The Law is type and shadow
Palladius went on: If then the Law perfected nothing, and the second commandment has been brought in, which brings us near to God, what then does the Savior mean, 'I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill'? And that 'it is fitting that we worship God and Father in spirit and truth'? For this, I think, shows that we must cease from the habits and the worship that are according to the Law.
Cyril said: How you have gone out into a wide sea of questions! For what mind would be enough to look brightly into thoughts so fine as to show us the new Scripture as sister and neighbor to what was of old decreed through Moses, who was wise in all things — going through the same things, and the life in Christ not far removed from the legal way of life, if the things marked out for the ancients are led to a spiritual contemplation? For the Law is type and shadow, and the shaping of piety is still as if in birth-pangs, and has the beauty of the truth hidden in itself. Or will you say it is not as I have said?
Palladius: Very much so. But what would the clarification of this be? Or what is the manner of living according to the Gospel and yet seeming still to cling to the ancient commandment, and thinking to fulfill the things through Moses?
Cyril: The account is not simple, as one might guess. Virtue is, I think, a thing both many-branched and many-formed; and the boasts of the life in Christ are varied for us through a very great deal of well-doing. And so divine David, in the forty-fourth psalm, sets beside Christ a pure virgin, the Church, as in the rank of a queen, and puts on her a robe woven with gold and embroidered, saying thus: 'The queen stood at your right hand, in clothing shot with gold, wrapped about and embroidered.' The gold, as I judge, marks well what is honorable and conspicuous, and the embroidered, the many kinds of virtue. For the Church is exceedingly fair, having the adornment of the mind, not seen with the eyes of the flesh, but into the mind within and the heart — the Jew understood in secret — showing him, with a fine grace, well-formed and choice through a very great many beauties. For as the blessed Paul writes: 'For he is not a Jew who is one in the open, nor is circumcision that which is in the open in the flesh, but he who is a Jew in secret, and circumcision of heart, in spirit not in letter, whose praise is not from men but from God.'
Palladius: Tell me, then: when the circumcision in spirit has been brought in, and the sacrifices according to the Law have been overthrown, and that way of life has no place among us, does it not seem somehow unconvincing to say that Christ said, 'I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill'? Or if it is not so, nothing, I think, would stop us from honoring the God of all with sacrifices of cattle and frankincense, bringing him turtledoves and pigeons, and being eager ourselves to fulfill whatever else was customary for the more ancient people.
Greek
Θεῷ, τί δὴ ἄρα φησὶν ὁ Σωτὴρ, «Οὐκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὸν νόμον, ἀλλὰ πληρῶσαι;» καὶ ὅτι, «Προσήκει προσκυνεῖν ἡμᾶς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί;» Δηλοῖ γὰρ, οἶμαι, τουτὶ, τὸ ἀποπαύσασθαι δεῖν ἡμᾶς ἠθῶν καὶ λατρείας τῆς κατὰ τὸν νόμον.
{ΚΥΡ.} Ὡς εἰς πλατὺ ζητημάτων ἐξοίχῃ πέλαγος! Ποῖος γὰρ ἂν ἀρκέσειε νοῦς, τοῖς οὕτω λεπτοῖς θεωρήμασιν ἐνατενίσαι λαμπρῶς, ὡς τοῖς πάλαι τεθεσπισμένοις διὰ τοῦ πανσόφου Μωσέως, ἀδελφὴν οἷά περ καὶ γείτονα, καὶ διὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἰοῦσαν πραγμάτων, τὴν νέαν ἡμῖν ἐπιδεῖξαι Γραφὴν, καὶ τῆς νομικῆς πολιτείας οὐ σφόδρα διῳκισμένην τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ ζωὴν, εἰ πρὸς θεωρίαν ἄγοιτο τὴν πνευματικὴν τὰ τοῖς ἀρχαίοις διωρισμένα. Τύπος γὰρ ὁ νόμος καὶ σκιὰ, καὶ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἡ μόρφωσις ὡς ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἔτι, καὶ κεκρυμμένον ἐν ἑαυτῇ τὸ τῆς ἀληθείας ἔχουσα κάλλος. Ἢ οὐχ ὧδε ἔχειν ἐρεῖς ὅπερ ἔφην;
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Πάνυ μενοῦν. Ἀλλὰ τίς ἂν γένοιτο τούτου ἡ διασάφησις; Ἢ τίς ὁ τρόπος τοῦ πολιτεύεσθαι μὲν Εὐαγγελικῶς ἐξῆφθαι ἔτι δοκεῖν τῆς ἀρχαίας ἐντολῆς, καὶ πληροῦν οἴεσθαι τὰ διὰ Μωσέως;
{ΚΥΡ.} Οὐχ ἁπλοῦς ὁ λόγος, ὡς ἄν τις εἰκάσειε· χρῆμα δὲ, οἶμαι, καὶ πολυσχιδὲς καὶ πολύμορφον ἡ ἀρετή· καὶ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ πολιτείας τὰ αὐχήματα, διὰ πλείστης ὅσης ἡμῖν τῆς ἀγαθουργίας ἐκποικίλλεται. Καὶ γοῦν ὁ θεσπέσιος Δαβὶδ ἐν ψαλμῷ τῷ τετάρτῳ καὶ τεσσαρακοστῷ παρίστησι μὲν τῷ Χριστῷ, παρθένον ἁγνὴν, ὡς ἐν τάξει βασιλίδος, τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, περίχρυσον δὲ αὐτῇ καὶ πεποικιλμένην περιτίθησι στολὴν, οὕτω λέγων· «Παρέστη ἡ βασίλισσα ἐκ δεξιῶν σου, ἐν ἱματισμῷ διαχρύσῳ περιβεβλημένη καὶ πεποικιλμένη.» Τοῦ μὲν διαχρύσου, τὸ ἔντιμον καὶ περιφανὲς, καθάπερ ἐγῷμαι, τοῦ δὲ ποικίλου, τὸ πολυειδὲς τῆς ἀρετῆς εὖ μάλα κατασημαίνοντος. Εὐπρεπεστάτη γὰρ λίαν ἡ Ἐκκλησία, κόσμον ἔχουσα τὸν νοητὸν, οὐ τοῖς τῆς σαρκὸς ὁρώμενον ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἀλλ' εἰς νοῦν ἔσω καὶ καρδίαν, τὸν ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ νοούμενον Ἰουδαῖον, διὰ πλείστων ἡμῖν ὅσων ὡραϊσμῶν εὐφυᾶ καὶ ἐξαίρετον ἀστείως ἐκφαίνοντα. Ὡς γὰρ ὁ μακάριος γράφει Παῦλος· «Οὐ γὰρ ὁ ἐν τῷ φανερῷ Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν, οὔτε μὴν ἐν τῷ φανερῷ ἐν σαρκὶ περιτομὴ, ἀλλ' ὁ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, Ἰουδαῖος, καὶ περιτομὴ καρδίας, ἐν πνεύματι οὐ γράμματι, οὗ ὁ ἔπαινος οὐκ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ.»
{ΠΑΛΛ.} Ἆρ' οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, τῆς ἐν πνεύματι περιτομῆς εἰσκεκομισμένης, καὶ θυσιῶν τῶν κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἀνατετραμμένων, καὶ τόπον οὐδένα παρ' ἡμῖν ἐχούσης τῆς πολιτείας, οὐκ ἀπίθανόν πως εἶναι δοκεῖ τὸ φάναι Χριστὸν, «Οὐκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὸν νόμον, ἀλλὰ πληρῶσαι;» Ἢ εἴπερ οὐχ ὧδε ἔχει, διακωλύσειεν ἂν οἶμαί που καὶ ἡμᾶς οὐδὲν, βουθυσίαις μὲν καὶ λιβανωτοῖς τὸν τῶν ὅλων καταγεραίρειν Θεὸν, προσκομίζειν δὲ αὐτῷ τρυγόνας καὶ περιστερὰς, καὶ εἴ τι δρᾷν ἕτερον τοῖς ἀρχαιοτέροις νενόμισται, τοῦτο καὶ ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπείγεσθαι πληροῦν.