From: Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-14
The Rites of the Old Covenant Prefigure those of the New (Continuation)
[2] For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand
and the table and the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy
Place. [3] Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of
Holies.
Christ Sealed the New Covenant with His Blood Once and for All
[11] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that
have come, then through the greater and more perfect tents (not made
with hands, that is, not of this creation) [12] he entered once for all
into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his
own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. [13] For if the
sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and
with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the
flesh, [14] how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Commentary:
1-10. In the preceding chapters the superiority of Christ's priesthood
is discussed. Now the epistle examines the excellence of his sacrifice.
To do so, it describes the sanctuary of the Old Covenant, the tent or
tabernacle, where Yahweh dwelt during the period when the people of
Israel were making their way through the wilderness and in the early
years in the promised land. It also refers to the sacrifice on the
great Day of Atonement or "Yom Kippur" (cf. Lev 16:1-34; 23:26-32; Num
29:7-11), whereby Israel was reconciled with its God by purification and
the forgiveness of all those sins committed during the year for which no
atonement had been made. Both the sanctuary and the rites celebrated in
it on this solemn day are a prefigurement of the new sanctuary and new
form of worship inaugurated by Christ. This leads on to a discussion of
the most essential and specific function of priesthood--sacrifice.
It should be noted that in describing the sanctuary of the Old Covenant
the epistle does so in terms not of the temple of Jerusalem but of the
tent in the desert. In addition to having certain more traditional
connotations and allowing the ark of the Covenant to be included in the
description (the ark was destroyed in 587 B.C. when Nebuchadnessar
sacked the temple), reference to the tabernacle is closely connected
with an idea which underlies the entire epistle: the Christian is making
his way in a new exodus towards his homeland in heaven, entry into which
has been opened by Christ's sacrifice (cf. 3:7-11).
3. "The second curtain": separating the Holy Place from the Holy of
Holies. It is called the "second curtain" to distinguish it from the
curtain at the entrance to the Holy Place, which would have been the
first curtain. It was not, then, that there were two tents: there was
only one, which was divided into two sections by this "second curtain".
For information about the tabernacle complex cf. pp. 26ff above.
11-14. The sacrifices of the Old Law could only promise ephemeral
benefits, whereas Christ's redemptive sacrifice obtained for man, once
and for all, "the good things to come", that is, the heavenly and
eternal benefits proper to the messianic age--sanctifying grace and
entry to heaven. Like the high priest on the Day of Atonement, Christ
entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, through the curtain. This
sanctuary which he entered is the heavenly one; that is why it is
"greater and more perfect" and not made by men (cf. 8:2). Christ passed
through the heavens into the very presence of the Father (cf. 7:26) and
is seated in heaven at his right hand (cf. 8:1).
Many Fathers, Doctors of the Church and modern scholars see the
expression "through the greater and more perfect tent" as referring to
the sacred humanity of our Lord, virginally conceived in the womb of
Mary, that is, "not made with hands". The tent or tabernacle would be
our Lord's body, in which the Godhead dwells. The text then says that
it is "not of this creation", because Jesus as man was conceived
without the action of a man and without original sin: he did not
follow "the law of nature which holds sway in the created world"
(Theodoret, "Interpretatio Ep. ad Hebraeos, ad loc."). In this case the
inspired text would be saying that Christ redeemed us by means of his
human nature (cf. v. 12). However, the words "through the greater and
more perfect tent" can also be understood as referring to heaven, in
the sense of a greater and more perfect sanctuary. In any event,
whether by passing through the heavens or through his most sacred body,
Christ achieved Redemption by offering his own blood. This does not
have a temporary value--like the blood of animals shed each year when
the priest entered the Holy of Holies: Jesus secured eternal
Redemption. In the Old Law the Jews were cleansed by the blood of
sacrificed animals from legal impurities which prevented them from
taking part in the liturgy; but Christ's blood does so much more, for
it cleanses man of his sins. "Do you want to know how effective the
blood of Christ is? Let us go back to the symbols which foretold it and
remind ourselves of the ancient accounts of (the Jews in) Egypt. Moses
told them to kill a year-old lamb and put its blood on the two
doorposts and the lintel of each house [...]. Would you like an
additional way to appreciate the power of Christ's blood? See where it
flowed from, what its source is. It began to flow from the very Cross
and its source was the Lord's side. For, as the Gospel says, when our
Lord was already dead, one of the soldiers went up to him with a lance
and pierced his side and at once there came out water and blood--water,
the symbol of Baptism; blood, the symbol of the Eucharist. The soldier
pierced his side, he opened a breach in the wall of the holy temple,
and there I discover the hidden treasure and I rejoice at the treasure
I have found" (Chrysostom, "Baptismal Catechesis", III, 13-19).
And so the Church includes in the prayers it recommends to be said
after Mass, one which reads: "I beseech thee, most sweet Lord Jesus,
may your passion be the virtue which strengthens, protects and defends
me; your wounds, food and drink to nourish, inebriate and delight me;
your death, everlasting life for me; your cross, my eternal glory"
("Roman Missal of St Pius V", recommended prayer of thanksgiving after
Mass).
12. "Thus securing an eternal redemption": the Greek text uses "having
found", here translated as "securing". St John Chrysostom points out
that the verb "to find" in this context has a shade of meaning that
implies finding something unexpected: the reference is to finding, "as
it were, something very unknown and very unexpected" ("Hom. on Heb, ad
loc."). However, taking into account the whole context and the possible
Hebraic background of the expression, the verb "to find" is synonymous
with "to search keenly, to reach, to attain": in other words, Christ
eagerly sought to redeem man and he did so by his sacrifice. The verse
refers to an "eternal" redemption, in contrast to the provisional
nature of Mosaic sacrifices.
13. These words refer to a ceremony of purification described in the
Old Testament (cf. Num 19). To cleanse a person from certain
transgressions of the Law, the Israelites could avail of certain
expiatory ablutions. There were done with water mixed with the ashes of
a heifer, which the high priest had sacrificed in front of the
tabernacle and then burned in its entirety. Into the fire cedar-wood,
hyssop and scarlet wool (9:19) had also to be thrown. Thus lustral
water was only useful for legal purification or "purification of the
flesh", as distinct from purification of the spirit.
14. The Messiah acts "through the eternal Spirit", which may be taken
as a reference to the Holy Spirit, as St Thomas, for example,
interprets it: "Christ shed his blood, because the Holy Spirit did so;
that is to say, it was by the Spirit's influence and prompting, that
is, out of love of God and love of neighbor, that he did what he did.
For it is the Spirit who purifies" ("Commentary on Heb, ad loc.").
Pope John Paul II has referred to this text to show the presence of the
Holy Spirit in the redemptive sacrifice of the Incarnate Word: "In the
sacrifice of the Son of Man the Holy Spirit is present and active just
as he acted in Jesus' conception, in his coming into the world, in his
hidden life and in his public ministry. According to the Letter to the
Hebrews, on the way to his 'departure' through Gethsemani and Golgotha,
the same "Jesus Christ" in his own humanity "opened himself totally" to
this "action of the Spirit-Paraclete", who from suffering enables
eternal salvific love to spring forth" ("Dominum et Vivificantem", 40).
The Son of God desired that the Holy Spirit should turn his death into
a perfect sacrifice. Only Christ "in his humanity was worthy to become
this sacrifice, for "he alone" was 'without blemish' (Heb 9:14). But he
offered it 'through the eternal Spirit', which means that the Holy
Spirit acted in a special way in this absolute self-giving of the Son
of Man, in order to transform this suffering into redemptive love"
("ibid.").
It is also possible that "the eternal Spirit" is a more general
reference to the Godhead present in Christ; in which case it would be
the same as saying that Christ, being God and man, offered himself as
an unblemished victim and therefore this offering was infinitely
efficacious. Thus, as Pius XII says, Christ "labored unceasingly by
prayer and self-sacrifice for the salvation of souls until, hanging on
the Cross, he offered himself as a victim unblemished in God's sight,
that he might purify our consciences and set them free from lifeless
observances to serve the living God. All men were thus rescued from the
path of ruin and perdition and set once more on the way to God, to whom
they were now to give due glory by co-operating personally in their
sanctification, making their own the holiness that springs from the
blood of the unspotted Lamb" ("Mediator Dei", 1).
Christ's sacrifice purifies us completely, thereby rendering us fit to
worship the living God. As St Alphonsus puts it, "Jesus Christ offered
himself to God pure and without the trace of a fault; otherwise he
would not have been a worthy mediator, would not have been capable of
reconciling God and sinful man, nor would his blood have had the power
to purify and cleanse our conscience from 'dead works', that is, from
sins which are given that name because (our) works are in no way
meritorious or else are worthy of eternal punishment. 'So that you
might serve the living God"' ("Reflections on the Passion", 9, 2).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
