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The Seventh Plague of Egypt (William Turner)
Day 32: Cattle, Boils, Hail
5th Plague on the Egyptian cattle (Exodus 9: 1-7), 6th Plague of boils (Exodus 9:8 -12), 7th Plague of hail (Exodus 9: 13-35).
Leviticus 7 The Law of the Guilt Offering
The overwhelming sense of the holiness of the purification for sin offering now carries over into the consideration of the Guilt Offering. We are also now informed that the priests can partake of the meat of the guilt offering as long as it is in a holy place, as they can presumably of the purification of sin offering, for there is one law for them both.
Like the purification for sin offering, the guilt offering too is killed in the place where the whole burnt offering is killed. The purification for sin and guilt offerings are so holy that they are carried out in the same place as the whole burnt offering.
And the blood of the guilt offering is sprinkled on the altar round about as with the whole burnt offering. This identical application of the blood confirms that the whole burnt offering is also to be seen as an atonement offering as well. But it is different from that for the purification for sin offering where purification for sin on a larger scale has primary importance.
All of these sacrifices in the first chapters of Leviticus prefigure the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
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A Daily Defense
Day 32 Calling the Priests "Father"
CHALLENGE: "Catholics should call priests "Father." Jesus said, "Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven." (Matthew 23:9)
DEFENSE: Jesus was using hyperbole. Other passages in the New Testament indicate that Christ’s ministers have a form of spiritual fatherhood.
Hyperbole is exaggeration to make a point. It is a common feature of biblical speech, as when Jesus says his disciples must “hate” their family members (Luke 14:26; a non-hyperbolic paraphrase of this passage is given in Matt. 10:37).
Jesus does not literally mean that you can’t call anyone on earth “father.” If he did, then we could not call our own biological fathers by this term, which would be absurd. It would also rob our understanding of God’s Fatherhood of its earthly frame of reference.
CCC 238 - 240
238 Many religions invoke God as "Father". The deity is often considered the "father of gods and of men". In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son". God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor", of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection.
239 By calling God "Father", the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents, who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard: no one is father as God is Father.
240 Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Jesus’ point is that we must not confuse the type of Fatherhood God has—which is ultimate—with any other form of fatherhood, which is limited and provisional. He uses hyperbolic language to make this point in a striking, memorable way, but he does not expect hyperbole to be taken literally.
Thus other passages in the New Testament indicate that Christ’s ministers have a role as spiritual fathers. Paul refers to how he became the spiritual father of the Corinthians (1 Cor. 4:14–15). He refers to the Galatians as his little children (Gal. 4:19) and to Timothy (1 Cor. 4:17; 1 Tim. 1:2, 18; 2 Tim. 1:2, 2:1), Titus (Titus 1:4), and Onesimus (Philem. 10) as his spiritual sons. Peter refers to Mark as his spiritual son (1 Pet. 4:13), and John refers to his readers as his little children (1 John 2:1; 3 John 4).
This is a standard mode of speech in the New Testament, shared by multiple authors, including eyewitnesses of Jesus (Peter and John). This widespread practice among the apostles further underscores the hyperbolic nature of Christ’s statement. The pattern also strongly indicates the role that Christ’s ministers have as spiritual fathers, and if someone has a particular role, it is truthful to refer to him by that role. God does not object to that, and the Church follows the apostolic example when it refers to the spiritual fatherhood of priests.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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