65. At the same time it is also shown what
he ought to be who ministers to Christ, for first he must be free from
the enticements of various pleasures, he must be free from inward
languor of body and soul, that he may minister the Body and Blood of
Christ. For no one who is sick with his own sins, and far from
being whole, can minister the remedies of the healing of
immortality. See what thou doest, O priest, and touch not the
Body of Christ with a fevered hand. First be healed that thou
mayest be able to minister. If Christ bids those who are now
cleansed, but were once leprous, to show themselves to the
priests, S. Luke xvii. 14. how much
more is it fitting for the priest himself to be pure. That widow,
then, cannot take it ill that I have not spared her, since I spare not
myself.