Oven and grill mean trial; the unblemished calf of the peace offering
Cyril: For the oven and the grill, and also being ground fine in a mill, would surely be signs of the crushing and toil of those who are tested as if by fire. That is why those who walk so glorious a path cry out: ‘For you have tested us, O God; you have tried us by fire, as silver is tried by fire’ (Psalm 66:10). And the inspired David sings to us somewhere: ‘A crushed and humbled heart God will not despise’ (Psalm 51:17). But that those who have toiled in this way would fittingly, and in every respect, come to be in the fragrance of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15), and indeed that they must also receive mercy and be richly nourished by the grace of the Spirit, would be plain to anyone who considers the use of the frankincense and the oil. Or are not the things in the law, in a way, hints and shadows of subtle riddles for us?
Palladius: Certainly.
Cyril: So we shall offer ourselves to God, being made dead to sin and undergoing this sacred death in a spiritual sense, yet living to righteousness, as it is written (1 Peter 2:24), and rendering to him, as a kind of thank offering, our own life, glorious and blameless, and made beautiful by all that love for God can boast of. We shall learn this clearly from other laws as well. For it is written in Leviticus: ‘If his gift to the Lord is a sacrifice of salvation, if he offers it from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. He shall lay his hands on the head of the gift and slaughter it before the Lord at the doors of the tent of witness. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall pour the blood on the altar of whole burnt offerings, all around. And from the sacrifice of salvation they shall bring as an offering to the Lord the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is on the loins; and he shall remove the lobe of the liver together with the kidneys. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall carry them up to the altar, onto the whole burnt offerings, onto the wood that is on the fire on the altar; it is an offering, a fragrant aroma to the Lord’ (Leviticus 3:1–5).
The calf, then, is without blemish; for it is fitting that those who go up to God as a fragrant aroma should be pure and keep as far as they can from every blemish. It was slaughtered at the very doors of the holy tent, with the hands of the one offering it laid upon it; and what this means has been plainly stated already. The fat on the entrails was carried up for sacrifice, and the two kidneys, with the fat in them removed along with them, and the lobe of the liver. The fat on the entrails, I think, would signify the good health, so to speak, of the mind, and the richness of the inner parts when they have been nourished as well as can be on the spiritual provisions given through the Spirit. For good feeding makes brute animals, and human bodies too, grow fat; but a most abundant share in divine gifts fills the mind of the saints with every good thing.
Greek
ἡμῖν τῶν ἁγίων ὑποδηλοῦν. Κλίβανος γὰρ καὶ ἐσχάρα, καὶ μὴν καὶ τὸ μύλῳ καταλεπτύνεσθαι, σημεῖά που πάντως εἶεν ἂν συντριβῆς τε καὶ πόνου δοκιμαζομένων ὡς διὰ πυρός. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ κεκράγασι, τὴν οὕτως εὐκλεᾶ διαστείχοντες τρίβον· «Ὅτι ἐδοκίμασας ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς, ἐπύρωσας ἡμᾶς, ὡς πυροῦται τὸ ἀργύριον.» Ψάλλει δέ που καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος ἡμῖν Δαβίδ· «Καρδίαν συντετριμμένην καὶ τεταπεινωμένην ὁ Θεὸς οὐκ ἐξουδενώσει.» Ἀλλ' ὅτι τοῖς ὧδε πεπονηκόσι, τὸ ἐν εὐωδίᾳ γενέσθαι Χριστοῦ, πάντη τε καὶ πάντως ἕποιτο ἂν εἰκότως· καὶ μὴν ὅτι καὶ τὸ ἐλεεῖσθαι δεῖν, καὶ τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριτι πλουσίως καταπιαίνεσθαι, σαφὲς ἂν γένοιτο τὴν τοῦ λιβάνου τε καὶ ἐλαίου περινοοῦντι χρείαν. Ἢ γὰρ οὐχὶ λεπτῶν αἰνιγμάτων ὑποψίαι πως ἡμῖν καὶ σκιαὶ τὰ ἐν νόμῳ;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ἑαυτοὺς μὲν ἄρα προσοίσομεν τῷ Θεῷ, κατανεκρούμενοι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, καὶ τὸν ἱερὸν τουτονὶ νοητῶς ὑπομένοντες θάνατον, ζῶντές γε μὴν τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, καὶ ὡς ἐν τάξει χαριστηρίων τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτῷ ζωὴν ἀπονέμοντες εὐκλεᾶ τε καὶ ἀνεπίπληκτον, καὶ τοῖς εἰς φιλοθεΐαν αὐχήμασιν εὐπρεπῆ. Τοῦτό τοι σαφῶς καὶ δι' ἑτέρων εἰσόμεθα νόμων. Γέγραπται γὰρ ἐν τῷ Λευϊτικῷ· «Ἐὰν δὲ θυσία σωτηρίου τὸ δῶρον αὐτοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ, ἐὰν μὲν ἐκ τῶν βοῶν αὐτὸ προσαγάγῃ, ἐάν τε ἄρσεν, ἐάν τε θῆλυ, ἄμωμον προσάξει αὐτὸ ἔναντι Κυρίου· καὶ ἐπιθήσει τὰς χεῖρας ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ δώρου, καὶ σφάξει αὐτὸ ἐναντίον Κυρίου παρὰ τὰς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου. Καὶ προσχεοῦσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀαρὼν οἱ ἱερεῖς τὸ αἷμα ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τῶν ὁλοκαυτωμάτων κύκλῳ. Καὶ προσάξουσιν ἀπὸ τῆς θυσίας τοῦ σωτηρίου κάρπωμα Κυρίῳ, τὸ στέαρ τὸ κατακαλύπτον τὴν κοιλίαν, καὶ πᾶν τὸ στέαρ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς κοιλίας· καὶ τοὺς δύο νεφροὺς, καὶ τὸ στέαρ τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῶν, τὸ ἐπὶ τῶν μηρίων, καὶ τὸν λοβὸν τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ ἥπατος σὺν τοῖς νεφροῖς περιελεῖ· καὶ ἀνοίσουσιν αὐτὰ οἱ υἱοὶ Ἀαρὼν οἱ ἱερεῖς ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον ἐπὶ τὰ ὁλοκαυτώματα ἐπὶ τὰ ξύλα, τὰ ἐπὶ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐπὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου· κάρπωμα, ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας Κυρίῳ.» Ἄμωμος τοίνυν ὁ μόσχος· καθαροὺς γὰρ εἶναι πρέπει, καὶ μώμου παντὸς ἰόντας ὡς ἀπωτάτω, τοὺς εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας ἀναβαίνοντας τῷ Θεῷ. Ἐσφάζετο δὲ πρὸς αὐταῖς ταῖς θύραις τῆς ἁγίας σκηνῆς, ἐπενηνεγμένων αὐτῷ τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ προσάγοντος. Καὶ τίς ὁ τοῦδε λόγος, εἴρηται σαφῶς. Ἀνεκομίζετο δὲ εἰς θυσίαν τὸ στέαρ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς κοιλίας, καὶ οἱ δύο νεφροὶ, συνεξαιρουμένης αὐτοῖς τῆς ἐνούσης πιμελῆς, καὶ ὁ λοβὸς τοῦ ἥπατος. Καὶ ὑποφήνειεν ἂν, καθάπερ ἐγᾦμαι, τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς κοιλίας στέαρ, τὴν οἱονεὶ φρενὸς εὐεξίαν, καὶ τὴν πιότητα τῶν σπλάγχνων ἐντεθραμμένων ἄριστα ταῖς διὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος νοηταῖς χορηγίαις. Εὐτροφία μὲν γὰρ τοῖς ἀλόγοις ζώοις, καὶ μὴν καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις σώμασι τὸ καταπιαίνεσθαι προξενεῖ. Θείων δὲ χαρισμάτων πλουσιωτάτη μέθεξις, παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ τὴν