Gregory the Great
Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“5. Fat indeed is the internal richness, in which that devotion of mind is expressed by which the minds of the elect are joined to their Creator in more perfect charity. They rightly offer sacrifice with meat already cooked, because no one will be able to rise to the sublimity of charity unless he first loves the mysteries of the incarnate divinity which he believes. For to believe through the Holy Spirit that the humanity of the Lord Jesus was assumed into divinity is to cook the flesh that is to be offered to God. Therefore, before the fat could be burned, the boy hastened to seize the flesh in all Israel, because the officers of the Synagogue thought to overthrow the new confessors of Christ before perfect charity could unite them to almighty God. This the very words of the sacred history indicate more plainly, where it says: "While the flesh was being cooked." By which words, certainly, not the completion of the cooking but the preparation is indicated. ...”