On Monday the Fourth Week of Lent our Church invites us to first read and reflect on a passage from the book of Leviticus (16:2-28) entitled "The day of atonement". Our treasure, which follows, is from a homily on Leviticus by Origen, priest.
Origen of Alexandria was a second century priest also known as Origen Adamantius. He was an early Christian scholar, aesthetic, and theologian. He was also a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2000 treaties in multiple branches of theology and spirituality. He is one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, apologetics, and aestheticism (a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and the nature of art). He has been described as "the greatest genius the early Church ever produced".
The name "Leviticus" was given to the third book of the Pentateuch by the ancient Greek translators because a good part of this book deals with concerns of the priests, who are of the tribe of Levi.
The book mainly treats cultic matters (i.e., sacrifices and offerings, purity and holiness, the priesthood, the operation of the sanctuary, and feast days) but is also interested in various behavioral, ethical, and economic issues (e.g., sexual practices, idolatrous worship, treatment of others, the sale of land, slavery). The goal of the laws is not merely legislative. For the most part they cohere as a system and attempt to inculcate a way of life in the book's hearers and readers. In addition to these concerns, Leviticus, comprising as it does the center of the Pentateuch, carries forward the narrative of Exodus.
