The holy anointing oil: only God sanctifies

Cyril: …calamus, two hundred and fifty; and of iris, five hundred shekels by the shekel of the sanctuary; and there shall be oil from olives. And you shall make of it a holy anointing oil, a perfumed ointment made by the perfumer’s art. It shall be a holy anointing oil. And with it you shall anoint the tent of witness, and the ark of the tent of witness and all its vessels, and the lampstand and all its vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offerings and all its vessels, and the table and all its vessels, and the laver and its base. And you shall sanctify them, and they shall be most holy. Whoever touches them shall be made holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them to serve me as priests. And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying: This shall be a holy anointing oil for you throughout your generations. Human flesh shall not be anointed with it, and you shall not make any like it for yourselves according to this composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever makes any like it, and whoever gives any of it to a foreigner, shall be utterly destroyed from his people’ (Exodus 30:23–33). Now about the quality and the blending, and again about the unequal weights of the kinds named, I would have nothing to say; for truth is dear to those who are accustomed to think soundly. But oil blended with perfumes would signify, I think, the sanctification in Christ through the Spirit that is given to those who have received mercy, as in the words, ‘You anointed my head with oil’ (Psalm 23:5). The tent is anointed, and everything in it, for even a place may share in holiness through the one who dwells in it. The vessels too are sanctified, in the way that suits them, because they serve in the worship of God, and whoever touches them will be made holy (Exodus 30:29). So holy and sacred things may not be touched by those who are still profane; for, as it is written, ‘What fellowship has light with darkness?’ (2 Corinthians 6:14). And he absolutely forbids them to make a similar oil for themselves. For to sanctify belongs to God alone, and it will remain reserved to him as truly his own. How could a nature that has come into being and been made ever be able to sanctify others? For it is rich in holiness only with difficulty, through sharing in what comes from above. One might fittingly cry out to it in the words of the saints: ‘What do you have that you did not receive?’ (1 Corinthians 4:7). For John also says of the Only-begotten, ‘From his fullness we have all received’ (John 1:16), and, ‘He does not give the Spirit by measure’ (John 3:34); rather, being himself the fountain of holiness, he imparts the Spirit to the worthy and sanctifies the rational creation. ‘But human flesh,’ he says, ‘shall not be anointed with it’ (Exodus 30:32), although he had commanded that Aaron and those who serve as priests with him be anointed with it (Exodus 30:30). So the sacred race is already above the human, since it shares in Christ, who is above creation. That is why, raising us to a dignity beyond nature, and cutting us off, as it were, from earthly things, he assigns us to the things above. For he says,