Fragmenda

Scripture

Deuteronomy 27–28

Deuteronomy 27

The commandments must be written on stones: and an altar erected, and sacrifices offered. The observers of the commandments are to be blessed, and the transgressors cursed.

1 

And Moses with the ancients of Israel commanded the people, saying: Keep every commandment that I command you this day.

2 

And when you are passed over the Jordan into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, thou shalt set up great stones, and shalt plaster them over with plaster,

3 

That thou mayst write on them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over the Jordan: that thou mayst enter into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, as he swore to thy fathers.

4 

Therefore when you are passed over the Jordan, set up the stones which I command you this day, in mount Hebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster:

5 

And thou shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, of stones which iron hath not touched,

6 

And of stones not fashioned nor polished: and thou shalt offer upon it holocausts to the Lord thy God:

7 

And shalt immolate peace victims, and eat there, and feast before the Lord thy God.

8 

And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law plainly and clearly.

9 

And Moses and the priests of the race of Levi said to all Israel: Attend, and hear, O Israel: This day thou art made the people of the Lord thy God:

10 

Thou shalt hear his voice, and do the commandments and justices which I command thee.

11 

And Moses commanded the people in that day, saying:

12 

These shall stand upon mount Garizim to bless the people, when you are passed the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Juda, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

13 

And over against them shall stand on mount Hebal to curse: Ruben, Gad, and Aser, and Zabulon, Dan, and Nephtali.

14 

And the Levites shall pronounce, and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice:

15 

Cursed be the man that maketh a graven and molten thing, the abomination of the Lord, the work of the hands of artificers, and shall put it in a secret place: and all the people shall answer and say: Amen.

16 

Cursed be he that honoureth not his father and mother: and all the people shall say: Amen.

17 

Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmarks: and all the people shall say: Amen.

18 

Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of his way: and all the people shall say: Amen.

19 

Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, of the fatherless and the widow: and all the people shall say: Amen.

20 

Cursed be he that lieth with his father’s wife, and uncovereth his bed: and all the people shall say: Amen.

21 

Cursed be he that lieth with any beast: and all the people shall say: Amen.

22 

Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or of his mother: and all the people shall say: Amen.

23 

Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law: and all the people shall say: Amen.

24 

Cursed be he that secretly killeth his neighbour: and all the people shall say: Amen.

25 

Cursed be he that taketh gifts, to slay an innocent person: and all the people shall say: Amen.

26 

Cursed be he that abideth not in the words of this law, and fulfilleth them not in work: and all the people shall say: Amen.


Deuteronomy 28

Many blessings are promised to observers of God’s commandments: and curses threatened to transgressors.

1 

Now if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to do and keep all his commandments, which I command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make thee higher than all the nations that are on the earth.

2 

And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee: yet so if thou hear his precepts.

3 

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.

4 

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.

5 

Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.

6 

Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out.

7 

The Lord shall cause thy enemies, that rise up against thee, to fall down before thy face: one way shall they come out against thee, and seven ways shall they flee before thee.

8 

The Lord will send forth a blessing upon thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands: and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt receive.

9 

The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to himself, as he swore to thee: if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.

10 

And all the people of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is invocated upon thee, and they shall fear thee.

11 

The Lord will make thee abound with all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land, which the Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee.

12 

The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the heaven, that it may give rain in due season: and he will bless all the works of thy hands. And thou shalt lend to many nations, and shalt not borrow of any one.

13 

And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail: and thou shalt be always above, and not beneath: yet so if thou wilt hear the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day, and keep and do them,

14 

And turn not away from them neither to the right hand, nor to the left, nor follow strange gods, nor worship them.

15 

But if thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his commandments and ceremonies, which I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

16 

Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field.

17 

Cursed shall be thy barn, and cursed thy stores.

18 

Cursed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19 

Cursed shalt thou be coming in, and cursed going out.

20 

The Lord shall send upon thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the works which thou shalt do: until he consume and destroy thee quickly, for thy most wicked inventions, by which thou hast forsaken me.

21 

May the Lord set the pestilence upon thee, until he consume thee out of the land, which thou shalt go in to possess.

22 

May the Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with corrupted air and with blasting, and pursue thee till thou perish.

23 

Be the heaven, that is over thee, of brass: and the ground thou treadest on, of iron.

24 

The Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let ashes come down from heaven upon thee, till thou be consumed.

25 

The Lord make thee to fall down before thy enemies, one way mayst thou go out against them, and flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 

And be thy carcass meat for all the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and be there none to drive them away.

27 

The Lord strike thee with the ulcer of Egypt, and the part of thy body, by which the dung is cast out, with the scab and with the itch: so that thou canst not be healed.

28 

The Lord strike thee with madness and blindness and fury of mind.

29 

And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways. And mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be oppressed with violence, and mayst thou have no one to deliver thee.

30 

Mayst thou take a wife, and another sleep with her. Mayst thou build a house, and not dwell therein. Mayest thou plant a vineyard and not gather the vintage thereof.

31 

May thy ox be slain before thee, and thou not eat thereof. May thy ass be taken away in thy sight, and not restored to thee. May thy sheep be given to thy enemies, and may there be none to help thee.

32 

May thy sons and thy daughters be given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and languishing at the sight of them all the day, and may there be no strength in thy hand.

33 

May a people which thou knowest not, eat the fruits of thy land, and all thy labours: and mayst thou always suffer oppression, and be crushed at all times.

34 

And be astonished at the terror of those things which thy eyes shall see:

35 

May the Lord strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of the foot to the top of the head.

36 

The Lord shall bring thee, and thy king, whom thou shalt have appointed over thee, into a nation which thou and thy fathers know not: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, wood and stone.

37 

And thou shalt be lost, as a proverb and a byword to all people, among whom the Lord shall bring thee in.

38 

Thou shalt cast much seed into the ground, and gather little: because the locusts shall consume all.

39 

Thou shalt plant a vineyard, and dig it, and shalt not drink the wine, nor gather any thing thereof: because it shall be wasted with worms.

40 

Thou shalt have olive trees in all thy borders, and shalt not be anointed with the oil: for the olives shall fall off and perish.

41 

Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, and shalt not enjoy them: because they shall be led into captivity.

42 

The blast shall consume all the trees and the fruits of thy ground.

43 

The stranger that liveth with thee in the land, shall rise up over thee, and shall be higher: and thou shalt go down, and be lower.

44 

He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be as the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45 

And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and overtake thee, till thou perish: because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep his commandments and ceremonies which he commanded thee.

46 

And they shall be as signs and wonders on thee, and on thy seed for ever.

47 

Because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things:

48 

Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck, till he consume thee.

49 

The Lord will bring upon thee a nation from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth, like an eagle that flyeth swiftly, whose tongue thou canst not understand,

50 

A most insolent nation, that will shew no regard to the ancients, nor have pity on the infant,

51 

And will devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy land: until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor flocks of sheep: until he destroy thee.

52 

And consume thee in all thy cities, and thy strong and high wall be brought down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou shalt be besieged within thy gates in all thy land which the Lord thy God will give thee:

53 

And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.

54 

The man that is nice among you, and very delicate, shall envy his own brother, and his wife, that lieth in his bosom,

55 

So that he will not give them of the flesh of his children, which he shall eat: because he hath nothing else in the siege and the want, wherewith thy enemies shall distress thee within all thy gates.

56 

The tender and delicate woman, that could not go upon the ground, nor set down her foot for over much niceness and tenderness, will envy her husband who lieth in her bosom, the flesh of her son, and of her daughter,

57 

And the filth of the afterbirths, that come forth from between her thighs, and the children that are born the same hour. For they shall eat them secretly for the want of all things, in the siege and distress, wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee within thy gates.

58 

If thou wilt not keep, and fulfil all the words of this law, that are written in this volume, and fear his glorious and terrible name: that is, The Lord thy God:

59 

The Lord shall increase thy plagues, and the plagues of thy seed, plagues great and lasting, infirmities grievous and perpetual.

60 

And he shall bring back on thee all the afflictions of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall stick fast to thee.

61 

Moreover the Lord will bring upon thee all the diseases, and plagues, that are not written in the volume of this law till he consume thee:

62 

And you shall remain few in number, who before were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because thou heardst not the voice of the Lord thy God.

63 

And as the Lord rejoiced upon you before doing good to you, and multiplying you: so he shall rejoice destroying and bringing you to nought, so that you shall be taken away from the land which thou shalt go in to possess.

64 

The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the farthest parts of the earth to the ends thereof: and there thou shalt serve strange gods, which both thou art ignorant of and thy fathers, wood and stone.

65 

Neither shalt thou be quiet, even in those nations, nor shall there be any rest for the sole of thy foot. For the Lord will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness:

66 

And thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, neither shalt thou trust thy life.

67 

In the morning thou shalt say: Who will grant me evening? and at evening: Who will grant me morning? for the fearfulness of thy heart, wherewith thou shalt be terrified, and for those things which thou shalt see with thy eyes.

68 

The Lord shall bring thee again with ships into Egypt, by the way whereof he said to thee that thou shouldst see it no more. There shalt thou be set to sale to thy enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

Catechism

An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Lesson 8, Questions 86-88

86 Q. Did Christ's soul descend into the hell of the damned?

A. The hell into which Christ's soul descended was not the hell of the damned, but a place or state of rest called Limbo, where the souls of the just were waiting for Him.

Hell had many meanings in olden times. The grave was sometimes called hell. Jacob, when he heard that wild beasts had devoured his son Joseph, said: "I will go down with sorrow into hell." He meant the grave. Limbo is not the same as Purgatory. It does not exist now, or, if it does, is only for little children who have never committed actual sin and who have died without Baptism. They will never get into Heaven or see God, but they will not have to suffer pains as they who are in Purgatory or Hell endure.

87 Q. Why did Christ descend into Limbo?

A. Christ descended into Limbo to preach to the souls who were in prison—that is, to announce to them the joyful tidings of their redemption.

88 Q. Where was Christ's body while His soul was in Limbo?

A. While Christ's soul was in Limbo His body was in the Holy Sepulchre.

"Sepulchre" is the same as tomb. It is like a little room. In it the coffin is not covered up with earth as it is in the grave, but is placed upon a stand. We call such places vaults, and you can see many of them in any cemetery or burying ground. Sometimes they are cut in the side of elevated ground with their entrance level with the road, and sometimes they are built altogether under the ground. The one in which Our Lord was placed was cut out of the side of a rock, and had for a door a great stone against the entrance. Our Lord was not placed in a coffin, but was wrapped in a linen cloth. It was the custom of the Jewish people and of many other ancient nations to embalm the bodies of the dead, wrap them in cloths, and cover them with sweet spices. (Matt. 27:59). Thus it was that Mary Magdalene and other good women came early in the morning to anoint the body of Our Lord. But you will say, why did they not do it on Friday evening or night? The reason was this: The day with the Jews began at sunset—generally about six o'clock—and ended at sunset on the next evening. We count our twenty-four hours, or day, from twelve at midnight till twelve the next night. Therefore, with the Jews six o'clock on Friday evening was the beginning of Saturday. They kept Saturday, or the Sabbath, instead of Sunday as a day of worship. On that day, which they kept very strictly, it was not allowable to do work of any kind; so they could not anoint Our Lord's body till the Sabbath ended, which was about six o'clock, or sunset on Saturday evening. So, as the Holy Scripture tells us, they came very early in the morning; for Mary Magdalene and these good women were Jews, and strictly observed the Jewish law. You must know that Our Lord Himself, the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and the Apostles were Jews; and that the Jewish religion was the true religion up to the coming of Our Lord; but as it was only a figure and a promise of the Christian religion, it ceased to have any meaning or to be the true religion when the Christian religion itself was established by Our Lord.