Fragmenda

Scripture

Deuteronomy 25–27

Deuteronomy 25

Stripes must not exceed forty. The ox is not to be muzzled. Of raising seed to the brother. Of the immodest woman. Of unjust weight. Of destroying the Amalecites.

1 

If there be a controversy between men, and they call upon the judges: they shall give the prize of justice to him whom they perceive to be just: and him whom they find to be wicked, they shall condemn of wickedness.

2 

And if they see that the offender be worthy of stripes: they shall lay him down, and shall cause him to be beaten before them. According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be:

3 

Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty: lest thy brother depart shamefully torn before thy eyes.

4 

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.

5 

When brethren dwell together, and one of them dieth without children, the wife of the deceased shall not marry to another: but his brother shall take her, and raise up seed for his brother:

6 

And the first son he shall have of her he shall call by his name, that his name be not abolished out of Israel.

7 

But if he will not take his brother’s wife, who by law belongeth to him, the woman shall go to the gate of the city, and call upon the ancients, and say: My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up his brother’s name in Israel: and will not take me to wife.

8 

And they shall cause him to be sent for forthwith, and shall ask him. If he answer: I will not take her to wife:

9 

The woman shall come to him before the ancients, and shall take off his shoe from his foot, and spit in his face, and say: So shall it be done to the man that will not build up his brother’s house:

10 

And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of the unshod.

11 

If two men have words together, and one begin to fight against the other, and the other’s wife willing to deliver her husband out of the hand of the stronger, shall put forth her hand, and take him by the secrets,

12 

Thou shalt cut off her hand, neither shalt thou be moved with any pity in her regard.

13 

Thou shalt not have divers weights in thy bag, a greater and a less:

14 

Neither shall there be in thy house a greater bushel and a less.

15 

Thou shalt have a just and a true weight, and thy bushel shall be equal and true: that thou mayest live a long time upon the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.

16 

For the Lord thy God abhorreth him that doth these things, and he hateth all injustice.

17 

Remember what Amalec did to thee in the way when thou camest out of Egypt:

18 

How he met thee: and slew the hindmost of the army, who sat down, being weary, when thou wast spent with hunger and labour, and he feared not God.

19 

Therefore when the Lord thy God shall give thee rest, and shall have subdued all the nations round about in the land which he hath promised thee: thou shalt blot out his name from under heaven. See thou forget it not.


Deuteronomy 26

The form of words with which the firstfruits and tithes are to be offered. God’s covenant.

1 

And when thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God will give thee to possess, and hast conquered it, and dwellest in it:

2 

Thou shalt take the first of all thy fruits, and put them in a basket, and shalt go to the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, that his name may be invocated there:

3 

And thou shalt go to the priest that shall be in those days, and say to him: I profess this day before the Lord thy God, that I am come into the land, for which he swore to our fathers, that he would give it us.

4 

And the priest taking the basket at thy hand, shall set it before the altar of the Lord thy God:

5 

And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: The Syrian pursued my father, who went down into Egypt, and sojourned there in a very small number, and grew into a nation great and strong and of an infinite multitude.

6 

And the Egyptians afflicted us, and persecuted us, laying on us most grievous burdens:

7 

And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: who heard us, and looked down upon our affliction, and labour, and distress:

8 

And brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders:

9 

And brought us into this place, and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.

10 

And therefore now I offer the firstfruits of the land which the Lord hath given me. And thou shalt leave them in the sight of the Lord thy God, adoring the Lord thy God.

11 

And thou shalt feast in all the good things which the Lord thy God hath given thee, and thy house, thou and the Levite, and the stranger that is with thee.

12 

When thou hast made an end of tithing all thy fruits, in the third year of tithes thou shalt give it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled:

13 

And thou shalt speak thus in the sight of the Lord thy God: I have taken that which was sanctified out of my house, and I have given it to the Levite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, as thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments nor forgotten thy precepts.

14 

I have not eaten of them in my mourning, nor separated them for any uncleanness, nor spent any thing of them in funerals. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all things as thou hast commanded me.

15 

Look from thy sanctuary, and thy high habitation of heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou didst swear to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

16 

This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these commandments and judgments: and to keep and fulfil them with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.

17 

Thou hast chosen the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways and keep his ceremonies, and precepts, and judgments, and obey his command.

18 

And the Lord hath chosen thee this day, to be his peculiar people, as he hath spoken to thee, and to keep all his commandments:

19 

And to make thee higher than all nations which he hath created, to his own praise, and name, and glory: that thou mayst be a holy people of the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.


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.

Catechism

Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part 1, Chapter 10, Section 3

Extent of this Power:

When we first make a profession of faith and are cleansed in holy Baptism, we receive this pardon entire and unqualified; so that no sin, original or actual, of commission or omission, re mains to be expiated, no punishment to be endured. The grace of Baptism, however, does not give exemption from all the infirmities of nature. On the contrary, contending, as each of us has to contend, against the motions of concupiscence, which ever tempts us to the commission of sin, there is scarcely one to be found among us, who opposes so vigorous a resistance to its assaults, or who guards his salvation so vigilantly, as to escape all wounds.

All Sins Committed After Baptism

It being necessary, therefore, that a power of forgiving sins, distinct from that of Baptism, should exist in the Church, to her were entrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven, by which each one, if penitent, may obtain the remission of his sins, even though he were a sinner to the last day of his life. This truth is vouched for by the most unquestionable authority of the Sacred Scriptures. In St. Matthew the Lord says to Peter: I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven; and again: Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.' Further, the testimony of St. John assures us that the Lord, breathing on the Apostles, said: Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. '

Limitation of this Power:

It Is Not Limited As To Sins, Persons, Or Time

Nor is the exercise of this power restricted to particular sins. No crime, however heinous, can be committed or even conceived which the Church has not power to forgive, just as there is no sinner, however abandoned, however depraved, who should not confidently hope for pardon, provided he sincerely repent of his past transgressions.

Furthermore, the exercise of this power is not restricted to particular times. Whenever the sinner turns from his evil ways he is not to be rejected, as we learn from the reply of our Saviour to the Prince of the Apostles. When St. Peter asked how often we should pardon an offending brother, whether seven times, Not only seven times, said the Redeemer, but till seventy times seven.

It Is Limited As To Its Ministers And Exercise

But if we look to its ministers, or to the manner in which it is to be exercised, the extent of this divine power will not appear so great; for our Lord gave not the power of so sacred a ministry to all, but to Bishops and priests only. The same must be said regarding the manner in which this power is to be exercised; for sins can be forgiven only through the Sacraments, when duly administered. The Church has received no power otherwise to remit sin. Hence it follows that in the forgiveness of sins both priests and Sacraments are, so to speak, the instruments which Christ our Lord, the author and giver of salvation, makes use of, to accomplish in us the pardon of sin and the grace of justification.