Burnt Offering And Sacrifice

Super quas ponunt vasa in quibus immolatur holocaustum et victima. Quid enim sunt animae fidelium, nisi vasa sancta quae verba pietatis capiunt, ut ex eorum mentibus holocaustum vitae atque orationis immoletur? Hinc est enim quod Paulus cum adhuc rudis esset in fidei vocatione, quia jam Domini verba perceperat, et coelesti gratia plenus erat, vas appellatur, cum dicitur: Vas electionis mihi est. Hinc pastores atque doctores propheta admonet, dicens: Mundamini qui fertis vasa Domini. Ipsi etenim quasi mensae vasa Domini portant, qui vitam fidelium erudiendo tolerant, ut quandoque hanc Domino ad holocaustum et sacrificium perducant. Sed neque hoc negligenter intuendum est, quod in eisdem vasis holocaustum et victima dicitur immolari. Holocaustum enim, sicut et superius diximus, victima est, non tamen victima semper holocaustum, quia cum quid ex parte offertur, et ex parte retinetur, sacrificium quidem est, sed holocaustum non est. Sunt vero in multitudine magna fidelium alii qui ea quae mundae sunt omnia relinquunt, cuncta quae possident tribuunt, nil sibimetipsis reservant, ad aeternam patriam medullitus anhelant, seque ex toto corde in lacrymis mactant. Hi videlicet vasa super mensam sunt, in quibus immolatur holocaustum. Et sunt alii qui curam propriae domus gerunt, de filiis cogitant, eisque haereditatem servant, qui tamen, aeterni judicii memores, misericordiam pauperibus impendunt, alimenta ac vestimenta eis ex parte qua decreverint tribuunt. Hi nimirum vasa super mensam sunt, in quibus victima immolata est, non holocaustum. Quia enim patientia et doctrina sanctorum admonendo et sustinendo, suadendo atque terrendo, aliorum corda usque ad hoc erudiunt, ut omnia deserant, et totos se in amore Domini accendant, aliorum vero ad hoc usque instruunt, ut quia omnia relinquere non valent, vel ex parte qua praevalent, misericordes fiant, et carnis curam cum animae cura partiantur, mensae Domini de quadris lapidibus instructae vasa portant, in quibus immolatur holocaustum et victima, quia et perfecti, sicut dictum est, cum omnia deserunt, totum cor in amorem Domini accendunt, et imperfecti sacrificium offerunt, quod ex parte devoverunt. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Secundus, Homilia IX Source: Migne PL 76.1049c-1050b

On which they place the vessels in which are sacrificed the burnt offering and the sacrificial victim.... 1 What are the souls of the faithful, unless holy vessels with contain the sacred words, that from their minds shall be sacrificed a burnt offering of life and prayer. Hence Paul when he was yet raw in the vocation of the faith, because now the grasped the words of the Lord, and was full of the heavenly grace, was named a vessel, when it is said 'He is a vessel of election to me.' 2 Whence the prophet admonishes the shepherds and teachers, saying, 'Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.' 3 Indeed they are as the tables that bear the vessels of the Lord, who hold up the life of the faithful in teaching, that sometime they might bring it to the Lord as a holocaust and sacrifice. But this should not be considered negligently, when it is said that there is a holocaust and a victim to be sacrificed in the same vessels. For the burnt offering, as we have said, is a sacrifice, however a sacrifice is not always a burnt offering, because when there is a partial offering and partial retention, that is a sacrifice, but it is not a holocaust. Yet there are some in the great multitude of the faithful who forsake all worldly things and give away everything they possess, and keep nothing from themselves, so that they can breathe the true air of the eternal fatherland, and with their whole heart they sacrifice themselves in tears. These certainly are the vessels on the table in which the burnt offering is sacrificed. And the others are those who have care for their families, and take thought for their children, and keep an inheritance for them, and yet are mindful of eternal judgement, being merciful to the poor, giving food and clothing to them from a portion which diminishes. These certainly are vessels on the table in which a victim is sacrificed and not a holocaust. Because by the patience and teaching of the saints, their warnings and encouragement and persuasion, some hearts are instructed to a burnt offering, so that they abandon everything and set fire to it all in love of the Lord, others, however, are instructed to a sacrifice, that because they are not able to give up everything, what they are able to do in part, being merciful, and having partly care for the flesh and partly for the soul, they carry to the designated four stone tables of the Lord in the vessels in which is sacrificed the holocaust and the victim, because, as has been said, the perfect, when they forsake everything, set fire to the whole heart in the love of God, and the imperfect offer a sacrifice which is vowed from a part. Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 2, from Homily 9 1 Ezek 40.42 2 Acts 9.15 3 Isaiah 52.11