26/10/2024
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(30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)
On the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B), the second reading (Heb 5:1-6) discusses the Old Testament high priest who provides for his flock's spiritual needs by atoning for sins. Every day, these sacrifices were made on behalf of the populace. Every year, the high priest would also enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for everyone. Providing sacrifices for sins was one of the high priest's primary responsibilities in representing the people before God as a mediator to close the gap between a holy God and sinful humans.
Knowing God the way He choose, He would challenge the high priest to do his best and should adopt a humble attitude knowing it was not the high priest own ability. Also, the high priest should depend on God who appointed him. He should do it for God and not for man.
Thatβs the criteria of being a high priest in which will go forward to prove that Jesus met the appropriate criteria, therefore proving that Jesus is superior since He is the perfect High Priest! God the Father appointed Jesus to be the High Priest (Luke 9:35). Throughout the gospels we see over and over again that Jesus came to obey the will of His Father (John 4:34), which required great humility and submission.
Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is a solemn fast day when no food is allowed throughout the day and all work related to servitude is prohibited. Additionally, two goats will be available today. The first goat, which is sent into the desert after symbolically receiving Israel's sins, will be poured out the sins of Israel by the high priest. The blood, life, and blameless life of the second goat are carried into the holy of holies and sprinkled over the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, which is God's throne. The goat is sacrificed in the tabernacle.
However, Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb who sacrificed Himself for our eternal life, takes the place of the scapegoat that the high priest offered at the Temple's Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. Through His Passion, the sinless He took on the sins of the world.
Since the Mass is considered a sacrificial offering, but this time a bloodless offering through the bread and wine that turns into the body and blood of Christ through transubstantiation.
It is frequently asserted that the letter to the Hebrews refutes the Mass's sacrifice function. "For it was fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens," for instance, is stated in Hebrews 7:26β27. He does not need to offer sacrifices every day, like those high priests, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because he did this once for all when he offered himself.
It should be noted that Jesus made his offering "once for all." This feature of Christ's sacrifice, which is frequently referenced in Hebrews, is said to disprove the Mass sacrifice.
Those who oppose the Mass argue that if Christ has already made the ideal sacrifice for sins in God's eyes, why do we still need to make another sacrifice during Mass in order to be forgiven?"
According to Hebrews, Christ's atoning death was necessary just once because it was successful in remitting sins. However, this refers to what theologians refer to as the "objective redemption." This does not imply that everyone will enter paradise because Jesus died for everyone. (That's universalism.) Each person must be treated according to the merits or fruits of Christ's death.
Remember that our Lord said, "Do this in remembrance of me," as stated in the Gospel of St. Luke (22:14βff) and St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (11:23βff). It is obvious that our Lord desired for the faithful to repeat, partake in, and partake in this sacramental mystery. Holy Mass perpetuates the Last Supper experience, which is inextricably tied to Good Friday (and the resurrection), throughout all eternity.
Thus, the Mass serves as a memorial. The words of consecration in each Eucharistic Prayer are followed by the anamnesis or memorial, in which we recall the Lord's suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. This memorial, however, is a liturgical declaration of living historyβof an event that still lives and influences our lives today in that sense of kairotic timeβrather than merely a chronological remembrance of past history.
As a result, the Mass sacrifice and the real sacrifice of Christ on the cross are inextricably linked as one single sacrifice: In response to Protestant objections, the Council of Trent declared that "the victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different" and that "the same Christ who once offered Himself in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass." Because of this, the Mass sacrifice is also genuinely propitiatory, just as Christ's blood on the cross atoned for our sins. The Lord pardons sins and wrongdoings and bestows grace and the gift of repentance. (Confer Council of Trent, Doctrine on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass).
