Enter heavenly Jerusalem; desert tent types Gentile Church; chosen priesthood

Cyril: …the law. And everyone who has arrived unto this of good fame is bright and worthy of marvel, and will be ranked among the most genuine, Christ crying and saying, ‘Well, good and faithful slave, you were faithful over few things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of your Lord.’ (Matthew 25:21) For he will enter also very readily into the heavenly Jerusalem, and will dwell in the upper abodes, reveling in the goods beyond mind and word. Something such also the prophet Isaiah says: ‘Your eyes will see, Jerusalem, rich cities, tents which will not be shaken, nor will the pegs of the tent be moved, nor will its ropes be torn apart.’ (Isaiah 33:20) For the form of this world is passing, according to the Scriptures. But most firm and altogether unshaken is the hope of the things that will be. But when all these are being loosed, as also a disciple of the Savior affirmed, we must be found rivers, holy and blameless before him, both honoring with spiritual sacrifices as Savior and Redeemer, and practicing a holy and chosen way of life agreeing with the Gospel laws; just as indeed the law was sketching for the more ancient ones the life thus solemn and worthy of taking; commanding to slaughter sheep, and to make the approaches through bloods, and to consecrate tenths and firstfruits to God, and still in addition thank-offerings. Yet he was legislating that these things must not be practiced outside the holy tent. And he was dedicating to God the chosen race from Levi, setting the matter as a type for us and unto us ourselves. For we also have been called in the divine Scriptures ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people unto acquisition.’ (1 Corinthians 7:31) And we also drive into the more true tent, which the Lord pitched and not a human—that is, the Church—not propitiating the Creator of the wholes through calves and goats, but as excelling in upright and blameless faith, and intellectually fragrant with spiritual fruit-bearings. ‘For with such sacrifices God is well pleased,’ (1 Peter 2:9) and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth, according to the Savior’s voice.

Palladius: You have spoken uprightly. And that it was fitting for us to be well-reputed with sacrifices beyond law, I myself would say; for I will agree. Yet say that: was not the old tent pitched in the desert set for us unto a type of the Church from the nations, somehow still showing dimly the beauty of the more true?

Cyril: Very much so. And I also said just now that the needing for those from Levi’s blood to have been taken most excellently toward holy liturgies, and for those called in faith toward a holy and blameless life—I mean the one in Christ—would again be a type (Hebrews 8:2) (Hebrews 13:16) (John 4:23–24).