Sacrifice only at the one sanctuary; tithes carried from far away

Cyril: …does not bring it to the doors of the tent, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from among its people.’ (Leviticus 17:3–4) At that time those who wished to sacrifice were under every necessity to come to the temple and to the holy city itself, and to complete the sacred rites lawfully, with those of the blood of Levi presenting the offerings. You can hear this plainly from God, who says clearly in Deuteronomy: ‘You may not eat in your cities the tithe of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep, nor any of the vows that you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the first fruits of your hands; but you shall eat it only before the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord your God chooses for himself, you and your sons, and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite and the stranger who is in your cities; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand. Take care that you do not forsake the Levite for as long as he lives on the earth.’ (Deuteronomy 12:17–19) For the Divine is unapproachable, and a sacrifice without a Levite is unacceptable, since the Levites act as mediators, imitating the Mediator between God and humans, that is, Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). And the law showed plainly that the Church is one and the mystery of Christ is one, and that a sacrifice not performed in the Church is unlawful, or rather is to be rejected and cannot please God; I mean that it showed this by laying down that the sacred rites must not be performed outside the holy tent. You will learn from this too how much care was taken over such matters. It was not at all unlikely, indeed it was the case, that the cities throughout the whole of Judea, which were not easily counted, were separated from Jerusalem by the great distances lying between. And what hardship and toil followed from this? That those who wished to offer first fruits of grain, and of oil and wine as well, had to be able to carry them over so long a road. The labor involved might perhaps have made some reluctant. Yet it was unseemly, indeed utterly out of place, that because the thing was hard and not easy to accomplish for those who lived farther away, the beauty of the truth should be impaired, with the Israelites not bringing their offerings to the holy tent. So, in order that every obstacle in the way might be usefully removed for us, and that the law on this matter might from then on be carried out as the lawgiver intended, Moses gives instruction and sets out the divine will in Deuteronomy, saying: ‘You shall set apart a tenth of all the produce of your seed, the produce of your field, year by year, and you shall eat it before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses for his name to be called upon. There you shall bring the tithes of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and of your sheep, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God at all times. But if the road is too long for you, and you are not able to carry them up… (Deuteronomy 14:22–24)