The Ruler Should Always Be Foremost in Action

The ruler should always be foremost in action, so that by his own living he may point out the way of life to those placed under him, and so that the flock, which follows the voice and the ways of its shepherd, may learn to walk better by example than by words. For one who is required by the necessity of his position to speak of the highest things is compelled by the same necessity to show the highest things. A voice that the speaker’s life commends goes more readily into the hearer’s heart, since what he commands by speaking he helps to get done by showing it. That is why it is said through the prophet: “Go up onto the high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion.” This means that one engaged in heavenly preaching should already have left behind the low ground of earthly works and should be seen standing on the summit of things. And the more he cries out from the heights by the merit of his life, the more easily he will draw those under him to better things. [a]

That is why under the divine law the priest receives the shoulder for sacrifice, and that the right shoulder, set apart. This signifies that his action should be not only useful but outstanding, and that he should not merely do what is right among bad men, but should surpass in the virtue of his conduct even those who do well among those under him, just as he surpasses them in the dignity of his order. The breast too, together with the shoulder, is given him to eat, so that he may learn to offer in sacrifice to the Giver of all that part of himself which he is commanded to take from the sacrifice. So he is not only to hold right thoughts in his breast, but also, with the shoulder of work, to invite those who watch him to the things on high. He is to covet no prosperity of the present life and to fear no adversity. Keeping in view the fear within him, he is to despise the charm of the world; and considering the charm of inward sweetness, he is to despise its terrors.

So, by command of the voice from on high, the priest is fastened on each shoulder with the robe of the ephod, so that he may always be guarded against prosperity and adversity by the ornament of the virtues. Then, walking, as Saint Paul says, with the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, and striving only for the things that lie ahead, he may turn aside on neither side to low delight. Let prosperity not lift him up, nor adversity upset him. Let smooth things not coax him into giving up his will, nor rough things press him down into despair. So, while he bends his mind to no passions, he will show with what great beauty of the ephod he is covered on each shoulder.

This ephod is also rightly ordered to be made of gold, blue, purple, twice-dyed scarlet, and fine twisted linen, to show by how great a variety of virtues the priest ought to be marked out. So in the priest’s robe gold shines before everything else, to show that he should shine above all in the understanding of wisdom. With it is joined blue, which gleams with the color of the sky, to show that through all he grasps with his understanding he should rise above earthly favor to the love of heavenly things, so that he is not caught off guard by his own praises and emptied of his very understanding of the truth. With gold and blue, purple is also mixed. This means that the priest’s heart, while hoping for the high things he preaches, should hold down in itself even the suggestions of vice and push them back as if by a royal power, because he keeps his eyes always on the nobility of inward rebirth and by his way of life guards his right to the robe of the heavenly kingdom. For it is of this nobility of the spirit that it is said through Peter: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.” And for this power, by which we subdue vices, we are strengthened by the voice of John, who says: “As many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God.” The psalmist has this dignity of strength in view when he says: “But to me your friends, O God, have been greatly honored; their rule has been greatly strengthened.” For truly the mind of the saints is raised to princely height while outwardly they are seen to suffer humiliation.

But with gold, blue and purple, twice-dyed scarlet is joined, to show that all the excellences of virtue should be adorned with love in the eyes of the judge within, and that whatever shines before men should be lit up with the flame of inward love in the sight of the hidden judge. And further, this love, since it consists in love both of God and of our neighbor, has as it were the luster of a double dye. So whoever longs so much for the beauty of his Maker that he neglects the care of his neighbors, or attends so much to the care of his neighbors that he grows slack in love for God, does not know, whichever of the two he neglects, what it is to have twice-dyed scarlet in the adornment of his ephod. But while the mind is intent on the commands of love, it remains, without doubt, that the flesh must be worn down by abstinence. That is why fine twisted linen is joined with twice-dyed scarlet. For fine linen springs from the earth with a shining look, and what does fine linen stand for but bodily chastity, shining white in the beauty of purity? It is also twisted to be woven into the beauty of the ephod, since the habit of chastity reaches the perfect whiteness of purity only when the flesh is worn down by abstinence. And since the merit of afflicting the flesh is of profit among the other virtues, fine twisted linen shows white, as it were, amid the varied beauty of the ephod.