Regardless of how the Season of Lent has gone until now — whether it’s been what it should have been, a season of conversion through more intense prayer, fasting, and sacrifice; or whether it’s been a series of missed opportunities — now is the time to focus, to get serious, to reorient priorities to make sure we’re not just bystanders of the sacred mysteries, but active participants, zealous recipients, and passionate sharers of Christ’s saving work.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are presented with this image of Our Lord as the Eternal High Priest. The letter contrasts the Lord’s Passion with the sacrifices offered on the Jewish Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, there were three ritual sacrifices: a bullock that, following the Book of Leviticus (16:15,21-22), the priest offered for his sins; a goat that he offered for the sins of the people; and, following what God dictated in the Book of Numbers (Numbers 19), a red heifer whose blood would be sprinkled in front of the tabernacle area and whose ashes would be placed in a clean place outside the camp. The Jews believed that those sacrifices, whether in the temple or in the desert, were necessary and sufficient for taking away their sins.
And so the Epistle to the Hebrews helps us to appreciate what the Lord accomplished as our high priest: he made forgiveness of sins possible for us by becoming not only our high priest but making himself the victim, the sacrifice, by whose blood achieve eternal redemption.
The Letter also makes clear what our response has to be: the High Priest and Saving Victim has cleansed us from dead works that we might use our freedom to “worship the living God.” And so, as we approach Holy Week, we need to examine whether worship of the living God is really the center of our life or just a part of it.
In the Gospel, the Lord is in contentious dialogue with the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, and others in the Temple area immediately after saving the life of the woman caught in adultery. In their hardness of hearts they had absolutely refused to acknowledge the mission of the Savior; as a result, they schemed in a thousand ways to oppose His teachings and to belittle Him before the people by declaring Him a liar and one possessed by the devil. Their animosity had increased to the point where they decided to stone Him.
But in the face of such hostility, the Lord exhibits zeal for their souls, meekness, and total abandonment to God; he seeks to enlighten their minds, attempting to drawn them away from error. We are certainly challenged to consider any hostility within us toward the conversion, purification and enlightenment the Lord desires for us, and seek to imitate his composure, his patience, his love, his conviction. We seek his mercy for squandering the time we’ve been given and allowing selfishness to continue to reign in our minds, hearts, and wills.
Nine years ago, Pope Francis preached his first Sunday mass as Pope, in which was read the Gospel of the woman caught in adultery, but his words are relevant to us as well. After explaining how the woman caught in adultery encountered the mercy of God, the Holy Father stressed “God never tires of forgiving us…it’s we who tire of asking for forgiveness.” Then he prayed, “May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!”
Next week, on Palm Sunday, we will hear the Lord’s Passion, how the High Priest goes to the cross that each of us may be forgiven, over and over, if need be. All we have to do is repent, confess our sins, intend to sin no more, put forth some effort in amending our lives.
“May we never tire of asking for what God never tires to give!” for the glory of God and salvation of souls
A reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews
Brethren: But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
The continuation of the Gospel according to St. John
At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews:Can any of you charge me with sin? If I am telling the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God.” The Jews answered and said to him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed?” Jesus answered, “I am not possessed; I honor my Father, but you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the one who judges. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” [So] the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
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