from the letter to the Hebrews:
“Brothers and sisters, every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness, and so for this reason must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people. No one takes this honor upon himself, but only when he is called by God, just as Aaron was. In the same way, it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest, but rather the one who said to him, “you are my son. This day I have begotten you”. Just as it says in another place, “you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5;1-6)
So, I’m happy today to be able to share a few reflections on this second reading with you.
This reading speaks to us of the priesthood of Christ, which was conferred on him by his Heavenly Father, as this citation of Psalm two in this reading suggests. The quotation that says, “you are my son, this day I have begotten you”, has always been interpreted by the fathers of the church as referring especially to Christ and his divine sonship.
The backdrop for this reading about the priesthood of Christ is the Jewish Feast of Atonement, what is called Yom Kippur, where once a year the high priest would offer an animal sacrifice first for himself and then another animal sacrifice for the sins of the people. This was the one day of the year where the high priest was permitted to utter the name of God – the name that was revealed by God to Moses at the burning bush, which we translate “I am who am”.
This name was considered so holy that the Jews, with this one single exception of the high on the day of atonement, the Jews did not speak it, but they designated it when they would write or in the scriptures by initials signifying the revelation of the name, I am who I am. But on this day of atonement, when the name was uttered, fact that god permitted this and permitted the high priest to do this suggested that through this act of atonement the people were reconciled to God.
They were able to draw close to him once again, even in his transcendence, even in his holiness, even in their sinful unworthiness. God’s atonement permitted them to draw close. The problem, however, was that animal sacrifices were merely a symbol. They were a type. They were a preparation, a kind of pedagogy for God’s people, preparing them for something greater. For, as it says elsewhere in the New Testament, the blood of goats and bulls cannot definitively take away sins.
These old testament animal sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament was teaching the people – was preparing the people regarding their need for atonement, regarding their need to be reconciled to God as a consequence of their sins, but these sacrifices, these animal sacrifices and the other offerings that were made by the Jewish people could not definitively take away sins, and this is where Christ’s priesthood comes in.
Christ, the fulfillment of those Old Testament types of the priesthood of Aaron, the priesthood of Melchizedek, the priesthood of the Levites. Because Jesus is not just the priest, but he’s also the perfect victim, unlike the bulls and the goats and the other animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, Christ’s sacrifice of himself is a perfect sacrifice. It is the sacrifice finally capable of definitively atoning for the sins of the whole world.
So he’s both the priest, as it describes in this reading from the letter to the Hebrews today, but he is also the lamb of sacrifice, as we say in the mass – the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world, quoting John the Baptist’s words about our savior. This is why it can also be said of Christ, as it says in today’s reading, and it can be said only of him that “you are a priest forever”. So, our lord’s definitive sacrifice on a cross – the sacrifice of Good Friday – is our definitive Day of Atonement. It’s the fulfillment of that Old Testament preparatory celebration and feast day.
Now, we may be inclined to think that this day, that Good Friday, happened a long time ago, right? Over two thousand years ago, in a far away place, the city of Jerusalem. But Christ did something else in connection with Good Friday, and that’s his institution of both the Eucharist and the institution, the conferring of his priesthood on his apostles on Holy Thursday, on that night before Good Friday. And Holy Thursday and Good Friday are inextricably connected. They’re bound up with one another. They are one and the same thing.
Through the Mass that Christ instituted, Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary is made present to us. It’s not something that just happened a long time ago, but it is represented here and now in the present moment. At the Mass, at every Mass that we attend, we are literally standing at the foot of the cross, standing there with Our Lady and with St. John, gazing upon our Lord’s crucified body given up for us. seeing his blood seeing his body seeing his soul and his divinity offering making that perfect offering to God that can definitively win for us the grace of salvation and these graces of Christ the high priest, Christ the sacrificial victim. These graces won for us two thousand years ago are applied to us when we attend Mass and especially when we receive his body and blood in Holy Communion.
So let’s use this as an occasion to think about how we can better prepare ourselves to receive him at Mass, arriving a few minutes early rather than a few minutes late, perhaps spending a few minutes after Mass giving thanks for the communion that we just received rather than rushing out in a hurry to the parking lot. Stay with him, stay for just ten minutes. while he remains present in the host in the species under the appearance of of bread and wine. Speak to him as a friend heart to heart he’s there inside literally inside of your body so spend a few moments in intimate heart-to-heart conversation with him
This is also a good occasion as we reflect on Christ’s priesthood to pray for our own priests who are called to share in Christ’s priesthood, to become, literally to become other Christs. And we should pray that more men respond to the call to the priesthood for the sake of the whole church.
So thanks be to God for his great mercy, for the love he has shown in giving himself so completely to us on the cross and then in the Eucharist, staying with us, staying present there in each of our tabernacles, staying present with us in our own body when we receive his body and blood truly made present to us today in the Eucharist, in Holy Communion. We can’t neglect such a great gift. We can’t but want to share this gift with others. And we ask, Lord, increase our faith.
Dr Aaron Kheriaty is a physician specialising in psychiatry, and is the author of three books, including, The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State. Read Aaron’s Substack here.
