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From: Hebrews 4:12-16

Through Faith We Can Attain God’s “Rest” (Continuation)

[12] For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning
the thoughts and intentions of the heart. [13] And before him no creature is hid-
den, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Our Confidence is Based on Christ’s Priesthood

[14] Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [15] For we have not a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in
every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. [16] Let us then
with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help in time of need.

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Commentary:

12-13. The “word of God”, which the text speaks about, probably refers to Reve-
lation taken as a whole, particularly Sacred Scripture; but it may also refer to
the “Logos” or Word, the second person of the Holy Trinity. The “word” of God is
presented as an expression of God’s power: it is that active word (Genesis 1:3ff;
Psalm 33:9) which creates everything out of nothing. In the Wisdom books we
find this word personified (Sirach 42:15; 43:26; Wisdom 9:1; 18:15; Psalm 148:
1-5). But this living and active word of God is also to be seen in the New Testa-
ment(Galatians 3:8, 22) and in its full and perfect form in Christ himself (John 1:
1; Revelation 9:13).

God’s word is also very much at work in Revelation: “In the sacred books the Fa-
ther who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks to them. And
such is the force and power of the Word of God that it serves the Church as her
support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food
for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life” (Vatican II, “Dei Ver-
bum”, 21).

God’s word is consoling and life-giving, but it also inspires fear in those who try
to ignore it. “The word of his truth is hotter and brighter than the sun, and pierces
the very depths of hearts and minds” (St Justin, “Dialogue with Trypho”, 121, 2).
The depths of a person’s heart, his deepest thoughts, attitudes and intentions, lie
open to God’s all-seeing eye. “What a person does or thinks is expressed in his
actions, but one can never be sure of what motivates his actions. That, however,
is never hidden from God” (St Thomas, “Commentary on Heb.” 4, 2).

The last judgment, which is a hidden backdrop to these words of the sacred text,
calls us to present conversion. “The Apostle of God wrote this not only for his
[immediate] readers but also for us. It behooves us therefore always to keep that
divine judgment before our minds, and to be full of fear and trembling and to keep
God’s commandments faithfully and be ever hopeful of that rest promised us
which we shall attain in Christ” (Theodoret of Cyrus, “Interpretatio Ep. ad Hae-
breos, ad loc.”).

14-16. The text now reverts to its main theme (cf. 2:17), that is, the priesthood
of Christ. It highlights the dignity of the new high priest, who has passed through
the heavens; and His mercy, too, for He sympathizes with our weaknesses. We
have, therefore, every reason to approach Him with confidence. “The believers
were at that time in a storm of temptation; that is why the Apostle is consoling
them, saying that our High Priest not only knows, as God, the weaknesses of
our nature: as man, He has also experienced the sufferings that affect us, al-
though He was free from sin. Since He knows our weaknesses so well, He can
give us the help we need, and when He comes to judge us, He will take that
weakness into account in His sentence” (”Interpretatio Ep. Ad Haebreos, ad
loc.”).

We should respond to the Lord’s goodness by staying true to our profession of
faith. The confession or profession of faith referred to here is not simply an exter-
nal declaration: external confession is necessary but there must also be commit-
ment and a spirit of fidelity. A Christian needs to live up to all the demands of his
calling; he should be single-minded and free from doubts.

15. “If we should some time find ourselves sorely tempted by our enemies, it will
greatly help us to remember that we have on our side a high priest who is most
compassionate, for He chose to experience all kinds of temptation” (”St. Pius V
Catechism”, IV, 15, 14). In order to understand and help a sinner to get over his
falls and cope with temptation, one does not oneself need to have experience of
being tempted; in fact, only one who does not sin knows the full force of tempta-
tion, because the sinner gives in prior to resisting to the end. Christ never yielded
to temptation. He therefore experienced much more than we do (because we are
often defeated by temptation) the full rigor and violence of those temptations
which He chose to undergo as man at particular points in His life. Our Lord, then,
allowed Himself to be tempted, in order to set us an example and prevent us from
ever losing confidence in our ability to resist temptation with the help of grace (cf.
notes on Matthew 4:1-11 and paragraph).

“There is no man”, St. Jerome comments, “who can resist all tests except He
who, made in our likeness, has experienced everything but sin” (”Comm. In Ioan-
nam”, II, 46). Christ’s sinlessness, often affirmed in Sacred Scripture (Romans 8:
3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 8:46; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:21-24), follows logically from His
being God and from His human integrity and holiness. At the same time Christ’s
weakness, which He chose to experience out of love for us, is a kind of invitation
from God to pray for strength to resist sin. “Let us adore Christ who emptied Him-
self to assume the condition of a slave. He was tempted in every way that we are,
but did not sin. Let us turn in prayer to Him, saying, ‘You took on our human
weakness. Be the eyes of the blind, the strength of the weak, the friend of the
lonely’” (”Liturgy of the Hours”, Christmas Day, Evening Prayer I).

16. The “throne” is the symbol of Christ’s authority; He is King of the living and
the dead. But here it speaks of a “throne of grace”: through the salvation worked
by Christ, the compassionate Priest and Intercessor, God’s throne has become
a judgment seat from which mercy flows. Christ has initiated for mankind a time
of forgiveness and sanctification in which He does not yet manifest His position
as Sovereign Judge. Christ’s priesthood did not cease to operate with His death;
it continues in Heaven, where He forever pleads on our behalf, and therefore we
should have confident recourse to Him.

“What security should be ours in considering the mercy of the Lord! ‘He has but
to cry for redress, and I, the Ever-Merciful, will listen to him’ (Exodus 22:27). It is
an invitation, a promise that He will not fail to fulfill. ‘Let us then with confidence
draw near to the throne of grace, and we may receive mercy and find grace to
help in time of need’. The enemies of our sanctification will be rendered power-
less if the mercy of God goes before us. And if through our own fault and human
weakness we should fall, the Lord comes to our aid and raises us up” (St. J. Es-
criva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 7).

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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.