A new sanctuary and a new covenant
1 The main point of what we are saying is that we have a high priest. He is seated at the right hand of the divine majesty in heaven,
2 where he serves as minister of the true temple and sanctuary, set up not by any mortal but by the Lord.
3 A high priest is appointed to offer to God gifts and sacrifices, and Jesus also has to offer some sacrifice.
4 Had he remained on earth, he would not be a priest, since others offer the gifts according to the Law.
5 In fact, the ritual celebrated by those priests is only an imitation and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary. We know the word of God to Moses with regard to the construction of the holy tent. He said: You are to make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.
6 Now, however, Jesus enjoys a much higher ministry in being the mediator of a better covenant, founded on better promises.
7 If all had been perfect in the first cove nant, there would have been no need for another one. 31,318 Yet God sees de fects when he says:
8 The days are coming – it is the word of the Lord – when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not keep my covenant, and so I my self have forsaken them, says the Lord.
10 But this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.
11 None of them will have to teach one another or say to each other: Know the Lord, for they will know me from the least to the greatest.
12 I will forgive their sins and no longer remember their wrongs.
13 Here we are being told of a new covenant; which means that the first one had become obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging is soon to disappear.
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Comments , Chapter 8
• 8.1 For the people of Israel, the institution of priests – and high priest – were closely linked to God’s covenant with his people; it could not be questioned without questioning the bond uniting Israel with its God. No one would have dared to do it. However, the author quotes a central text of Jeremiah announcing a new covenant with his people. When we speak of covenant, we speak of the way God treats us and the way we treat him. Jeremiah says: God will make himself known to believers in a personal way and no longer will it be a duty for them to love him, because they will have him present at every moment. This word of Jere miah was known but it was given little attention: was he not speaking for a later time than his own? Here, the author says: with Jesus, we have this new covenant.
Jesus also has to offer some sacrifice (v. 3). The passage 1-5draws our attention to the priesthood that is now Christ’s in God’s world. Is there a connection between that and the Eucharist we celebrate every day or every Sunday?
In 1 Cor 11:23-26, Paul closely united the Eucharist of today with the death of Jesus that truly appears as the sacrifice. In so doing he gives the orientation that has prevailed everywhere in the Church of the West. For us the mass is linked most of all to the crucifix which is above the altar. Here, we are invited to look towards this “heavenly cult” that Christ celebrates in glory. There the world of eternity with all the elect assembled in God meets the world of time, where they succeed each other, each one in its own time. The Apocalypse of John will invite us to look towards this celestial liturgy and it is precisely this understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice that is stressed in the liturgy of the Eastern Church. It is not a matter of opposing, but of discovering the multiple richness of the faith.
Jesus enjoys a much higher ministry (v. 6). Our liturgical service on earth is glorious inasmuch as we try to associate with the perfect praise of God in his “heaven.” It is the sunshine of our week, but it cannot be our essential duty unless we have received a special charism. Here below, we must follow Jesus who did not envy the priests of his time but labored and died to reconcile humans with one another and with God.
Those who wish to meet Jesus in real life where truth must be observed will be easily accused of meddling in politics (which is not a sin). However it is a fact that Jesus did not die to defend religious practice, but to show that it is not what is most important. His “baptism” was a real death, likewise his “eu charist”: this did not resemble a beautiful liturgy, in which no one (of course) risks life.