Day 42 · Chronological

Scripture

Leviticus 14

The rites of sacrifices in cleansing the leprosy. Leprosy in houses.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

This is the rite of a leper, when he is to be cleansed. He shall be brought to the priest:

Who going out of the camp, when he shall find that the leprosy is cleansed,

Shall command him that is to be purified, to offer for himself two living sparrows, which it is lawful to eat, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.

And he shall command one of the sparrows to be immolated in an earthen vessel over living waters.

But the other that is alive, he shall dip, with the cedar wood, and the scarlet and the hyssop, in the blood of the sparrow that is immolated:

Wherewith he shall sprinkle him that is to be cleansed seven times, that he may be rightly purified. And he shall let go the living sparrow, that it may fly into the field.

And when the man hath washed his clothes, he shall shave all the hair of his body, and shall be washed with water: and being purified he shall enter into the camp, yet so that he tarry without his own tent seven days.

And on the seventh day he shall shave the hair of his head, and his beard and his eyebrows, and the hair of all his body. And having washed again his clothes, and his body,

On the eighth day, he shall take two lambs without blemish, and an ewe of a year old without blemish, and three tenths of flour tempered with oil for a sacrifice, and a sextary of oil apart.

And when the priest that purifieth the man, hath presented him, and all these things before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony:

He shall take a lamb, and offer it for a trespass offering with the sextary of oil. And having offered all before the Lord,

He shall immolate the lamb, where the victim for sin is wont to be immolated, and the holocaust, that is, in the holy place. For as that which is for sin, so also the victim for a trespass offering pertaineth to the priest: it is holy of holies.

And the priest taking of the blood of the victim that was immolated for trespass, shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot.

And he shall pour of the sextary of oil into his own left hand,

And shall dip his right finger in it, and sprinkle it before the Lord seven times.

And the rest of the oil in his left hand, he shall pour upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot, and upon the blood that was shed for trespass:

And upon his head.

And he shall pray for him before the Lord, and shall offer the sacrifice for sin. Then shall he immolate the holocaust.

And put it on the altar with the libations thereof: and the man shall be rightly cleansed.

But if he be poor, and his hand cannot find the things aforesaid: he shall take a lamb for an offering for trespass, that the priest may pray for him, and a tenth part of flour tempered with oil for a sacrifice, and a sextary of oil:

And two turtles or two young pigeons, of which one may be for sin, and the other for a holocaust.

And he shall offer them on the eighth day of his purification to the priest, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony before the Lord.

And the priest receiving the lamb for trespass, and the sextary of oil, shall elevate them together.

And the lamb being immolated, he shall put of the blood thereof upon the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and the great toe of his right foot.

But he shall pour part of the oil into his own left hand,

And dipping the finger of his right hand in it, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the Lord.

And he shall touch the tip of the right ear of him that is cleansed, and the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot, in the place of the blood that was shed for trespass.

And the other part of the oil that is in his left hand, he shall pour upon the head of the purified person, that he may appease the Lord for him.

And he shall offer a turtle, or young pigeon:

One for trespass, and the other for a holocaust, with their libations.

This is the sacrifice of a leper, that is not able to have all things that appertain to his cleansing.

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

When you shall come into the land of Chanaan, which I will give you for a possession, if there be the plague of leprosy in a house:

He whose house it is, shall go and tell the priest, saying: It seemeth to me, that there is the plague of leprosy in my house,

And he shall command, that they carry forth all things out of the house, before he go into it, and see whether it have the leprosy, let all things become unclean that are in the house. And afterwards he shall go in to view the leprosy of the house.

And if he see in the walls thereof as it were little dints, disfigured with paleness or redness, and lower than all he rest:

He shall go out of the door of the house, and forthwith shut it up seven days,

And returning on the seventh day, he shall look upon it. If he find that the leprosy is spread,

He shall command, that the stones wherein the leprosy is, be taken out, and cast without the city into an unclean place:

And that the house be scraped on the inside round about, and the dust of the scrapings be scattered without the city into an unclean place:

And that other stones be laid in the place of them that were taken away, and the house be plastered with other mortar.

But if after the stones be taken out, and the dust scraped off, and it be plastered with other earth.

The priest going in perceive that the leprosy is returned, and the walls full of spots, it is a lasting leprosy, and the house is unclean.

And they shall destroy it forthwith, and shall cast the stones and timber thereof, and all the dust without the town into an unclean place.

He that entereth into the house when it is shut, shall be unclean until evening,

And he that sleepeth in it, and eateth any thing, shall wash his clothes.

But if the priest going in perceive that the leprosy is not spread in the house, after it was plastered again, he shall purify it, it being cured.

And for the purification thereof he shall take two sparrows, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.

And having immolated one sparrow in an earthen vessel, over living waters,

He shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living sparrow, and shall dip all in the blood of the sparrow that is immolated, and in the living water: and he shall sprinkle the house seven times.

And shall purify it as well with the blood of the sparrow, as with the living water, and with the living sparrow, and with the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet.

And when he hath let go the sparrow to fly freely away into the field, he shall pray for the house: and it shall be rightly cleansed.

This is the law of every kind of leprosy and stroke.

Of the leprosy of garments and houses,

Of a scar and of blisters breaking out of a shining spot, and when the colours are diversely changed:

That it may be known when a thing is clean or unclean.

Catechism

Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part 1, Chapter 5, Section 11

Three Useful Considerations on this Article

To understand still better the force and meaning of this Article, there are three things which we must consider and understand: first, why the Resurrection was necessary; secondly, its end and object; thirdly, the blessings and advantages of which it is to us the source.

Necessity Of The Resurrection

With regard to the first, it was necessary that Christ should rise again in order to manifest the justice of God; for it was most congruous that He who through obedience to God was degraded, and loaded with ignominy, should by Him be exalted. This is a reason assigned by the Apostle when he says to the Philippians: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him. He rose also to confirm our faith, which is necessary for justification; for the Resurrection of Christ from the dead by His own power affords an irrefragable proof that He was the Son of God. Again the Resurrection nourishes and sustains our hope. As Christ rose again, we rest on an assured hope that we too shall rise again; the members must necessarily arrive at the condition of their head. This is the conclusion which St. Paul seems to draw when he writes to the Corinthians and to the Thessalonians.' And Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy hath regenerated us unto a lively nope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto the inheritance incorruptible.

Finally, the Resurrection of our Lord, as the pastor should inculcate, was necessary to complete the mystery of our salvation and redemption. By His death Christ liberated us from sin; by His Resurrection, He restored to us the most important of those privileges which we had forfeited by sin. Hence these words of the Apostle: He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification. That nothing, therefore, may be wanting to the work of our salvation, it was necessary that as He died, He should also rise again.'

Ends Of The Resurrection

From what has been said we can perceive what important advantages the Resurrection of Christ the Lord has conferred on the faithful. In the Resurrection we acknowledge God to be immortal, full of glory, the conqueror of death and the devil; and all this we are firmly to believe and openly to profess of Christ Jesus.

Again, the Resurrection of Christ effects for us the resurrection of our bodies not only because it was the efficient cause of this mystery, but also because we all ought to arise after the example of the Lord. For with regard to the resurrection of the body we have this testimony of the Apostle: By a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead. In all that God did to accomplish the mystery of our redemption He made use of the humanity of Christ as an effective instrument, and hence His Resurrection was, as it were, an instrument for the accomplishment of our resurrection.

It may also be called the model of ours, inasmuch as His Resurrection was the most perfect of all. And as His body, rising to immortal glory, was changed, so shall our bodies also, before frail and mortal, be restored and clothed with glory and immortality. In the language of the Apostle: We look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory.

The same may be said of a soul dead in sin. How the Resurrection of Christ is proposed to such a soul as the model of her resurrection the same Apostle shows in these words: As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Again a little further on he says: Knowing that Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him. For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God: so do you also reckon, that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus.

Advantages Of The: Resurrection

From the Resurrection of Christ, therefore, we should draw two lessons: the one, that after we have washed away the stains of sin, we should begin to lead a new life, distinguished by integrity, innocence, holiness, modesty, justice, beneficence and humility; the other, that we should so persevere in that newness of life as never more, with the divine assistance, to stray from the paths of virtue on which we have once entered.

Nor do the words of the Apostle prove only that the Resurrection of Christ is proposed as the model of our resurrection; they also declare that it gives us power to rise again, and imparts to us strength and courage to persevere in holiness and righteousness, and in the observance of the Commandments of God. For as His death not only furnishes us with an example, but also supplies us with strength to die to sin, so also His Resurrection invigorates us to attain righteousness, so that thenceforward serving God in piety and holiness, we may walk in the newness of life to which we have risen. By His Resurrection, our Lord accomplished this especially that we, who before died with Him to sin and to the world, should rise also with Him to a new order and manner of life.