Leviticus — Chapter 23

The sacred feasts of the Lord are introduced with the command: \"These are my feasts\" — Hebrew moadim, \"stated feasts,\" assemblies at which the people were convoked to hear the Law and offer sacrifices. Lapide notes that the Church, following St. Sylvester's institution, calls all days \"ferias\" — holy days — because for Christians every day should be free from sin, and for ecclesiastical ministers every day should be dedicated to the divine cult. The seven feasts of God (Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles, Solemn Assembly) correspond to the seven sacraments of the New Law.

The Sabbath — \"the rest of the Lord\" (Lev. 23:3) — is the first and foundational feast. Lapide follows Plato (cited approvingly) that the gods established festivals in pity for human toil. But the Mosaic Sabbath is greater than any pagan holiday: it commemorates the rest of God after creation (Gen. 2:2-3) and anticipates the eternal rest of heaven. He condemns Christian celebration of feasts after the manner of the Gentiles — by mere cessation from labour and dedication to luxury — instead of to divine worship and spiritual renewal.

The Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at evening, is \"the phase of the Lord\" (Lev. 23:5). Phase in Hebrew means \"passage\" or \"transcendence\" — the passing of the destroying angel and the passage of Israel out of Egypt. Lapide: this feast was celebrated gloriously among the Jews, but is celebrated more gloriously among Christians, who were freed not from the servitude of Pharaoh but from the slavery of the devil and death through the risen Christ. He cites the miracles of baptismal fonts miraculously filling with water at the true Easter vigil, recorded by Paschasius, Gregory of Tours, and Sophronius.

The offering of the first sheaf of grain (omer) on the day after the Sabbath (Lev. 23:10-11) is the figure of the Resurrection of Christ. Lapide follows the Fathers: the first sheaf represents Christ risen as the firstfruits of them that sleep (1 Cor. 15:20). The day after the Sabbath — Sunday — is therefore the day of the Resurrection, and this feast typifies the Christian Sunday. No fruit of the new harvest could be eaten until this sheaf was offered: so no spiritual fruit of our works avails before the Resurrection of Christ.

Pentecost — the feast of fifty days after Passover — figures the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles fifty days after Easter. Lapide: the two leavened loaves of wheat bread offered at Pentecost (Lev. 23:17) signify the two peoples — Jews and Gentiles — offered to God through the Holy Ghost at the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2). The leaven, unlike the Passover unleavened bread, signifies the active transformation of these peoples by grace. The Fathers (Origen, Beda) unanimously see Pentecost as the supreme type of the New Testament feast.

You shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath... seven weeks complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number fifty days (Lev. 23:15-16). Lapide's meticulous analysis of the counting of the omer resolves the exegetical controversy over which Sabbath is meant (the weekly Sabbath or the feast day of Passover). He follows the ancient Church's understanding, confirmed by the Apostolic practice: Pentecost is fifty days after the Resurrection — the first Sunday (day after the Sabbath) of Passover week — thus confirming the Sunday Resurrection.

The Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month (Lev. 23:24) is explained by Lapide as a figure of the preaching of the Gospel and the proclamation of Christ's kingdom. The sound of the silver trumpets recalls the Psalms of the Kingdom (Ps. 46, 94, 96-98) and figures the voice of the Apostles and preachers summoning all nations to repentance. St. Jerome sees it also as the figure of the Last Judgment, when the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise.

The Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27-32) is repeated here in the catalogue of feasts with emphasis on the affliction of the soul by fasting. Lapide: \"afflicting the soul\" (animas vestras) is the precise biblical term for fasting. He argues that this feast, with its total fast from evening to evening, is the figure of the entire Lenten fast of the Church, and specifically of Good Friday. The soul that is not afflicted on this day perishes (v. 29) — which Lapide takes to signify that without voluntary penance, the soul cannot attain salvation.

The Feast of Tabernacles, lasting seven days from the fifteenth of the seventh month, is the most joyful of the Jewish feasts. Lapide: the booths (succoth) in which Israel dwelt commemorated the forty years of desert wandering (Lev. 23:43) and signified the pilgrimage condition of all human life. He cites Augustine: we dwell in tents on earth, seeking the permanent city. The eight days of the feast, with the solemn assembly on the octave, figure the seven ages of the world and the eighth day of eternity — as Origen, Beda, and Radulphus teach.

The solemn assembly (coetus, collecta) on the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles is the crowning feast of the liturgical year. Lapide: the eighth day figures eternity, the day beyond the seven ages of the world — the \"eighth day\" of the Resurrection and eternal life. This is why the Fathers gave the name \"octave\" to the days following Easter and Pentecost in the Christian liturgy. As Israel concluded the cycle of feasts with this assembly, so Christians look forward from all temporal observance to the eternal Sabbath of heaven.

The four species — fruit of the goodly tree, palm branches, thick-leaved boughs, and willows of the brook (Lev. 23:40) — were carried in procession at the Feast of Tabernacles. Lapide reviews the rabbinic and patristic interpretations: the four species signify the four types of Christians (Origen), or the four Cardinal virtues (Isychius), or the diversity of spiritual gifts united in the one body of Christ. The liturgical use of palm and olive branches in Christian processions (Palm Sunday, etc.) derives from this Mosaic institution.