Leviticus — Chapter 13

The law of leprosy is treated at length in chapters 13-14. Lapide follows the common teaching of the Fathers (Origen, hom. 8 in Lev.; Cyril, lib. 6 de Adoratione) that leprosy figures mortal sin: as the leper was excluded from the camp and had to cry out \"Unclean! Unclean!\" (Lev. 13:45), so the mortal sinner is excluded from the sacraments and fellowship of the faithful until reconciled through confession. The priest-physician examining the leper corresponds to the confessor examining the soul.

If the leprosy spreads and covers the whole body from head to foot, the priest shall pronounce the man clean (Lev. 13:12-13). Lapide: this paradoxical ruling — total leprosy is clean, partial leprosy unclean — signifies the man who fully confesses and acknowledges all his sins before God. The man who sees himself wholly as sinner, hiding nothing, is declared clean; whereas the one who conceals some sins under a partial covering of virtue is still unclean. St. Gregory (Moral. 26) applied this to the humble sinner versus the self-righteous.

The leper must go with head uncovered, garments rent, and cry out \"Defiled! Defiled!\" (Lev. 13:45). Lapide applies this tropologically to the penitent who acknowledges his sinfulness publicly before the Church, as was done in the ancient order of public penitents. The covering of the mouth signifies shame and silence before God, appropriate to one who has sinned. Origen (hom. 8) says the leper who confesses his disease to the priest is cured; so too the sinner who confesses to the priest.