Memory of the Saints and the Prophets

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people acquired by God
to proclaim his marvellous works.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Hebrews 10,11-18

Every priest stands at his duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking away sins. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat for ever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit attests this to us, for after saying: No, this is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come. the Lord says: In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts, and I shall never more call their sins to mind, or their offences. When these have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

You will be holy,
because I am holy, thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The author of this letter reminds us that we do not obtain salvation by our actions or by observing rituals. In the Christian mystery it is not man that rises, through his efforts, toward God. The opposite is true: it is God who descends to earth to save human beings from the slavery they live. Salvation is God's and his Son's work--his Son who loved us to the point of giving up his life for all. We are asked to welcome this love which gives itself to the shedding of his blood on the cross in order to save us. Our salvation comes from the cross. The apex of God's love is right there. That death saved the world. And for that death Jesus "sat down at the right hand of God," as the letter says. We find here the echo of that which Paul wrote about in his Letter to the Philippians: "And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" (2:7-10). The author of the Letter to the Hebrews recalls that from the throne of his heavenly glory the Lord Jesus waits for his enemies to be at his feet like a footstool (see Psalm 110:1). With his death and resurrection, he defeated for good the prince of evil. And the Christian community which unites in the memory of Jesus, dead and risen, -- particularly in the celebration of the Eucharist -- lives this victory. We know however that we must still wait for the "perfection" to which we have been called, but the road is clear: whoever participate in the "body" of Jesus has already reached salvation.