Leviticus -- The Mosaic Law

Book of Leviticus #09If the first seven chapters of Leviticus serve to introduce the sacrificial system, chapters 8 and 9 focus on the Levitical priestly order without which the entire sacrificial system of Israel collapses. If God took great care in instituting this priestly order, it is not surprising that he spilled his blood to establish the priestly order of the Catholic Church. The Levitical order of priesthood was essential to the entire sacrificial system of Israel and, in a deeper sense, to the life of Israel itself as a nation and as a kingdom. God, in Exodus, told Israel they will be a Kingdom of Priests (Exodus 19:5-6) and in Malachi, he reminds them that their kingdom was to be the "Covenant of life and peace" (Malachi 2:5). Moses, the priest-maker consecrates Aaron and his sons, and to do so, Ibn Ezra, the great Jewish commentator tells us that Moses washed the hands and feet of the men to be ordained as priests. This reality overshadows Holy Thursday when Jesus, the new and everlasting priest-maker washes the hands and feet of his apostles thereby instituting a new and everlasting priesthood with which to extend his kingdom, the Catholic Church, to the ends of the Earth. The consecration of the men and of the altar, their clothing, and the purity with which they are to serve the Lord is a very good study in the importance of the Priesthood to the heart of the Savior. Indeed, when Jesus came, he did not abolish the old order but completed it. He did not leave us alone but gave us, through this priesthood, men to act in his person so that the one and only sacrifice of the Cross may be represented in time and space until the end of the world.