Salt of earth; wine ban = sober mind; separate holy/profane; law pedagogue of Christ

Cyril: …you will bring salt to Lord your God.’ And the sacrifice was being sprinkled with salts, the type signaling that one must be consecrated to God thoughtfully, and as it were make the approach most tasty for him. For bread will not be eaten without salt, according to what has been written. ‘You are the salt of the earth,’ (Sirach 13:15) Christ has addressed to the holy apostles.

Palladius: You spoke well.

Cyril: So then these are laws, according to which those sanctified must priest. And that those chosen, having obtained the best vote upon themselves, must necessarily depart both from profane intercourse, and from worldly care, upon which even the well-standing mind would become drunk, and only not be shaken toward outlandish pleasures, he will make clear saying in Leviticus: ‘Wine and sikera you will not drink, you and your sons with you, whenever you should go into the tent of the witness, or with you going forward unto the altar, and you will not die; eternal lawful into your generations to distinguish between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean. And you will bring-together for the sons of Israel all the lawfulls which the Lord spoke toward them through hand of Moses.’ (Leviticus 2:13) So then observe the needing to be awake necessary for them, and procuring of death, for the mind having been darkened and a heart having been cared, and having worldly drunkenness; for some are drunk without wine, the touching of the sacred liturgy. For sometimes the mind goes off toward the unbeautiful not having to walk-straight, and the sacred things fall through, and the things done are no longer in world, but have been scattered as it were from the straight road; which indeed having suffered, necessity to collide with God, and to endure bitter justices of the easiness. So then to be awake is necessary, shaking off drunkennesses, the from worldly care. This indeed the Savior himself also persuades to do, saying: ‘Take heed lest ever your hearts be weighed with care and worldly cares.’ (Matthew 5:13) And what would be by us the manner of the sobriety, or how we will remain both unprofane and clean and outside justice, he under-signaled at once. ‘For distinguish,’ (Galatians 3:24) he says, ‘between holy and profane, and clean and unclean; and you will bring-together the sons of Israel all the lawfulls which the Lord spoke in hand of Moses.’ (Leviticus 10:9–11) And this is clearly to say that, that it is fitting for the priests shaking off the being drunk, to depart from men not holy, but profane and unclean. And one would do it, I think, also very easily, being both unprofane and clean; ‘For every living thing,’ he says, ‘loves the like to it, and a man will be glued to his like.’ (Luke 21:34) And besides this indeed, it is fitting to be wise and teachable; for the one lying-near the rational flock, let him be sober and teachable. And very well indeed the, You will bring-together, he says, that is, you will clarify, so that the hearers may be strong to see-together, that the law is a pedagogue, and speaks the mystery of Christ; for nothing is hard-to-reach. Or needing bringing-together, if it should not be thought spiritually; for altogether simple and released from the shadowings of unclarity is the word of the history.