The purification of the Church.
At the commencement of his treatise on this Book of Leviticus, Cyril of Alexandria truly says, that as the Word of God came into the world arrayed in flesh, in which bodily appearance he was seen of all, while his divinity was seen only by the elect; so has the written Word a letter, or outward sense, which is obvious to ordinary perception, and an inward meaning which must be spiritually discerned. According to this rule, the purification of the Church is the subject of the text, which is presented under two aspects. It is—
I. DISTRIBUTIVELY CONSIDERED. The necessity of the spiritual birth may be collected:
1. From the impurity of the natural.
2. From the rite of circumcision.
II. COLLECTIVELY CONSIDERED.
1. The Church is the mother of the children of God.
2. In her present state she is impure.
3. But she is in the process of her purification.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR