Leviticus — Chapter 22

Any priest who approaches the holy things in a state of legal impurity is cut off from God's presence (Lev. 22:3). Lapide's tropological teaching: the priest who celebrates Mass in mortal sin approaches the most holy thing in a state of spiritual uncleanness far worse than any legal impurity. He is cut off not merely from legal participation but from the very grace of the sacrament, and brings judgment upon himself (1 Cor. 11:29). This is why the Church commands confession before Mass for a priest who has fallen into grave sin.

No stranger, no hired servant, and no sojourner may eat of the holy things (Lev. 22:10-13). Lapide: the holy things — bread of the Presence, first-fruits, peace-offerings — belong to the covenant community. In the New Law, the Eucharist is reserved for the baptised faithful in the state of grace. Those not incorporated into the Body of Christ by faith and baptism, or those who have severed themselves from it by mortal sin, may not receive the Eucharist: the ancient restriction of the holy food to the holy people endures.

The peace-offerings must be without blemish, for no defective animal was acceptable (Lev. 22:21-22). Lapide: the allegorical sense is that Christ, the one true victim of the New Law, was absolutely without blemish — sine peccato (Heb. 4:15) — and this is why all Old Testament sacrifices required physical perfection: to figure the absolute moral perfection of Him whom they all pre-signified. The tropological sense: we must offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), and the sacrifice of a sinful life is defective and unacceptable.

Keep my commandments and do them, I am the Lord (Lev. 22:31-33). Lapide notes that the repeated formula \"I am the Lord\" in Leviticus is not merely a credential but a motive for obedience: the holiness of God is communicated to those who keep His commandments, and this communication of divine holiness is the very purpose of the entire Levitical law. Every precept is thus ordered to the sanctification of Israel, and ultimately to the sanctification of all humanity in Christ.