between God and the world, he rightly makes a distinction: he places those chosen for sacred service in the higher rank, and says that the offering made for them must be wholly burnt, as they burn to God as incense the fine flour that is brought, morning and evening, that is, through the whole day and at every season. For the chosen man is always, in some sense, holy, and has a fragrance that never ceases, a spiritual one, clearly. He is not divided between God and the world, as some are, but is in constant attendance and without distraction (1 Corinthians 7:35), wholly and entirely devoted to his own Master, and crying out, as it were: ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20). The tenth of the fine flour, then, would be a sign of a life that gives off fragrance to God at every season. But ‘in a pan,’ he says, and ‘kneaded with oil,’ and ‘he shall bring it in broken pieces’ (Leviticus 6:21). In a veiled way these signify to us: the pan, I think, what is painful; the kneading with oil, abundance joined with cheerfulness; the broken pieces, the tender and, so to speak, easily broken heart of the saints. For the life that is entirely and wholly holy will surely have to be lived amid toils, will have abundant hope in God, and will have a heart very easily broken; for hardness would least befit it. For it is written: ‘A broken and humbled heart God will not despise’ (Psalm 51:17). But the devil’s heart is set fast like a stone, and like an anvil that cannot be beaten (Job 41:24), for so Holy Scripture says. The law also extends through all time, fulfilled in the succession of those who serve as priests; for one must follow…
Greek
μένων ἀγαθῶν. Ἐμαλακίσθη δὲ καὶ Ἰούδας, ἀπονεύσας εἰς αἰσχροκέρδειαν· ἐξ ἀνάνδρου δὲ τοῦτο καὶ ἀγεννοῦς λογισμοῦ· ταύτῃτοι καὶ ἄγευστος τῶν παρὰ Θεοῦ μεμένηκεν ἀγαθῶν, καὶ ἀμέτοχος παντελῶς τῶν τοῖς ἁγίοις δεδωρημένων.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ὧδε ἔχει.
{ΚΥΡ.} Καὶ θυσίας μὲν τῆς ἐξ ἀγέλης, οὗτος ὁ νόμος· τρόπῳ γε μὴν ἑτέρῳ, τὴν ἐξ ἱεροῦ προσάγεσθαι γένους προστέταχε λέγων· «Τοῦτο τὸ δῶρον Ἀαρὼν καὶ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, ὃ προσοίσουσι Κυρίῳ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ἂν χρίσῃς αὐτὸν, τὸ δέκατον τοῦ οἰφὶ σεμιδάλεως εἰς θυσίαν διαπαντὸς, τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτῆς τοπρωῒ, καὶ τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτῆς τὸ δειλινόν. Ἐπὶ τηγάνου ἐν ἐλαίῳ ποιηθήσεται· πεφυραμένην οἴσει αὐτὴν, ἑλικτὰ, θυσίαν ἐκ κλασμάτων, θυσίαν εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας Κυρίῳ. Ὁ ἱερεὺς ὁ χριστὸς ὁ ἀντ' αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, ποιήσει αὐτήν· νόμος αἰώνιος, ἅπαν ἐπιτελεσθήσεται· καὶ πᾶσα θυσία ἱερέως ὁλόκαυτος ἔσται, καὶ οὐ βρωθήσεται.» Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν, ὦ Παλλάδιε, τοῦ νόμου τὸ ἀκριβὲς, καὶ τὸ ἄγαν ἰσχνὸν εἰς ἀσφάλειαν ἱεροπρεπῆ. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὰς τῶν ἀγελαίων θυσίας οὐχ ὁλοκαυτοῦσθαι δεῖν προστέταχεν, ἅτε δὴ μὴ εἰσάπαν ἁγίαν ἐχόντων ζωὴν, μεμερισμένην δὲ ὥσπερ Θεῷ καὶ κόσμῳ, διιστὰς εἰκότως, καὶ ἐν μοίρᾳ τιθεὶς τῇ ὑπερκειμένῃ τοὺς ἐξειλεγμένους εἰς ἱερουργίαν, ὁλόκαυτον τὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ποιεῖσθαι δεῖν ἔφη θυσίαν, τὴν προσαγομένην σεμίδαλιν καταθυμιῶντας Θεῷ πρωῒ καὶ τὸ δειλινὸν, τοῦτ' ἔστι, διὰ πάσης ἡμέρας καὶ ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ. Ἅγιος γὰρ ἀεί πώς ἐστι καὶ ἀκατάληκτον ἔχων τὴν εὐωδίαν, δῆλον δὲ ὅτι τὴν πνευματικὴν, ὁ ἐξειλεγμένος, οὐ μεμερισμένος Θεῷ τε καὶ κόσμῳ, κατά τινας, εὐπαρέδρως δὲ καὶ ἀπερισπάστως, καὶ ὅλος ἐξ ὅλου προσκείμενος τῷ ἰδίῳ Δεσπότῃ, καὶ οἱονείπως ἀναβοῶν· «Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι, ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγὼ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός.» Τὸ τοίνυν δέκατον τῆς σεμιδάλεως, ζωῆς ἂν εἴη σημεῖον, εὐωδιαζούσης Θεῷ κατὰ πάντα καιρόν. Ἀλλ' «ἐπὶ τηγάνου,» φησὶ, καὶ μὴν «καὶ ἐλαίῳ πεφυραμένην, καὶ ἐκ κλασμάτων ἀνοίσει αὐτήν·» τοῦ μὲν τηγάνου, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, τὸ ἐπώδυνον, τοῦ δὲ πεφυρᾶσθαι τῷ ἐλαίῳ, τὸ δαψιλὲς ἐν ἱλαρότητι, τοῦ δὲ ἐκ κλασμάτων, τὸ οἱονεὶ τρυφερόν τε καὶ εὐδιάθρυπτον τῆς τῶν ἁγίων καρδίας ὑποσημαινόντων ἡμῖν αἰνιγματωδῶς. Ἕψεται γὰρ πάντως τῇ εἰσάπαν καὶ ὁλοκλήρως ἁγίᾳ ζωῇ, τὸ ἐν πόνοις δεῖν εἶναι, καὶ τὸ ἀμφιλαφὲς ἐν ἐλπίδι τῇ παρὰ Θεῷ, καὶ τὸ εὐδιάθρυπτον κομιδῇ· πρέπει γὰρ ἂν ἥκιστά γε τὸ ἀτριβές. Γέγραπται γὰρ, ὅτι «Καρδίαν συντετριμμένην καὶ τεταπεινωμένην ὁ Θεὸς οὐκ ἐξουδενώσει.» Πέπηγε δὲ ὡς λίθος, καὶ ὥσπερ ἄκμων ἀνήλατος, ἡ τοῦ διαβόλου καρδία· λέγει γὰρ οὕτω τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερόν. Ἐκτείνεται δὲ καὶ μέχρι παντὸς ὁ νόμος, ταῖς τῶν ἱερατευόντων διαδοχαῖς πληρούμενος· ἕπεσθαι γὰρ δεῖ ταῖς τῶν προλαβόν