In return for your neglect of the things of God, then, and for their
not being given precedence, I have no pleasure
in you, says the Lord almighty, and shall not accept sacrifice from your hands.
Hence, from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name has been glorified
among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name and a pure
offering; because my name is great among the nations, says the Lord almighty
(v. 11). He now clearly repudiates the offering of sacrifice according to the
Law, and, as it were, abandons his love for Jews, and regards the priesthood as
unacceptable and the shadow as inadmissible—animal sacrifice and incense, I
mean—this not being his original intention. He makes this clear also in other
prophets, as when he says in the statement of Isaiah, “I am fed up with burnt
offerings of rams; fat of sheep and blood of bulls and goats I do not want, not
even if you come to appear before me. After all, who asked this from your
hands? Do not continue trampling on my court. (565) If you bring the best of
flour, it is a waste of time; incense is an abomination to me.” And in
Jeremiah, “Assemble your burnt offerings along with your sacrifices and eat the
meat, because I did not speak to your fathers about burnt offerings and
sacrifices on the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt.” The Law, you
see, was a prefiguring and foretelling of worship in spirit and in truth, and
“regulations for the body,” as the divinely inspired Paul writes, “until the
time comes to set things right.” Now, the time for reform would, in my view, be
no other than the coming of our Savior. The first covenant, on account of its
not being faultless, is said to have disappeared, being obsolete; a place was
sought for a new and second one, which would be proof against any blame or
fault. This, in fact, is said by the Son himself, who bears the name also of
Angel of Great Counsel—hence his saying, “I do not speak of myself: the Father
who sent me is the one who gave me instructions as to what to speak and what to
say.”
Accordingly, he clearly told those exercising priesthood according to
the Law that they are unacceptable to him or, rather, I have no pleasure in them as they perform sacrifices in shadow and
type, and that he would not accept
what was offered by them. He predicts that his name will be great and
famous among people everywhere throughout the earth under heaven, and that in every place and nation pure and
bloodless sacrifices will be offered to
his name, now that the ministers no
longer diminish his honor or pay him spiritual worship in indifferent fashion.
Instead, with enthusiasm, simplicity, and holiness they will be zealous in
offering the pleasing odor of the spiritual incense—(566) namely, faith, hope,
love, and the ornaments of good works. This is obviously when Christ’s heavenly
and life-giving sacrifice is instituted, through which death is destroyed, and
this corruptible flesh from the earth puts on incorruptibility. (Cyril
of Alexandria, Commentary on the Twelve Prophets [trans. Robert C. Hill;
The Fathers of the Church 124; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of
America Press, 2012], 297-99, emphasis in bold added)
