Leavened and unleavened bread in the sacrifice of praise
Cyril: …the catechumen too, who is still under instruction; and after he has offered the praise together with the perfect, he withdraws from the more sacred mysteries and is kept from the sacrifice that is in Christ. This is why the law did well to foretell this arrangement, when it commanded that the sacrifice of praise be made with leavened loaves and with unleavened wafers (Leviticus 7:12–13). Each of the things named, I think, points to a kind of life. The leavened bread will be a type of a life not yet cleansed through holy baptism, nor yet wholly freed from the world’s uncleanness. The unleavened wafer is a type of the life already washed clean in Christ through faith: the life of the perfect, I mean, whom the inspired Paul also addressed when he said: ‘Let us therefore keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth’ (1 Corinthians 5:8). And again: ‘So cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened’ (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Palladius: Very well said.
Cyril: Besides these, the fine flour, not yet brought together into one mass as it is in a loaf or a wafer, but still remaining, as it were, in its grains, hints that each of those who offer the praise does so as one by himself. For we are acceptable to God when we give him glory both each of us on our own and all of us together as one company. Oil is poured on the sacrifice of praise, signifying the gladness of the act, and that mercy from God will in every way and without fail follow those who are accustomed to offer it. For it says: ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High; and call upon me in the day of your affliction, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me’ (Psalm 50:14–15). And the disciple of Christ also writes: ‘Is anyone among you downcast? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise’ (James 5:13). So the law clearly showed in figure that the sacrifice of praise must be carried out with leavened loaves, with unleavened wafers, and with fine flour still in its grains. One portion of each was brought forward (Leviticus 7:14), and of the fine flour, as it were, a single handful; a sheep was slaughtered and its inner parts were burnt according to the law; and the rest was food for those appointed to serve as priests, the law thus showing that the priesthood does not go unrewarded. And it adds a further command: ‘On the day it is offered it shall be eaten; they shall not leave any of it until the morning’ (Leviticus 7:15). Through this, again, we may perhaps understand something like this: when the time has run its course, and the present age has passed like a day, another manner of giving glory, beyond those we know, will be devised for us. For just as those under the law, when they had been set free from Pharaoh’s tyranny, said with joy: ‘Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been greatly glorified; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea’ (Exodus 15:1); and just as some of the saints, foreseeing in the Spirit the achievements of our Savior’s coming, which are incomparably brighter and greater, cried aloud: ‘Sing to the Lord a new song’ (Psalm 98:1), and this was: ‘God has gone up with a shout’ (Psalm 47:5), when he had despoiled Hades, ‘and said
Greek
καὶ ὁ κατηχούμενος ἔτι, καὶ τοῖς τελείοις συναναθεὶς τὴν αἴνεσιν, τῶν ἔτι μυστικωτέρων ἀποφοιτᾷ, καὶ θυσίας εἴργεται τῆς ἐπὶ Χριστῷ. Ταύτῃτοι καλῶς ὁ νόμος προανεφώνει τὴν οἰκονομίαν, καὶ τῆς αἰνέσεως τὴν θυσίαν, ἐπ' ἄρτοις ζυμίταις, καὶ ἐν ἀζύμοις λαγάνοις ποιεῖσθαι προστέταχεν. Ἑκάστου, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, τῶν ὠνομασμένων, ζωῆς εἶδος ὑποσημαίνοντος· ἄρτος μὲν γὰρ ὁ ἐζυμωμένος, βίου καὶ ζωῆς ἔσται τύπος, τῆς οὔπω κεκαθαρμένης διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου βαπτίσματος, οὔτε μὴν εἰσάπαν ἀπηλλαγμένης κοσμικῆς ἀκαθαρσίας· λάγανον δὲ ἄζυμον, τῆς ἤδη διεσμηγμένης ἐν Χριστῷ διὰ πίστεως, τῆς τῶν τελείων, φημὶ, οἷς καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος προσεφώνει, λέγων· «Ὥστε ἑορτάζωμεν, μὴ ἐν ζύμῃ παλαιᾷ, μηδὲ ἐν ζύμῃ κακίας καὶ πονηρίας, ἀλλ' ἐν ἀζύμοις εἰλικρινείας καὶ ἀληθείας.» Καὶ πάλιν· «Ἐκκαθάρατε οὖν τὴν παλαιὰν ζύμην, ἵνα ἦτε νέον φύραμα, καθώς ἐστε ἄζυμοι.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἄριστα ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Σεμίδαλις δὲ πρὸς τούτοις οὔπω πρὸς ἑνότητα συνενηνεγμένη, καθὰ καὶ ἐν ἄρτῳ καὶ ἐν λαγάνῳ τυχὸν, μένουσα δὲ ὥσπερ ἐν κόκκοις ἔτι, τὸ ὡς ἓν καθ' ἕκαστον καὶ καθ' ἕνα τῶν προσκομιζόντων τὴν αἴνεσιν ὑπαινίττεται· δεκτοὶ γάρ ἐσμεν τῷ Θεῷ, ποιούμενοι τὰς δοξολογίας, καὶ ἀνὰ μέρος ἕκαστος, καὶ ὡς ἓν οἱ πάντες κατὰ πληθύν. Ἐπιχεῖται δὲ τὸ ἔλαιον τῇ τῆς αἰνέσεως θυσίᾳ, τὸ ἱλαρὸν τοῦ πράγματος ὑποσημαῖνον, καὶ ὅτι πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἕψεται παρὰ Θεῷ τὸ ἐλεεῖσθαι δεῖν τοῖς προσάγειν εἰωθόσιν αὐτήν. «Θῦσον γὰρ, φησὶ, τῷ Θεῷ θυσίαν αἰνέσεως, καὶ ἀπόδος τῷ Ὑψίστῳ τὰς εὐχάς σου· καὶ ἐπικάλεσαί με ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θλίψεώς σου, καὶ ἐξελοῦμαί σε, καὶ δοξάσεις με.» Γράφει δέ που καὶ ὁ Χριστοῦ μαθητής· «Ἀθυμεῖ τις ἐν ὑμῖν; προσευχέσθω· εὐθυμεῖ; ψαλλέτω.» Οὐκοῦν ἐν ἄρτοις ἐζυμωμένοις, καὶ ἐν ἀζύμοις λαγάνοις, καὶ ἐν κεγχρεμίσιν ἔτι σεμιδάλεως ἐκπράττεσθαι δεῖν τῆς αἰνέσεως τὴν θυσίαν, διετύπου σαφῶς· ἑνὸς δὲ ἀφ' ἑκάστου προσαγομένου, καὶ ὡς ἐν δρακὶ μιᾷ τῆς σεμιδάλεως, σφαζομένου τε προβάτου, καὶ τῶν ἐντοσθίων θυομένων κατὰ τὸν νόμον, ἐδώδιμα τὰ λοιπὰ τοῖς ἱερουργεῖν ἐπιτεταγμένοις, οὐκ ἀκερδῆ τὴν ἱερωσύνην καταδεικνύντος τοῦ νόμου· προσεπιτάττει λέγων· «Ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ δωρεῖται, βρωθήσεται· οὐ καταλείψουσιν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ πρωΐ.» Δι' οὗ δὴ πάλιν ἔπεισι νοεῖν ἐκεῖνό που τάχα· παρελάσαντος γὰρ τοῦ καιροῦ, καὶ παρῳχηκότος τοῦ αἰῶνος τοῦ ἐνεστηκότος καθάπερ ἡμέρας, δοξολογίας ἡμῖν ἐπινοηθήσεται παρ' οὓς ἴσμεν τρόπος ἕτερος. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τῆς ἐπὶ τῷ Φαραὼ δυναστείας ἐλευθερωθέντες ἡδόμενοι ἐν νόμῳ ἔλεγον, «Ἄσωμεν τῷ Κυρίῳ· ἐνδόξως γὰρ δεδόξασται· ἵππον καὶ ἀναβάτην ἔῤῥιψεν εἰς θάλασσαν.» Λαμπρότερα δὲ ἀσυγκρίτως καὶ ὑπερκείμενα προαναθεωροῦντες ἐν πνεύματι τῆς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιδημίας τὰ κατορθώματα, διακεκράγασι τῶν ἁγίων τινές· «Ἄσατε τῷ Κυρίῳ ᾆσμα καινόν·» τοῦτο δὲ ἦν, «Ἀνέβη ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἀλαλαγμῷ,» σκυλεύσας τὸν ᾅδην, «καὶ εἰπὼν