Salt on the offering, sober priests, and the law that teaches Christ
Cyril: ‘…you shall offer salt to the Lord your God’ (Leviticus 2:13). The sacrifice was sprinkled with salt, the type signifying that one must be consecrated to God with understanding, and make one’s approach to him, as it were, most savoury. For bread will not be eaten without salt, as it is written (Job 6:6). Christ said to the holy apostles: ‘You are the salt of the earth’ (Matthew 5:13).
Palladius: Well said.
Cyril: These, then, are the laws by which those who have been sanctified ought to serve as priests. But those who have been chosen, on whom the best verdict has fallen, must keep away both from profane company and from worldly care. Through such care even a steady mind may become drunk, and all but be toppled into improper pleasures. He makes this clear when he says in Leviticus: ‘You shall not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons with you, whenever you go into the tent of witness or approach the altar, so that you do not die. It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, to distinguish between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean. And you shall teach the sons of Israel all the statutes that the Lord spoke to them by the hand of Moses’ (Leviticus 10:9–11).
See, then, that they must keep awake. To handle the sacred liturgy with a darkened mind, and with an anxious heart that is drunk with worldly things, brings death; for some are drunk without wine. For at times the mind, unable to walk upright, slips away toward what is unseemly; the sacred things fall into disarray, and what is performed is no longer in good order but is thrown, as it were, off the straight road. Those who suffer this cannot help but offend God and endure bitter penalties for their carelessness. So one must keep awake and shake off the drunkenness that comes from worldly care. The Savior himself also urges this when he says: ‘Take care that your hearts are not weighed down by anxiety and the cares of this life’ (Luke 21:34).
What our way of sobriety would be, and how we shall remain unprofaned and clean and free of punishment, he indicated at once. For ‘distinguish,’ He says, ‘between holy and profane, and between clean and unclean; and you shall teach the sons of Israel all the statutes that the Lord spoke by the hand of Moses’ (Leviticus 10:10–11). This plainly means that the priests, having shaken off drunkenness, ought to keep away from men who are not holy but profane and unclean. And I think a man would do this very easily if he is himself unprofaned and clean; for ‘every living creature,’ it says, ‘loves its like, and a man will cling to one like himself’ (Sirach 13:15–16).
Besides this, they ought to be wise and able to teach; for whoever has charge of the rational flock must be sober and able to teach (1 Timothy 3:2). He puts it very well when he says, ‘You shall teach,’ that is, ‘You shall make plain,’ so that the hearers may be able to see that the law is a tutor (Galatians 3:24) and speaks the mystery of Christ. For nothing in it is hard to grasp or needs teaching, unless it is understood spiritually; for the historical account is entirely simple and free of the shadows of obscurity.
Greek
οίσετε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ὑμῶν ἅλα.» Κατεπάττετο δὲ ἁλσὶν ἡ θυσία, τοῦ τύπου σημαίνοντος τὸ ἐμφρόνως χρῆναι καθιεροῦσθαι Θεῷ, καὶ οἱονεὶ ποιεῖσθαι νοστιμωτάτην αὐτῷ τὴν πρόσοδον. Οὐ γὰρ βρωθήσεται ἄρτος ἄνευ ἅλατος, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον. «Ὑμεῖς ἐστε τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς,» τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀποστόλοις προσπεφώνηκεν ὁ Χριστός.
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Εὖ ἔφης.
{ΚΥΡ.} Νόμοι μὲν οὖν οἴδε εἰσὶ, καθ' οὓς ἱερᾶσθαι πρέπει τοὺς ἡγιασμένους. Ὅτι δὲ τοὺς ἐξειλεγμένους, ἀρίστην ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς λαχόντας τὴν ψῆφον, ἀποφοιτᾷν ἀναγκαῖον καὶ βεβήλου συνουσίας, καὶ μερίμνης κοσμικῆς, ἐφ' ἧς ἂν γένοιτο καὶ τὸν εὖ βεβηκότα καταμεθύσκεσθαι νοῦν, καὶ μονονουχὶ κατασείεσθαι πρὸς ἐκτόπους ἡδονὰς, διασαφηνιεῖ λέγων ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ· «Οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ πίεσθε, σὺ καὶ οἱ υἱοί σου μετὰ σοῦ, ἡνίκα ἂν εἰσπορεύησθε εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ μαρτυρίου, ἢ προπορευομένων ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ θυσιαστήριον καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀποθάνητε· νόμιμον αἰώνιον εἰς τὰς γενεὰς ὑμῶν διαστεῖλαι ἀναμέσον τῶν ἁγίων καὶ τῶν βεβήλων, καὶ ἀναμέσον τῶν ἀκαθάρτων καὶ τῶν καθαρῶν. Καὶ συμβιβάσεις τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ ἅπαντα τὰ νόμιμα ἃ ἐλάλησε Κύριος πρὸς αὐτοὺς διὰ χειρὸς Μωσῆ.» Ἄθρει δὴ οὖν τὸ ἐγρηγορέναι δεῖν ἀναγκαῖον αὐτοῖς, καὶ θανάτου πρόξενον, τῷ νῷ κατεσκοτισμένῳ καὶ πεφροντισμένῃ καρδίᾳ, καὶ μέθην ἐχούσῃ κοσμικήν· μεθύουσι γὰρ ἄνευ οἴνου τινὲς, τὸ λειτουργίας ἅπτεσθαι τῆς ἱερᾶς. Οἴχεται γὰρ ἔσθ' ὅτε πρὸς τὸ ἀκαλλὲς ὁ νοῦς ὀρθοποδεῖν οὐκ ἔχων, καὶ διαπίπτει τὰ ἱερὰ, καὶ ἐν κόσμῳ μὲν οὐκέτι τὰ δρώμενα, διέῤῥιπται δὲ ὥσπερ τῆς εὐθείας ὁδοῦ· ὃ δὴ πεπονθότας, ἀνάγκη προσκρούειν Θεῷ, καὶ πικρὰς τῆς ῥᾳθυμίας ἀνατλῆναι δίκας. Ἐγρηγορέναι δὴ οὖν ἀναγκαῖον, μέθνη ἀποσειομένους, τὴν ἐκ μερίμνης κοσμικῆς. Τοῦτό τοι δρᾷν καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Σωτὴρ ἀναπείθει, λέγων· «Προσέχετε μήποτε βαρυνθῶσιν αἱ καρδίαι ὑμῶν φροντίδι καὶ μερίμναις βιωτικαῖς.» Τίς δ' ἂν γένοιτο πρὸς ἡμῶν ὁ τῆς νήψεως τρόπος, ἢ πῶς ἀβέβηλοί τε καὶ καθαροὶ καὶ δίκης ἔξω μενοῦμεν, ὑπεσήμανεν εὐθύς. «Διάστειλαι γὰρ, φησὶν, ἀνὰ μέσον ἁγίου καὶ βεβήλου, καὶ καθαροῦ καὶ ἀκαθάρτου· καὶ συμβιβάσεις τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἅπαντα τὰ νόμιμα, ἃ ἐλάλησε Κύριος ἐν χειρὶ Μωσῆ.» Τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἐναργῶς ἐκεῖνο εἰπεῖν, ὅτι προσήκει τοὺς ἱερέας τὸ μεθύειν ἀποσειομένους, ἀποφοιτᾷν ἀνδρῶν οὐχ ἁγίων, βεβήλων δὲ καὶ ἀκαθάρτων. Δρῴη δ' ἂν, οἶμαι, τὶς αὐτὸ καὶ μάλα ῥᾳδίως, ἀβέβηλός τε ὑπάρχων καὶ καθαρός· «Πᾶν γὰρ ζῶον, φησὶν, ἀγαπᾷ τὸ ὅμοιον αὐτῷ, καὶ τῷ ὁμοίῳ αὐτοῦ προσκολληθήσεται ἀνήρ.» Καὶ πρός γε δὴ τούτῳ, σοφοὺς εἶναι προσήκει καὶ διδακτικούς· ὁ γάρ τοι τῆς λογικῆς ἀγέλης προσεγκείμενος, νηφάλιος ἔστω καὶ διδακτικός. Εὖ γε δὴ σφόδρα τὸ, Συμβιβάσεις, φησὶ, τοῦτ' ἔστι, σαφηνιεῖς, ὡς ἰσχύσαι συνιδεῖν τοὺς ἀκροωμένους, ὡς ἔστι παιδαγωγὸς ὁ νόμος, καὶ λαλεῖ τὸ Χριστοῦ μυστήριον· δυσέφικτον γὰρ οὐδέν. ἢ συμβιβασμοῦ δεόμενον, εἰ μὴ νοοῖτο πνευματικῶς· κομιδῇ γὰρ ἁπλοῦς καὶ τῶν ἀσαφείας κατασκιασμάτων ὁ τῆς ἱστορίας ἀπήλλακται λόγος.