Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Hebrews 9, 15-28

This makes him the mediator of a new covenant, so that, now that a death has occurred to redeem the sins committed under an earlier covenant, those who have been called to an eternal inheritance may receive the promise.

Now wherever a will is in question, the death of the testator must be established;

a testament comes into effect only after a death, since it has no force while the testator is still alive.

That is why even the earlier covenant was inaugurated with blood,

and why, after Moses had promulgated all the commandments of the Law to the people, he took the calves' blood, the goats' blood and some water, and with these he sprinkled the book itself and all the people, using scarlet wool and hyssop;

saying as he did so: This is the blood of the covenant that God has made with you.

And he sprinkled both the tent and all the liturgical vessels with blood in the same way.

In fact, according to the Law, practically every purification takes place by means of blood; and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission.

Only the copies of heavenly things are purified in this way; the heavenly things themselves have to be purified by a higher sort of sacrifice than this.

It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was merely a model of the real one; he entered heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.

And he does not have to offer himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own,

or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. As it is, he has made his appearance once and for all, at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.

Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement,

so Christ too, having offered himself only once to bear the sin of many, will manifest himself a second time, sin being no more, to those who are waiting for him, to bring them salvation.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The author has just written that the blood of Christ – “will purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God” (9:14). In fact, Jesus becomes “guarantee” of a New Testament because of his death, because he gave his life for us even unto the shedding of blood. With this sacrifice he inaugurates the new covenant. Jesus himself had said at the Last Supper, while handing the cup to his disciples: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). The use of term “covenant” (testament) expresses a firm commitment – it is the meaning as used in legal terminology – on the part of God toward his people. And the death of Jesus, which took place once for all, shows the perennial validity of the covenant. The cross is not annulled by Easter; indeed the whole theology of worship of the Letter tends to represent the sacrifice of Christ as an event that lasts forever and that continuously brings salvation. The death of Jesus was necessary for our salvation. The author reads in the aspersion with blood of “the book itself and all the people,” done by Moses on Mount Sinai, the figure of death on the cross. We may infer that the “word of the Gospel” should be sprinkled with blood. This is to say that it is not possible to separate the Gospel from the Cross: the death of Jesus is not needed reparation for the forgiveness of sins; rather, it is the logical conclusion of a love that leads to give his own life for the salvation of others. Through his sacrifice, Jesus has let us enter already into the heavenly sanctuary. Therefore, when the Letter speaks of “heavenly” reality it does not point to a reality far away from us, but to the Church, to the community of believers understood as a house of prayer, of fraternal communion and of love for the poor. The uniqueness of the sacrifice of Christ applies also to the Church because it is the place where Christ abides and is manifest. The Church, of course, is not enclosed in itself but is bound to Christ, of whom it is the Body; it prays and it works for the salvation of the whole of humanity. The Christian community, in fact, does not exist for itself but for the world. So it is for every disciple. The life of each believer is encapsulated in Christ and in his Body: in him we live, in him we die, and with him we rise to new life.