Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-19
In those days, the Lord said to Moses, Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: I, the Lord, am your God. You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another. You shall not swear falsely by My Name, thus profaning the Name of your God. I am the Lord. You shall not defraud or rob your neighbour. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day labourer. You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear the Lord your God, because I am the Lord. You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbour’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord. Keep my statutes. For I am the Lord your God.
Haydock
Verse 11. Lie. “When no injury is done to another, it is a great question whether a lie can ever be justified. The case would perhaps be easily decided, if we considered the commandments alone, and not the examples,” of those holy men who seem to have sometimes thought it lawful. S. Aug. q. 68. But is it not better to allow that these were under an inculpable mistake, than to defend one fault, because it is not attended with the guilt of another, by hurting others? Even lies of jest and of excuse, are contrary to the gravity and open-dealing of a Christian; and God never speaks of lying without marks of disapprobation. H. — Heb. “you shall not deny, or refuse” to restore, what has been entrusted to you; (Grotius) “nor deal falsely, or extenuate yourselves,” pretending that you cannot give alms. Oleaster.
Verse 12. Profane. No greater indignity can be offered to God, than to solicit Him, as it were, to assist us in doing evil, by attesting falsehood. Philo.
Verse 13. Morning. Pay what is due to the labourer, immediately, if he desire it. H. — It was customary among the Jews to pay their workmen in the evening. Matt. xx. 8.
Verse 14. Deaf. The word Kophos, used by the Sept. means also the dumb, as these defects are generally found in the same person. Nothing can be more base, than to attack those who are unable to defend themselves. Solon forbids anyone “to speak ill of the dead,” though he may receive an injury from his children. Those who undermine and ruin the reputation of the absent, are no less to be condemned.
Verse 16. Detracter, whisperer. Heb. rakil, stands for both these terms. Some translate a parasite, a merchant, vilifying the goods of others to enhance the price of his own; or a spy, seeking to discover and laugh at others’ faults. — Neighbour; accusing him wrongfully, to the danger of his life; or lying in wait for him like an assassin. But strive rather to rescue those who are attacked. Those who neglect this duty, are responsible for the consequences, according to the Jews, (Seld. Jur. iv. 3,) and the laws of the Egyptians. Diodor. 1.
Verse 17. Openly, is not in the Heb. or other versions. Instead of bearing malice at the heart, we are authorized to demand our right in a legal manner, or to correct in a fraternal matter, the person who may have injured us, lest we incur sin for our neglect, and the offender continue impenitent. Jesus Christ instructs us to do this with as little disturbance as possible. Matt. xviii. 15. Yet public sins must undergo a public correction. 1 Tim. v. 20. S. Aug. ser. 82. Love should regulate our complaints. Id. q. 70.
Verse 18. Revenge, by private authority, or out of passion, which the pagans themselves acknowledged was more becoming a brute than a man, feræ est. Muson. Sen. de ira ii. 32. — Citizens. Heb. “observe or lie not in wait.” Sept. “act not with fury against the son of thy people.” C. — Heb. notor, means to upbraid when doing a kindness. — Thy friend. Heb. rehaka, may denote thy neighbour, or any one with whom we have any thing to do. Thus God orders us to love strangers as ourselves, (v. 34,) and to help our enemy. Ex. xxiii. 4. The false insinuations of the Jews are fully exploded by Jesus Christ. Matt. xxii. 39. We must love the offender, but detest the offence. S. Aug. c. Faust. xix. 24. If God required his people to exterminate the Chanaanites, he did not authorized them to entertain any personal animosity against their persons, but they were to act as ministers of his justice. “O Lord, (said Philo very justly) we do not rejoice at the misfortune of our enemy, (Flaccus) having learnt from thy holy laws to compassionate the distress of others. But we thank thee for…delivering us from our afflictions.” C.
Verse 19. Kind. Mules were therefore either brought from other countries, (3 K. x. 28,) or they were produced by some of the same species, as, good authors assert, is frequently the case in Syria, Cappadocia, &c. Plin. viii. 44. Pineda. T. — Spencer (Leg. ii. 20,) says, without any proof, that this law had a reference to the impure conjunctions of animals, in honour of Venus and of Priapus. — Different seeds, &c. This law tends to recommend simplicity and plain-dealing in all things; and to teach the people not to join any false worship or heresy with the worship of the true God. Ch. — Draw not the yoke with infidels. 2 Cor. vi. Theod. q. 27. These different colours were not in themselves evil, since they were used in the priests’ vestments. They insinuate, that we must avoid schisms. W. — The sowing of different seeds tends to impoverish the soil. Plin. xviii. 10. The Egyptians sowed various seeds on a board, covered with fine mould; and, observing which sort was destroyed by the heat of the sun in the dog-days, superstitiously refrained, that year, from sowing any of it, lest it should produce no crop. Palladius. — Sorts. The Rabbins say of linen and wool, as Deut. xxii. 11. They allow other sorts. Josephus (iv. 8,) supposes, that garments of the former description were thus reserved for the priests alone. The Flamen, among the Romans, could not wear a woollen garment sewed with thread, without committing a sin; piaculum erat, says Servius. These precepts were to be literally observed, though they concealed a moral instruction of the greatest consequence, importing that all unnatural intercourse was to be avoided. Pythagoras conveyed his instructions under similar enigmatical expressions, saying, “we must not stir up the fire with a sword,” as Solomon does likewise. Prov. xxx. 15. Eccles. xii. 3. 6. C.
Denzinger
89: The Celibacy of the Clergy
ST. SIRICIUS 384-398 From the epistle "Directa ad decessorem" to Himerius, Bishop of Terracina, Feb. 10, 385
Let us come now to the most sacred orders of the clergy, which we find so abused and so disorderly throughout your provinces to the injury of venerable religion, that we ought to say in the words of Jeremias:Who will water to my head, or a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep for this people day and night (Jer. 9:1)…. For we have learned that very many priests and levites of Christ, after long periods of their consecration, have begotten offspring from their wives as well as by shameful intercourse, and that they defend their crime by this excuse, that in the Old Testament it is read that the faculty of procreating was given to the priests and the ministers.
Whoever that follower of sensual desires is let him tell me now:… Why does [the Lord] forewarn those to whom the holies of holies were to be entrusted saying: Be ye holy, because I your Lord God am holy [Lev. 20:7;1 Pet. 1:16]? Why also were the priests ordered to dwell in the temple at a distance from their homes in the year of their turn? Evidently for this reason that they might not be able to practise carnal intercourse with their wives, so that shining with purity of conscience they might offer an acceptable gift to God….
Therefore also the Lord Jesus, when He had enlightened us by His coming, testifies in the Gospel, that he came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it [Matt. 5:17]. And so He has wished the beauty of the Church, whose spouse He is, to radiate with the splendor of chastity, so that on the day of judgment, when He will have come again, He may be able to find her without spot or wrinkle [Eph. 5:27] as He instituted her through His Apostle. All priests and levites are bound by the indissoluble law of these sanctions, so that from the day of our ordination, we give up both our hearts and our bodies to continence and chastity, provided only that through all things we may please our God in these sacrifices which we daily offer. “But those who are in the flesh,” as the vessel of election says, “cannot please God” [Rom. 8:8].
But those, who contend with an excuse for the forbidden privilege, so as to assert that this has been granted to them by the Old Law, should know that by the authority of the Apostolic See they have been cast out of every ecclesiastical office, which they have used unworthily, nor can they ever touch the sacred mysteries, of which they themselves have deprived themselves so long as they give heed to impure desires. And because existing examples warn us to be on our guard for the future should any bishop, priest, or deacon be found such, which henceforth we do not want) let him now understand that every approach to indulgence is barred through us, because it is necessary that the wounds which are not susceptible to the healing of warm lotions be cut out with a knife.