CCC Cross Reference:
Heb 7:25-27 1364; Heb 7:25 519, 662, 2634, 2741; Heb 7:26 1544; Heb 7:27 1085, 1366, 1540; Heb 8:2 1070; Heb 8:6 1070
Ps 40:7-9 LXX 462; Ps 40:7 2824
Mk 3:10 1504
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Reading 1
Heb 7:25—8:6
Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.
The main point of what has been said is this:
we have such a high priest,
who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.
Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices;
thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest,
since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.
They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,
as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle.
For God says, “See that you make everything
according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry
as he is mediator of a better covenant,
enacted on better promises.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you,
And may those who love your salvation
say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Gospel
Mk 3:7-12
Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Hebrews 7:25-8:6
The power of Jesus to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.
To suit us, the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated, beyond the influence of sinners, and raised up above the heavens; one who would not need to offer sacrifices every day, as the other high priests do for their own sins and then for those of the people, because he has done this once and for all by offering himself. The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.
The great point of all that we have said is that we have a high priest of exactly this kind. He has his place at the right of the throne of divine Majesty in the heavens, and he is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tent of Meeting which the Lord, and not any man, set up. It is the duty of every high priest to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this one too must have something to offer. In fact, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are others who make the offerings laid down by the Law and these only maintain the service of a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities. For Moses, when he had the Tent to build, was warned by God who said: See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
We have seen that he has been given a ministry of a far higher order, and to the same degree it is a better covenant of which he is the mediator, founded on better promises.
Responsorial Psalm:
Psalm 39(40):7-10,17
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
You do not ask for sacrifice and offerings,
but an open ear.
You do not ask for holocaust and victim.
Instead, here am I.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
In the scroll of the book it stands written
that I should do your will.
My God, I delight in your law
in the depth of my heart.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
Your justice I have proclaimed
in the great assembly.
My lips I have not sealed;
you know it, O Lord.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
O let there be rejoicing and gladness
for all who seek you.
Let them ever say: ‘The Lord is great’,
who love your saving help.
Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will.
Gospel Mark 3:7-12
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed. For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he warned them strongly not to make him known.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Thursday of the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
From: Hebrews 7:25-8:6
Jesus Christ Is a Priest After the Order of Melchizedek (Continuation)
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[25] Consequently he (Jesus) is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
[26] For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. [27] He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself. [28] Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever.
Christ Is High Priest of a New Covenant, Which Replaces the Old
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[1] Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, [2] a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord. [3] For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. [4] Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. [5] They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." [6] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. [7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.
[8] For he finds fault with them when he says: "The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
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Commentary:
23-25. Christ's priesthood is everlasting. Just as Melchizedek had no "end of life", so too the Son of God holds his priesthood permanently. The Levites are mere mortal men; Christ, however, has not been instituted as priest by "bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life" (v. 16); that is why he can truly be said to be a priest "for ever". This makes sense, for death is a consequence of sin, and Christ has conquered sin and death. Moreover, death makes it necessary for there to be a succession of human priests in order to provide continuity; whereas the everlasting character of Christ's priesthood renders any further priesthood unnecessary.
St Thomas comments that this shows Christ to be the true and perfect Priest in the strict sense of the word, for it was impossible for the Jewish priests to be permanent mediators because death naturally deprived them of their priesthood. The case of Christian priests is quite different, because they are not mediators strictly speaking. There is only one Mediator, Jesus Christ; they are simply representatives of his, who act in his name. Christ is to the Levites as the perfect (which is necessarily one) is to the imperfect (which is always multiple): "Incorruptible things have no need to reproduce themselves [...]. Christ is immortal. As the eternal Word of the Father, he abides forever: his divine eternity is passed on to his body, for 'being raised from the dead (he) will never die again' (Rom 6:9). And so 'because he continues for ever, he holds his priesthood per- manently.' Christ alone is the true Priest; the others (priests) are his ministers" ("Commentary on Heb., ad loc.").
The eternal character of Christ's priesthood, St John Chrysostom points out, gives us reason for great confidence: "It is as if the Apostle were saying, 'Do not be afraid or think that (although) he loves us and has the Father's full confidence he cannot live forever on the contrary, he does live forever!"' ("Hom. On Heb.", 13). We can put our trust in Christ the Priest because his priesthood is an enduring expression of his heartfelt love for all mankind: "The living Christ continues to love us still; he loves us today, now, and he offers us his heart as the fountain of our redemption: 'he always lives to make intercession for (us)' (Heb 7:25). We are always--ourselves and the entire world--embraced by the love of this heart 'which has loved men so much and receives such poor response from them"' (John Paul II, "Hom. in Sacre Coeur", Montmartre, Paris, 1 June 1980).
Christ's priesthood is an expression of his Love, from which it cannot be separated; since his Love is everlasting, so too is his priesthood. In the first place, his priesthood is everlasting because it is linked to the Incarnation, which is something permanent; secondly, because Christ's mission is that of saving all men in all periods of history and not simply one of helping them by his teaching and his example; thirdly, because Christ continues to be present--St Ephraem says—not in the victims of the sacrifices of Mosaic worship, but in the prayer of the Church (cf. "Com. in Epist. ad Haebreos, ad loc."), particularly in the permanent efficacy of the sacrifice of the Cross constantly renewed in the Mass, and in the praying of the Divine Office. Finally, it is everlasting because Christ's sacrifice is perpetuated until the end of time in the Christian ministerial priesthood, for bishops and priests "in virtue of the sacrament of Order, are consecrated as true priests of the New Testament to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful and celebrate divine worship" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 28).
Christ not only interceded for us when he was on earth: he continues to make in- tercession for us from heaven: "This 'always' points to a great mystery," St John Chrysostom observes; "he lives not only here but also there, in heaven; not only here and for a while, but also there, in life eternal" ("Hom. on Heb.", 13). In saying that Christ "makes intercession" for us, the inspired text is saying that Christ "takes the initiative, addresses the Father, presents him with a request or a demand", as if Christ were an advocate before the Father, a help, a defender (a "Paraclete": cf. 1 Jn 2:1). But in what sense does he continue to make intercession for us, given that he cannot merit any more than he did when he was on this earth? He intercedes, St Thomas replies, first by again presenting his human nature to the Father, marked with the glorious signs of his passion, and then by expressing the great love and desire of his soul to bring about our salvation (cf. "Commentary on Heb.", 7, 4). Christ, so to speak, continues to offer the Father the sacrifice of his longsuffering, humility, obedience and love. That is why we can always approach him to find salvation. "Through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, a Christian has access to the intimacy of God the Father, and he spends his life looking for the Kingdom which is not of this world, but which is initiated and prepared in this world. We must seek Christ in the Word and in the Bread, in the Eucharist and in prayer. And we must treat him as a friend, as the real, living person he is--for he is risen. Christ, we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews [Heb 7:24-25 follows]" (St J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 116).
26-28. These last verses form a paean in praise of Christ, summing up and rounding off what has gone before. Christ is proclaimed to be "holy, blameless, unstained," that is, sinless, totally devoted to God the Father, just and faithful. Sacred Scripture uses similar language to describe people of outstanding holiness, such as Zechariah and Elizabeth (cf. Lk 1:6), Simeon, who was "righteous and devout", Joseph of Arimathea (cf. Lk 23:50), the centurion Cornelius (cf. Acts 10:22), etc. The praise given Christ here, however, hints at a perfection which is more than human. Christ is, at the same time, "separated from sinners", not in the sense that he refuses to have any dealings with them or despises them, for, on the contrary, we know that the Pharisees abused him, saying, "Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Mt 11:19) and "This man receives sinners and eats with them" (Lk 15:2; cf. Mt 9-11:13 and par.; Lk 7:34); he is "separated from sinners" because he can have no sin in him, since the presence of sin in his human nature is absolutely incompatible with the holiness of the unique person that Christ is--the divine Word. He is the perfect embodiment of all the ancient prerequisites for a priest of the true God (cf. Lev 21:4, 6, 8, 15). Christ, finally, from the point of view of his human nature also, has been "exalted above the heavens" not only ethically speaking, by virtue of his sublime holiness, but also in his very body, through his glorious ascension (cf. Acts 2:33-26; 10:42); he is therefore the "Son who has been made perfect forever".
"Who was Jesus Christ?" St Alphonsus asks himself. "He was, St Paul replies, holy, blameless, unstained or, even better, he was holiness itself, innocence itself, purity itself' ("Christmas Novena", 4). And St Fulgentius of Ruspe extols Christ in these beautiful terms: "He is the one who possessed in himself all that was needed to bring about our redemption, that is, he himself was the priest and the victim; he himself was God and the temple--the priest by whose actions we are reconciled; the sacrifice which brings about our reconciliation; the temple wherein we are reconciled; the God with whom we have been reconciled.
Therefore, be absolutely certain of this and do not doubt it for a moment: the only-begotten God himself, the Word made flesh, offered himself to God on our behalf in an odor of sweetness as sacrifice and victim--the very one in whose honor as well as that of the Father and the Holy Spirit the patriarchs, prophets and priests used to offer sacrifices of animals in Old Testament times; and to whom now, that is, in the time of the New Testament, in the unity of the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whom he shares the same unique divinity, the holy Catholic Church never ceases to offer on behalf of the entire universe the sacrifice of the bread and wine, with faith and charity" ("De Fide Ad Petrum", 22).
The sublimity of Christ's priesthood is a source of encouragement, hope and holy pride for the priests of the New Testament, given that "every priest in his own way puts on the person of Christ and is endowed with a special grace. By this grace, the priest, through his service of the people committed to his care and all the people of God, is able the better to pursue the perfection of Christ, whose place he takes. The human weakness of his flesh is remedied by the holiness of him who became for us a high priest, 'holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners' (Heb 7:26)" (Vatican II, "Presbyterorum Ordinis", 12). For all these reasons St Pius X, addressing priests, wrote: "We ought, therefore, to represent the person of Christ and fulfill the mission he has entrusted to us; and thereby attain the end which he has set out to reach [...]. We are under an obligation, as his friends, to have the same sentiments as Jesus Christ, who is 'holy, blameless, unstained' (Heb 7:26). As his ambassadors we have a duty to win over men's minds to accept his law and his teaching, beginning by observing them ourselves; insofar as we have a share in his power, we are obliged to set souls free from the bonds of sin, and we must ourselves be very careful to avoid falling into sin" (St Pius X, "Haerent Animo", 5).
1-2. The key point of the epistle is now proclaimed with great formality--the superiority of Christ's priesthood. This links up what was already said in 1:3 (about Christ being enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty) with what will be developed in chapters 9 and 10 (about the new temple and new form of worship). In Christ the Old Covenant, which offered worship by means of sacrifice and offerings, finds its total perfection; from Christ onwards the New Covenant begins, with a new sacrifice and a new temple. Little by little, consideration of the priest- hood of the Mosaic form of worship gives way to examination of Christ's new form of divine service.
It is not just a matter of one temple or stone being replaced by another or by many such temples. The old temple has given way to a heavenly sanctuary, heaven itself. This is why Christ's ascension and enthronement at the right hand of the Father is so important: it marks the definitive entry of Jesus Christ's sacred humanity into his true temple, one not made by human hands. This makes it easier to understand the sense in which the temple of Jerusalem and the worship connected with it were a foreshadowing of future events.
Christ, then, possesses the true, definitive priesthood, for he exercises his ministry in the sanctuary of heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the Father. This heavenly ministry of Christ is a further confirmation of the superiority of his priesthood. Firstly, because he is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (cf. Ps 110:1)--"Majesty" meaning the Godhead itself, for it is a way of referring to God (cf. the "throne of grace" in 4:16). Moreover, the "throne of the Majesty" is the equivalent of supreme authority to rule and judge. This can be seen from descriptions of the Last Judgment: "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne" (Mt 25: 31; cf. Rev 3:21; 20:11; Mt 19:28; etc.). Secondly, Christ carries out his ministry in a new sanctuary and a new tabernacle ("tent"), which are "true" in the sense that the sanctuary and tabernacle of Moses were only an "image" of them. The earthly liturgy is a reflection of the true, heavenly liturgy, which is the eternal continuation of Christ's priesthood in the presence of the Father, for "in the earthly liturgy we take part in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the holies and of the true tabernacle" (Vatican II, "Sacrosanctum Concilium", 8).
Some Fathers see the true sanctuary and tabernacle as representing the Church, in its total sense of Church militant plus Church triumphant. And St Cyril of Alexandria, for example, points out in one of his works that "the old tabernacle was set up in the desert by Moses and it was highly suitable for performing all the sacred ceremonies of the Law. But the mansion which is appropriate to Christ is the city on high, that is, heaven, the divine tent which is not the product of human handiwork but rather something holy and begotten by God. Christ, established therein, offers to God the Father those who believe in him, those sanctified by the Spirit" (St Cyril, "Explanation of Heb.").
3-6. To compare the earthly and heavenly tabernacles, the author resorts to analogy and metaphor, which is all that he can do. Bearing this in mind, one should not interpret the words of this passage as meaning that Jesus Christ consummated his sacrifice only in heaven, for the sacrifice of Calvary happened only once and was complete in itself. What this passage is saying is that, in heaven, Christ, the eternal Priest, continuously presents to the Father the fruits of the Cross. In the New Covenant there is only one sacrifice--that of Jesus Christ on Calvary; this single sacrifice is renewed in an unbloody manner every day in the sacrifice of the Mass; there Jesus Christ the only Priest of the New Law -- immolates and offers, by means of priests who are his ministers, the same victim (body and blood) which was immolated in a bloody manner once and for all on the Cross.
7-12. The comparison between the two covenants, the Old made with Moses and written on stone, and the New, engraved on the minds and hearts of the faithful (cf. 2 Cor 3:3; Heb 10:16, 17) is developed with the help of a quotation from Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), where the prophet announces the spiritual alliance of Yahweh with his people. Jeremiah's words, quoted from the Greek translation (very close to the original Hebrew), refer directly to the restoration of the Jews after the Exile. Now that the chosen people have been purified by suffering they are fit to be truly the people of God: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people"; this promise of intimate friendship is the core of the prophecy. That is what it means when it says the Law will be written on the minds and hearts of all, and all even the least—shall know God. It may be that Jeremiah sensed the messianic restoration that lay beyond the restoration of the chosen people on its return from exile; certainly we can see that this oracle finds its complete fulfillment only with the New Covenant: the return from Babylon was merely an additional signal/symbol of the perfect Covenant which Christ would establish. For it is in that New Covenant that God truly forgives sins and remembers them no more.
The Old Covenant is said not to have been faultless, or sinless. This does not mean it was bad; rather; as St Thomas explains, it was powerless to atone for sins, it did not provide people with the grace to avoid committing sins, it simply showed people how to recognize sins, those who lived under the Old Law continued to be subject to sin (cf. "Commentary on Heb.", 7, 2).
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From: Mark 3:7-12
Cures Beside the Sea of Galilee
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[7] Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea [8] and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, hearing all that He did, came to Him. [9] And He told His disciples to have a boat ready for Him; [10] for He had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon Him to touch Him. [11] And whenever the unclean spirits beheld Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." [12] And He strictly ordered them not to make Him known.
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Commentary:
10. During our Lord's public life people were constantly crowding round Him to be cured (cf. Luke 6:19; 8:45; etc). As in the case of many other cures, St. Mark gives us a graphic account of what Jesus did to these people (cf. Mark 1: 31, 41; 7:31-37; 8:22-26; John 9:1-7, 11, 15). By working these cures our Lord shows that He is both God and man: He cures by virtue of His divine power and using His human nature. In other words, only in the Word of God become man is the work of our Redemption effected, and the instrument God used to save us was the human nature of Jesus--His Body and Soul--in the unity of the person of the Word (cf. Vatican II, "Sacrosanctum Concilium", 5).
This crowding round Jesus is repeated by Christians of all times: the holy human nature of our Lord is our only route to salvation; it is the essential means we must use to unite ourselves to God. Thus, we can today approach our Lord by means of the sacraments, especially and pre-eminently the Eucharist. And through the sacraments there flows to us, from God, through the human nature of the Word, a strength which cures those who receive the sacraments with faith (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, "Summa theologiae", III, q. 62, a. 5).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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