Leviticus — Chapter 21

The priests may not defile themselves for the dead except for their nearest kin (Lev. 21:1-4). Lapide: this law preserves the purity of the priestly state for its central function — liturgical sacrifice. Death defiles because it is the consequence of sin; the priest who is separated to life-giving sacrifice must maintain symbolic distance from the realm of death. The tropological sense: the priest must be free from spiritual death — mortal sin — and from excessive entanglement in worldly affairs that deaden the spiritual life.

Priests must be holy because they offer the bread of God (Lev. 21:6). Lapide: this is the Mosaic basis of the clerical state's demand for special holiness. The bread of God offered by priests prefigures the Eucharist, which Catholic priests offer. Hence the Church requires of priests not merely legal purity but genuine personal holiness — in soul by charity and grace, in body by the law of celibacy — as Trent (sess. 23) confirms.

The High Priest, anointed with oil, is forbidden to go about with head uncovered or rent garments in mourning (Lev. 21:10), unlike ordinary priests. Lapide: the High Priest is a supreme figure of Christ the eternal High Priest, who, though He wept for Lazarus (John 11:35), never mourned with the disordered grief of the flesh that obscures the divine mission. He was always subordinate to the will of the Father, even in Gethsemane.

The High Priest must marry a virgin (Lev. 21:13-14), not a widow, divorced woman, or harlot. Lapide: the High Priest is the figure of Christ, who took the Virgin Church as His Bride — she who was a virgin among all the nations, having committed no fornication with false gods. He cites the Fathers: the Church is the Immaculate Virgin espoused to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 21:2). The prohibition of the High Priest's marriage to a widow figures that Christ is the first and only Spouse of the Church.

The priest who has a blemish may not offer the bread of God (Lev. 21:17-23), though he may eat of it. Lapide: this rule teaches that the external minister of sacred rites must be worthy of what he performs. The tropological sense: spiritual blindness (ignorance of revealed truth), lameness (moral inconstancy), or any deformity of soul disqualifies a man from the full exercise of the priestly ministry before God. He may still receive grace (eat of the holy bread) but cannot worthily offer the sacrifice.