Gregory the Great
Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“10. Those who direct their intention toward heavenly things go with the doctors to offer sacrifice. And the prophet sacrifices before those who go, when the doctor binds in the hearts of those present through love what he proclaims by word. But that we may attend a little to the historical sense, we must carefully examine what is said: "Sanctify yourselves and come with me." For if they do not dare to be present at the sacrifice unless sanctified, what must we think of those who sacrifice? For to sanctify is to purify. How pure, then, ought the priests to be, where the people invited to the sacrifice are not to be admitted unless sanctified? For the sanctification of the body is chastity, and the sanctification of the mind is charity and humility. Let the one invited to the sacrifice therefore be sanctified, but he who invites is all the more compelled to be so. Let the priests note what they say to those invited: "Come with me." For the sanctified come with them if pure priests approach the service of God together with pure people. For to go with them is for the pure to approach together with the pure. For if the people are pure but the priests are not pure, they do not come with them, because they do not approach in an equal order of purity. Let such ones hear what another prophet admonishes, saying: "Be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord" (Isaiah 52:11). Let them likewise hear what he says: "Wash yourselves, be clean" (Isaiah 1:16). Because therefore the people must be cleansed, he says: "Sanctify yourselves." Because likewise men of the highest rank must always remain in the continual state of their purity and draw others to the pattern of their purity, he adds: "And come with me." But because the elders are invited to the sacrifice, what do they demonstrate by this type, except that for choosing a bishop, or for anointing and consecrating him, many wise and religious men must be called? Who are indeed sanctified and come, if they resolve not to follow anything carnal in that election. For them to be sanctified is to bring a spiritual and holy intention to the bestowing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And well is it said in the type of the chosen, both of Jesse and of his sons...”