Ezekiel — Chapter 22
A catalogue of Jerusalem's sins — bloodshed, idolatry, oppression, sexual crimes, Sabbath-breaking. Lapide uses this chapter for a sustained homiletical treatment of social justice, comparing Jerusalem's merchants, princes, prophets, and priests to their equivalents in Catholic society.
Verse 26
Her priests have done violence to my law and profaned my holy things: Lapide delivers his most direct commentary on clerical scandal, citing Chrysostom's De Sacerdotio: the higher the dignity, the greater the sin when it is violated. He notes that the prophets consistently identify priestly infidelity as the primary cause of national catastrophe.
Verse 30
God sought a man to stand in the breach (statui murum) and found none: Lapide reads this as a call to the prophetic and priestly office, commenting that God always offers mercy through intermediaries before executing judgment. The absence of such a man is the ultimate social catastrophe.