Day 44: Priestly Garments

Exodus 27:20-21 The instructions called for olive oil to be burned continuously in the sanctuary lamp outside the Tabernacle. In churches and chapels where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, a sanctuary lamp burns to indicate the Real Presence of Christ in the tabernacle. 


Leviticus 20:1-17 This chapter outlines the punishments for false worship and violations against several of the Commandments and exhorts the people to seek holiness. If the call to holiness was already in force with the Jewish people, it is even more incumbent among those baptized into new life in Christ. (CCC 941, 2112-2114)


Ch 20:26 In the Lord’s Prayer when we pray, “hallowed be thy name,” essentially we are asking that the sharing in the divine life effected by Baptism may remain in us and continue to grow in us. Due to our innate weaknesses, we need to ask always for strength to persevere and grow in our union with God. (CCC 2813)


Psalm 119 I have chosen before me: God is the source of all truth, and it follows that those who follow his Law live in the truth. 


Your faithfulness endures to all generations: The truth that radiates from God himself is PERMANENT and UNCHANGING. Wisdom is derived from the natural quest to discover God’s will explicitly, revealed in his Law. This wisdom, acquired from diligent reflection on God’s Law, is a true wisdom born of love rather than from prudence of the flesh (cf. Rom 8:6), which is based on selfish cunning and deceit.


Your word is a lamp...my path: The Church venerates Scripture as the Word of God; along with Tradition as understood by the Church’s teaching authority, it serves as an inexhaustible reserve of theology and spiritual nourishment. Through Scripture and Tradition, one encounters the “mind of Christ.”

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


(*Walking With God: A Journey Through the Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins)




Prayer by Fr Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we thank you for your word. We thank you for this prayer of Psalm 119 because, what you do, Lord God is...this Psalmist is US. On one hand we say, ‘I am faithful to you and you are good.’ On the other hand it is like, ‘Gosh, Lord please time is running out.’ Lord God, thank you. Help us to trust you even when we are at our wits end. Help us to let you shape and form us. Help us give you permission to love us as you know we need to be loved. Help us to do that, Lord God. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

ANDREW'S PARALLELS

As we read about the design of the outer court of the tabernacle (the bronze altar, the court where priests handled the sacrifices, and also mention of the lamp that burns continually inside the tent), I think of how our chuch parishes are also designed for such the same purposes.

As we receive the design for the High Priest's garments, we can compare them to the vestments of the priests in Jesus' holy priesthood.

As Leviticus 19 showed Laws that were still relevant in the New Covenant, Leviticus 20 shows laws of sexual impurity and adultery that are not only still relevant, but violated by a particilar member of the church in Corinth.