Homily for Thursday, Week 3 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
3d Week of Ordinary Time

Jan. 30, 2025
Heb 10: 19-25
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Thru the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary” (Heb 10: 19).

By Ariely - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4533576

In the Old Law, only the high priest could enter the inner sanctuary of the Temple, where the ark of the covenant was kept until it was lost when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem; where God dwelt personally even in the rebuilt Temple.  That inner sanctuary was closed off by a veil, and the high priest could pass thru it only on the Day of Atonement for the annual sacrifice for all the sins of the year past.

The sanctuary of Christ also was veiled.  That is, his hidden Person, his divinity, was veiled in flesh, as the author of Hebrews points out (10:20).  Matthew (27:51) and Mark (15:38) tell us “the curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom” at the moment when Jesus died on the cross.  Hebrews, on the other hand, says that the veil of his flesh was rent open (10:20), his blood poured out, and we gained “entrance into the sanctuary” by that opening and that blood (10:19); a new, living way opened for us to approach God (10:20,22).

In his crucified, blood-stained flesh, Christ, our “great high priest over the house of God” (10:21), now washes our consciences clean (10:22).  We have confidence, we have hope, then, that we may approach God thru Christ (10:22-23).  “Who may stand in his holy place?” the Psalmist asks (24:3).  We may.  Christ our high priest stands with us.