Leviticus — Chapter 17

The prohibition against sacrificing outside the tabernacle (Lev. 17:3-5) was intended to prevent all sacrifice to demons (v. 7) and to keep worship centered in the one place where God was uniquely present. Lapide allegorically: the tabernacle is the Church, outside which no sacrifice, nor even martyrdom, is pleasing to God (Radulphus). This is a proof text for the Catholic doctrine that valid sacrifice and sacramental worship belong only to the visible Church founded by Christ.

Any man of Israel who kills a sacrifice and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle is guilty of blood (Lev. 17:4). Lapide: the severity of this law shows that the offering of sacrifice to God is not a matter of individual discretion but of public, communal, and ecclesial worship. Sacrifice offered privately and apart from the ordained rites of the community is irregular and invalid. This is the Mosaic basis for the Church's discipline that the Mass must be celebrated according to approved rites and not privately invented forms.

Israel had formerly sacrificed to demons in the form of hairy beings (satyrs) in the fields, groves, and mountains (Lev. 17:7). Lapide explains that the Hebrew word se'irim means \"the hairy ones,\" because demons appeared in the fields and hills in the form of goats and fauns. Idolatry is called fornication in Scripture because it is the abandonment of God the true Spouse for the love and worship of another — namely, the demon. This was already practiced by Israel in Egypt (Ezek. 16:22).

Because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls (Lev. 17:11). Lapide gives three senses. Literally: the soul and vital heat of the animal is conserved and mediated by the blood, as oil feeds a flame; hence blood is the vehicle of life. Theologically: blood is the visible sign of the invisible soul; therefore it was consecrated to God in sacrifice, and its eating was absolutely forbidden. Eucharistically: blood forbidden under the Old Law is given under the New — the blood of Christ in the chalice — that we might receive the very life of God. St. Augustine (lib. 2 contra adv. legis et Proph., cap. 6) teaches: \"the soul is said to be in the blood as a stone was Christ — not because it was so, but because it was signified.\"