Leviticus — Chapter 15

The laws of bodily emission leading to legal impurity (Lev. 15) were given, Lapide teaches, not to condemn the body but to teach the Israelites the reverential separation of bodily processes from the sacred liturgy. He cites Philo and Theodoret: God, who made the body, does not despise it; but the liturgy requires a special state of cleanness. The tropological sense: concupiscence, even when not consented to, defiles the soul in relation to God, and requires the cleansing of prayer and intention before approaching the sacraments.

The laws of legal impurity from bodily emissions (Lev. 15) are explained by Lapide as directed to two ends. Literally, they preserved bodily health and cleanliness in a hot climate. Allegorically, they signified the need to separate carnal concupiscence from the approach to God: \"Thus shall ye keep the children of Israel separate from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle\" (Lev. 15:31). The tropological sense: approach to God in prayer requires freedom from carnal distraction and the prior cleansing of confession.