Leviticus — Chapter 27

The law of vows and their commutation or redemption (Lev. 27) deals with the voluntary consecration of persons, animals, and property to God, and the fixed scale of their monetary redemption. Lapide: a vow, once made, is binding before God (Eccles. 5:3). The redemption prices given for persons of different ages and sexes (vv. 3-8) show the realistic and merciful character of the Mosaic law, which accommodated the poor with reduced prices. The commutation of vows requires priestly authority — a figure of the Church's power to dispense from vows under canon law.

Animals consecrated to God by vow become holy and may not be exchanged (Lev. 27:9-10). Lapide: once offered to God, a thing belongs to Him by a sacred right superior to all human claims. This explains why the Church's property is inalienable without papal permission: consecrated to God, it cannot revert to purely private use. The same principle governs the irrevocability of solemn religious vows — once made before God and the Church, they cannot be dissolved by the will of the individual alone.

One who sanctifies his house to the Lord (Lev. 27:14-15) may redeem it at the priest's valuation plus a fifth part. Lapide: the sanctification of a house to God figures the consecration of a church building — which, once dedicated by the bishop's blessing, becomes the house of God and is withdrawn from secular use. The \"fifth part\" added at redemption — a kind of penalty for repossessing what was given — echoes the Church's law requiring special permission and often compensation before consecrated property may revert to secular use.

Anything devoted to God by an unrestricted ban (cherem) could not be sold or redeemed, but was most holy to the Lord (Lev. 27:28-29). Lapide: this is the sharpest form of consecration — total, irrevocable, and sacred. He sees in it a figure of the religious vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, by which a person is wholly devoted to God and cannot be recalled to the world. The vow of religion is a kind of cherem — a total consecration which the Church guards jealously, not permitting easy dissolution.